Similar to the Interactive Lent Garden we’ve been using this year, here you will find activities for this Holy Week. You are invited to click on the items in the picture and explore the resources.
The first slide covers Palm Sunday to Wednesday, and the second slide covers Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday.
Enjoy your journey through the Lent Garden each week. Start by clicking on the bible on the park bench. With one click you will open up a collection of daily bible readings, children’s bible story readings, prayers, and questions to think about throughout each week. Once you’ve got these devotions at hand, go ahead and click around the rest of the garden to discover so much more.
Each of the itty bitty library boxes behind the park bench (there may be one or two to click on each week) unlock one or two video recordings of a wonderful bible story read by a church leader for everyone to enjoy. These stories come from the bible story books listed in the weekly devotions.
The hanging flower basket will take you on a weekly adventure of garden musings and gardening ideas with Kristine O’Brien, an avid gardener and thoughtful minister.
The guitar leaning against the tree sings out a brand new or much loved hymn or song that will connect you to our weekly bible stories and themes. You’ll want to sing along with all of these talented musicians.
Are you feeling like going for a walk? Click on the wooden door and walk into a world of labyrinth visits, reflections and finger labyrinth opportunities.
Is it time to be creative? The garden gnome reveals a simple craft idea that makes use of materials that you likely already have at home.
And when it’s time for something to eat, click on the picnic basket for a new recipe or two to try out at home.
Previous weeks:
Ash Wednesday
Lent 1
Lent 2
Lent 3
Lent 4
Thanks to all who have sent recipes for our First Presbyterian Church Cookbook! You can download the current collection here:
Please Note – It is not too late to send your recipes and they will be added in a future update.
Dear Families,
I hope amidst ALL of the things you are juggling during these days that you are able to get outside and enjoy God’s creation. I like to garden and have been able to work a bit at our family garden with the hope to really “get into it” in the next couple of weeks!
I am also a part of the Anchor Gardens network and am working with other team leaders to support those in our community who are interested in having a vegetable garden this summer. We are also developing new community gardens and this is a way for you to get involved if you don’t have the space for your own garden.
I found this prayer (posted below) and am going to try and memorize it as I wash my hands. Some of you may want to make up a simple version to share with your children and invite them to use as they are washing their hands. I have counted to 20 many times as well as sung the ABC song while sanitizing my hands so this will be a new way for me to focus as I am keeping myself and others safe during these COVID-19 days.
A special “Happy Mother’s Day” to each of you celebrating Mother’s Day whether because you are a mother or because you have been blessed with a person who has been a mother or mother figure for you. I like this video prayer from the Church of England .
We at FPC want to be a support for you during this time. Please feel free to contact either Matt, Jennifer, or myself if there are ways we can support you. I miss not seeing all of you personally and continue to pray for each of you as a family during the week.
Love and peace to each of you and your children,
Danna Larson
Director of Faith Formation
As I Wash My Hands: A Prayer for Faith & Sanity
As I wash my hands, 20 seconds,
I think of the raw, over-sanitized skin of hospital staff.
Circling soap over knuckles and palms,
I think of the gloved hands of grocery clerks and restaurant workers.
Cleansing under fingernails and past the wrists,
I think of the aged hands of my grandmothers in nursing homes that I hope are free of germs.
As I wash my hands, faucet flowing,
I think of the clear air above halted cities,
the clear waters of Venice canals,
how the world looks when we are quiet and grounded,
how sand and mud and toxins settle when we shelter in place.
As I wash my hands,
interlacing my fingers in a prayer,
I think of the work that is paused
or the work that is increased.
Lather, water, clarity,
now your work is more visible
in the world and in me.
You desire clean hearts, right spirits.
Wash us with water and your Word.
Present us to yourself a radiant Church,
A model of holy sanity, as we wash our hands.
Darcy Wiley
Pandemic Prayerbook: A Pray-at-Home Guide for the Coronavirus Crisis
Be Fearless, Be Joyful, Be Renewed: Living the Spirit of Easter
I read this article yesterday and want to summarize it for you as a way to encourage you to live out the 50 days of Easter.
The season of Easter began on Easter Sunday and continues for 50 days – until Pentecost. The Easter season is an opportunity for us to cultivate a spirit that defines who we are as Christians. So what does living the spirit of the Easter season mean in practical terms? Here are three concrete suggestions:
1. Live with Joy: Joy is a deep-down gladness that cannot be taken away, even in the midst of sorrow. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus teach us that suffering is transformed through faith in the Risen Christ. With this faith, we are able to hold on to the enduring sense of joy even in the midst of the sadness we experience from the loss of a loved one, a failure at something, or a setback.
2. Live without Fear: The Resurrection teaches us that God can overcome anything, even death. When Christ appears to the women at the tomb and later to his disciples, his first words are Do not be afraid! (Mt. 28:5, 10). Our faith allows us to trust that God can overcome our most serious problems.
3. Live with New Eyes: Easter means to live with a sense of newness. Just as the return of spring lifts our spirits and makes us feel the whole world is new, the Resurrection of Jesus makes “all things new.” The Easter spirit is a spirt of renewal; one that enables us to see the world through new eyes – God’s eyes.
I invite you to use these 50 days to cultivate an Easter spirit that enables us to be truly Christian: embracing joy, living without fear, and seeing the world again—as if for the first time.