Easter Vigil Notebook Plans

By Alice M. Gunther

(copyright 2007, all rights reserved)

The Easter Vigil, as you all know, is one of the most stirring and beautiful ceremonies of the Liturgical year. Before we had children, the Vigil was something I anticipated throughout Lent. I loved the surreal and quiet atmosphere of the darkened church and the exhilarating moment when the lights went on and the choir burst forth in joyous song. I attended with my parents and later my husband every year for as long as I could remember. Our first child was born just two short months before Easter of 1994. She was so tiny and adorable in her new bunny-and-carrot-sprigged Easter dress that I could not wait to show her off to the wonderful friends and neighbors from my parents' home parish. When we arrived, the lights were low, and the church was relatively quiet. Our new little bundle slept peacefully in my arms, and I prayed she would go on this way for the duration of the Mass. With the lights down low and the church unusually hushed, things seemed to be going well. Then it happened: first hundreds of candles and then every light in church snapped on. The choir raised its voice in song, and our little girl was wide awake and crying her eyes out. I was such a new mother that I did not figure out how to get her back to sleep until sometime around Communion. My husband and I spent the entire Mass pacing a chilly hall with one of my mother's friends poking her head out now and then to give advice!

Our family has not attended the Vigil since that night almost eleven years ago, only now we have six children, none of whom know anything firsthand about this wonderful event. This year, we have decided to return to the Vigil and bring our children with us. We want them to experience its majesty and witness the incomparable moment when a darkened church bursts forth with the Light of Christ. We want them to listen to the readings with understanding and share in the joy of our parish's catechumens as they receive the grace of the Sacrament of Baptism, not unlike the Catechumens in Rome in the days of the Emperor Constantine. We want them to understand what it means to participate in the glorious "Nightwatch" of the Lord's

Resurrection.

For this reason, we hope to spend the forty days of Lent slowly preparing the girls to appreciate the majesty of the Vigil.   The prayers and readings, ceremonies and symbolism are so deep that we will have ample material to keep us busy for weeks, and I hope our study will give my children memories to last a lifetime.

The Easter Vigil may be broken into four parts: (1) the Service of Light; (2) the Liturgy of the Word; (3) the Celebration of Baptism and Confirmation; and (4) the Liturgy of the Eucharist. As we learn about each of these parts, the girls will create notebooks full of artwork, prayers, pictures, narrations, music, and other items to assist their understanding. Now, when I say "notebook," what I really mean is a three-ringed binder with scrapbook-style layouts on each page. We have made traditional lapbooks, and they are beautiful, but for long term projects like this, I prefer binders because they make it convenient to add new pages each day.

Part 1 The Liturgy of Light

To prepare the girls to understand the symbolism of the darkened church, we will begin by reading the beautiful picture book, The Easter Story according to the Gospels of Matthew, Luke & John with paintings by Gennady Spirin. The text of this book is very old-fashioned and taken from the King James Bible, but I love it because of the incomparable artwork. We own many picture books on the Resurrection, but none that captures the darkness of the Crucifixion in quite the same way. We will read the book on Ash Wednesday morning (or perhaps the night before), but end at page 27 when Jesus is taken down from the cross and placed in the arms of his sorrowful mother. I will ask the older ones to narrate the story of the Crucifixion, and this, along with their original illustrations, will make up the first pages of our book.

Gennady Spirin's masterful illustrations will help me to begin a conversation with the children about the darkness of the world without Jesus. We will discuss the sorrow of the Crucifixion and the sadness of the apostles and Blessed Mother at that moment of darkness, along with the hope they had as faithful followers of Our Lord and believers in His promises. I will extend the

conversation to include the meaning of Ash Wednesday, a time when Christians enter into a spirit of repentance and remember that we are dust, but that our hope is in Jesus.

We will discuss why the Easter Vigil has no introductory rites (because it is part of the three-day-long liturgy of the Paschal Triduum) and learn about the beautiful "Service of Light." I will tell them about my memories of Easter Vigils growing up (including one instance when the smoke alarms went off in church!) and read them the greeting and the "Blessing of the Fire." These prayers will make up the third page of our books.

Then we will discuss the "Preparation of the Paschal Candle,"its design, the uses of the Easter Candle, and the beautiful prayer said over the design:

"Christ yesterday and today, The beginning and the end, Alpha, And Omega; All time belongs to him And all the ages: To him be glory and power Through every age for ever. Amen."

For the fourth page of their notebooks, they will copy the prayer, draw the design (please click here for a sample image of last year's Paschal Candle),and trace their finger over it while saying the prayer so they understand how the priest does it. Because our Jesse tree was only put away recently (I'm ashamed to say), even the younger ones are very familiar with Jesus as the "Alpha and Omega," and I think they will like seeing this symbolism used in a new context.

Next they will learn about the five grains of incense placed in the candle and write corresponding prayer:

1.     By his holy 2.     and glorious wounds 3.     may Christ our Lord 4.     guard us 5.     and keep us. Amen

I am hoping they will find creative ways to illustrate this beautiful prayer, and I may even find real grains of incense for them to keep in their books. We will say this prayer often throughout Lent so they will remember it always. This will make up the fifth page of the book.

     Next comes the Procession, the part of the Mass when the celebrant enters the church with the Easter candle and sings the acclamation, "Christ our light," to which we all respond, "Thanks be to God" three times. After the second of these three acclamations, the people light their candles from the Easter candle. The page I envision for this is dark blue with an Easter candle on top. Below it are many unlit candles on flaps.    When the flaps are opened, a flame is on the back of each flap with a candle beneath so that the open flaps look like a group of lit candles. I'm sorry it is difficult to describe my plan in print, but maybe I can post a scanned copy after these pages are created. By the way, I almost always use sheet protectors for notebook pages, and these will be no different. The girls will make them with open-able flaps, and I will cut out windows from the sheet protector to accommodate them. At the bottom, the girls will write "Christ our light. Thanks be to God," along with the treble clef and musical notes. I will ask them to sight read these simple notes and sing the tune. This will make up the sixth page of the book.

     Next I will give them a copy of the beginning of the beautiful and ancient prayer, "The Exsultet" or "Easter Proclamation":

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels! Exult, all creation around God's throne! Jesus Christ, our King, is risen! Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor, Radiant in the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory! The risen Savior shines upon you!

Let this place resound with joy, Echoing the mighty song of all God's people!

     I plan to use a fancy font and let them decorate it in an "Illuminated Manuscript" style. I envision pictures of angels, trumpets, and light adorning the margins. This will make up the seventh page and take us one week to a week and a half into Lent. The beginning of the Exsultet would also make a perfect assignment for copywork, but I have opted to have them copy the remaining portions of the prayer instead (the portions following "The Lord be with you. And also with you" responses.)

The latter portion of the Exsultet is absolutely beautiful and contains many haunting truths about our faith. I am hoping, if the girls copy it slowly but completely, they will ponder these truths and internalize them. Some of the most poetic lines include:

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!"

"Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth and man is reconciled with God!"

"May the Morning Star which never sets find this flame still burning."

These lines will inspire some creative illustrations, I hope, and I know they will lead to many fruitful discussions and prayers. If you are looking for a simplified version of the Easter Vigil project, it might be nice to copy and illustrate this prayer alone. To read the Exsultet in its entirety, please go to the website of the Dominican Friars.

That is the plan for the first part of this rather large project. I will write more during the next few days and post samples of the girls' books as they are created. We are also planning to create a Paschal candle for our home following directions found online. Luckily, I came across a perfect white candle while putting away some stray Christmas decorations this afternoon. (Yes, my nativity scene has been up all this time. At least the tree's been down for a month!)

     To recap:

The Easter Vigil Notebook (In Brief):

Part 1. The Service of Light

1.     Narration of the first 27 pages of The Easter Story by Gennady Spirin 2.     Illustration(s) of the Narration 3.     A printout of the words to the greeting to the assembly and Blessing of the Fire, decorated with bright tissue paper flames. 4.      A page dedicated to the Preparation of the Paschal Candle, complete with the prayer of dedication (handwritten) and a drawing of the design inscribed on the candle. 5.     A page dedicated to placement of the grains of incense into the candle, including the beautiful corresponding prayer. 6.     A page showing the Easter Candle lighting all the candles in the church with the words "Christ our light. Thanks be to God" shown at the bottom, complete with musical notes. 7.     A printout of the first part of the Exsultet (Easter Proclamation) decorated in "Illuminated Manuscript" style by the girls 8.     Copywork of the continuation of the Exsultet, beginning with "It is truly right." (These lines are so beautiful I could not resist assigning them for copywork, although it will take a few weeks. I will encourage the children to illustrate these pages if they like.)

Part 2. The Liturgy of the Word

     A couple of weeks ago, I was gathering Lenten reading material when it occurred to me that the best possible readings had already been selected by Holy Mother Church! Throughout Lent, we will slowly go through each of the nine readings from the Easter Vigil, stopping along the way to discuss their meaning and relevance to our celebration of Christ's Resurrection. We will enjoy the timeless poetry of the Psalms and wonder at the words

of the prophets. The girls will add narrations and illustrations to the notebooks, along with printouts of selected great works of art depicting the readings. Finally, when Easter is close at hand, we will read the Gospel passage and complete our reading of The Easter Story with paintings by Gennady Spirin.

The nine readings are as follows:

1. Old Testament       a. Genesis 1: 1-2: 2 (The story of Creation)       b. Genesis 22: 1-18 (Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son)       c. Exodus 14: 15-15:1 (The escape from Egypt and parting of the Red Sea)       d. Isaiah 54: 5-14 (God's mercy and goodness toward his people)       e. Isaiah 55:1-11 (God's renewal of His covenant with Israel)       f. Baruch 3: 9-15, 32-4:4 (Walk, by the light of Wisdom, toward God)       g. Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28 (God will cleanse the hearts of His people)

2. New Testament       a. Romans 6: 3-11 (Christ was raised from the dead and dies no more)       b. Matthew 28:1-10 (The Resurrection story)

     We will discuss the reasons these specific passages are so important and spend time meditating on them and comparing the Old Testament passages to the New Testament. As we go along, I will try to include a bit of Art Appreciation (several great paintings came to mind as I read the readings--please see below) and listen to Handel's Messiah.

Examples of works of art to coincide with the readings include:

Scenes from the Life of Moses by Sandro Botticelli. Click on "B" for Botticelli, and look for the "Scenes from the Life of Moses" under "Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

Rembrandt's painting of Abraham and Isaac

Genesis Art Gallery. This art gallery contains both great and lesser works of art illustrating the book of Genesis, but I include it because many of the images are useful.

Triptych of the Resurrection

Part 3. The Celebration of Baptism and Confirmation

     The first thing we hope to do to prepare for this part of the Vigil is to pray for the RCIA candidates and catechumens. Most parishes print their names, but, truthfully, I do not think I have ever given these names more than a passing glance. This year, we will pray for the candidates and catechumens by name every day during Lent. (The girls will snip the little notice out of the bulletin to keep in their notebooks and maybe even decorate it and write out the names if they are inclined.) We will pray specifically that their final days of preparation for the Sacraments are holy and grace-filled, that they joyfully receive the sacraments, and that many more people will be moved to join the Catholic Church.

     By the way, it occurred to me as I prepared for this that I was not entirely sure what the difference is between "Catechumens" and "Candidates." I called my rectory and was told that Catechumens are those receiving all three sacraments at the Easter Vigil, but Candidates have already received the Sacrament of Baptism, perhaps in another church. The Baptism of Catechumens during the Easter Vigil goes back well over a thousand years to the very early church. Accounts remain of Easter Vigils during the time of the Emperor Constantine in which thousands were baptized. One particular night was said to have appeared almost as bright as day because of all the candles and torches blazing, not only in the churches, but also in all the homes. I love being able to refer to a distant time period in history and show the girls how consistent and beautiful our Faith is. Hopefully, they will begin to feel a part of "all the ages" and understand the words "all time belongs to Him" spoken over the Paschal Candle.

     The Celebration of Baptism begins with a "Presentation of the Elect" in which the deacon or other minister calls the

catechumens forward along with their godparents. How wonderful this moment will be for my children after they have spent weeks and weeks praying for them. This is followed by an Invitation to Prayer and a Litany of the Saints. We will print out the Litany of the Saints for their notebooks (along with the musical notes to go with the Litany for sight reading) and attempt to include a line about each saint and perhaps a picture (drawn or printed from the computer). We studied 1 AD to about 700 AD in history so far this year, and the litany is a virtual timeline of the saints we read about. I am looking forward to pointing this out to the girls and having a conversation with them about why they think these particular saints were chosen from so many others. It may also interest them to note that the saints are not listed at random. The Blessed Mother comes first, followed by the angels, John the Baptist, St. Joseph, the apostles and St. Mary Magdalene, the early Christian martyrs, early doctors of the Church, founders of orders, missionaries, and later doctors of the Church. I can see this leading to some interesting questions and observations. (For example, I may ask them if they know why John the Baptist precedes Saint Joseph.)

We usually study the Saints of the Passion* during Lent, but the Litany will help us to include many more. If you would like to print out the Litany, it appears as follows:

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.* Saint Michael, pray for us. Holy angels of God, pray for us. Saint John the Baptist, pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us. Saint Peter and Saint Paul, pray for us. Saint Andrew, pray for us. Saint John, pray for us.* Saint Mary Magdalene, pray for us.* Saint Stephen, pray for us. Saint Ignatius, pray for us. Saint Lawrence, pray for us. Saint Perpetua and Felicity, pray for us. Saint Agnes, pray for us. Saint Gregory, pray for us. Saint Augustine, pray for us. Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us. Saint Martin, pray for us. Saint Benedict, pray for us. Saint Francis and Saint Dominic, pray for us. Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us. Saint John Vianney, pray for us. Saint Catherine, pray for us. Saint Teresa, pray for us. All holy men and women, pray for us.

* The asterisks note "Saints of the Passion." Other Saints of the Passion include St. Simon of Cyrene, St. Dismas, and St. Veronica. A nice website with pictures of many saints, including some mentioned in the Litany is http://www.jesus-passion.com/Saints.htm. It is also worth noting that several of the saints mentioned in the Litany have feasts occurring during Lent: Saint Peter (Chair of Peter-February 22), Saints Perpetua and Felicity (March 7), and Saint Joseph (March 19). We will try to observe these feasts in some special way.

After the Litany of Saints, the Baptism ceremony takes place using the following steps:

1.     Blessing of the Water 2.     Renunciation of Sin 3.     Profession of Faith 4.     Baptism 5.     Anointing with Chrism 6.     Clothing with a Baptismal Garment 7.     Presentation of a Lighted Candle

We will go through these steps and create a page representing them. I visualize a page (or perhaps two facing pages) with symbols created by the girls:blessed water, sin being driven away, a cross representing Faith, a Baptismal Font, Chrism, the white garment, and a lit candle. The girls will enjoy being creative with this.

     The next part of the ceremony is the Renewal of Baptismal Promises. This is an extremely important moment, particularly because a Plenary Indulgence is granted under normal conditions to the faithful who renew their baptismal promises at the Easter

Vigil. This opportunity of receiving complete remission of the temporal punishment due for our sins is reason alone to attend the Vigil, and I want the children to understand the significance of it. I will print out the questions for them so that they will be ready to say "I do" when the time comes. It might even be a nice idea to type out the questions and allow the children to write "I do" after each one.

We will read about the next two parts of the ceremony, the "Reception into Full Communion" and "Celebration of Confirmation" and complete a page to represent both. I envision a page representing the sacraments being received: perhaps with a shell for Baptism, a Host and Chalice for the Eucharist, and a dove and flames for Confirmation. We will review these sacraments in the Catechism and go over the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. This will bring us to the final section of our notebooks, "The Liturgy of the Eucharist."

Part 3. The Celebration of Baptism and Confirmation (in brief):

1.     A decorated page with the names of our parish's Candidates and Catechumems 2.     A page or pages devoted to the Litany of the Saints, including illustrations or pictures printed from the internet or holy cards. 3.     A two-page layout showing the parts of the sacrament of Baptism 4.     A printout of the Renewal of Baptismal Promises with a handwritten "I do" after each promise. 5.     A page representing the Reception into Full Communion and the Celebration of Confirmation.

Part 4. The Liturgy of the Eucharist

    I have a daughter who will be making her first Holy Communion in May, so, in many ways, I feel as if we have been working on this section all year. She has her own separate First Communion notebook and is always proud to show it to friends who come to visit.

    In this fourth and final section of our Easter Vigil notebooks, we will review the parts of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Now, given that we are already over a week into Lent, I anticipate we will need to keep this section fairly simple in order to complete all we have planned before Holy Saturday. This does not mean we will gloss over the importance of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, but we will not plan quite as much copywork and narration for this final section.

     We will begin with a page devoted to the Preparation of the Altar and the Gifts. This page will feature a printout of the prayers (using different font colors to distinguish the words of the priest from the responses of the people):

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.

Blessed be God for ever.

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become our spiritual drink.

Blessed be God for ever.

    I will ask the children to decorate the page, and for this I envision vibrant collage-style illustrations surrounding the borders, showing grapes, wheat, and human hands at the top and wine and the host on the bottom. (Tip: nickels make great pattern pieces for grape collages!)

     The next page will feature the Prayer over the Gifts:

Pray, brethren, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.

May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name, for our good, and the good of all his Church.

    The same page will have the continuation of the prayer specific to the Easter Vigil:

Lord, accept the prayers and offerings of your people. With your help may this Easter mystery of our redemption bring to perfection the saving work you have begun in us.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

    The girls and I will discuss the gifts we must always give up to God--our love and prayers, not to mention the many little sacrifices they have been making throughout Lent. To decorate this "Prayer over the Gifts" page, I will ask them to use pictures that symbolize their own love, prayers, and sacrifice. (The girls have given up all drinks except water and milk for Lent. I will not be surprised if a few sodas and juice boxes make their way into those margins.) I hope, when the time comes during the actual Easter Vigil, they will think about this, lift up their hearts, and realize that their little sacrifices are indeed gifts that are pleasing to God.

[As we go over this section, I will mention Pope John Paul II's recent change of this part of the Mass (requiring the people to stand rather than sit during the Prayer over the Gifts).]

    Now, here is the fun part. Beginning tonight (I'm glad it is still early in Lent), I will ask them to write a small note each time they make a sacrifice or do a special good deed for Lent. We have hundreds of little "post-it" hearts left over from Valentine's Day, so they will be able to use these, but any small paper sheets would be fine. Later on in Lent, when we are completing this section of the notebooks, I will surprise the girls by producing these heart-shaped papers to be placed on a special page in a gift shaped envelope (they create this out of colored paper) and fastened with purple ribbon. This will not only bring the lesson

home to them, but it is also the perfect segue into the next part of the Mass (when we lift up our hearts to the Lord!)

     [By the way, another idea for those of you who plan to bring your books to the Easter Vigil itself would be for Mom to make the gift box page and surprise the children with it the night of the Vigil, slightly beforehand so as not to distract too much during Mass. Or how about hiding a small piece of Easter candy in the gift box to munch on the way home from the Vigil?]

    The next pages will be dedicated to the Eucharistic Prayer. At the preface, it would be eye catching to use a lift-the-flap format so the outside flap will say:

"The Lord be with you" and the inside "And also with you." The same could be done for: "Lift up your hearts" and "We lift them up to the lord." "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God" and "It is right to give Him thanks and praise."

    The children will use creativity to make the flaps come to life a bit (for example, a small pop-out heart would be a good embellishment to the second flap). I'm sure the children will come up with their ideas, each one doing something a bit different.

    The Preface Acclamation will appear (along with the musical notes for sight reading) on the following page. I will ask them if the words remind them of anything. Hopefully, they will be reminded of the words of the people as they greeted Jesus on Palm Sunday. ("Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the Highest!") These words appear in their narrations at the beginning of their notebooks.

    Eucharistic Prayer I is used for the Easter Vigil. The children and I will read this prayer in advance and discuss its beauty and meaning. I may even ask the children to narrate Prayer I to me informally (meaning I will not write down the narrations) to get an idea of their understanding. They will place a typed copy of the prayer, along with the Memorial Acclamations and Doxology, into their notebooks. Eucharistic Prayer I is so deep and poetic that it would be well worth copying in its entirety and illustrating in the same way we did the Exsultet. The same is true for the Memorial

Acclamations and Doxology. I do not forsee attempting this before Holy Saturday, but I will keep it in the back of my mind as a project worth pursuing in the future, maybe even during the weeks following Easter.

     This leads us to the Communion Rite, beginning with the Our Father. I will let the girls have a bit of fun with this page by creating an Our Father "puzzle." I will type the Our Father with the words in a variety of colored fonts, cut it up into rectangles, and present it to them. They will need to put the words in order and glue them onto the page.   Hopefully, this will make a pretty and interesting display, although I hope it won't take on the look of a ransom note!

     For the Rite of Peace page, I will ask each one of the children to trace her right hand on a piece of paper twice (regular handprints with paint would work too, although you will need to stamp both right and left hands if you choose this method). Each child will keep one of these tracings for herself, but trade the other with one of her sisters. This will leave her with her own hand and the hand of someone she will likely be sitting with during the Vigil. The two hands can be put together in a "shaking hands" position above a printout of the Rite of Peace:

"Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles . . ..(all the way to) Let us offer each other the sign of peace."

     The Breaking of the Bread page will feature an altar with a chalice and host. The altar cloth will be a flap that lifts to reveal a sacrificial Lamb at the top (glued to the inside of the flap) along with the typed prayer (glued on the page underneath the flap:

"Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world . . . ."

    At the bottom of the same page will be the typed prayer of Communion:

"This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to receive you. . . . . The blood of Christ. Amen." along with the specific prayer of the Easter Vigil:

"Christ has become our paschal sacrifice; let us feast with the

unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, alleluia."

    The final page with show a picture of the Resurrected Lord (saved from a holy card or Mass card, printed off the computer, or drawn by the child) with the Prayer after Communion specific to the Easter Vigil:

"Lord, you have nourished us with your Easter sacraments. Fill us with you Spirit and make us one in peace and love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."

along with the Concluding Rite:

May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. The Mass is ended, go in peace. Thanks be to God."

Alleluia! That's basically the whole thing! Although I am sure we will all come up with many ideas to embellish this plan further and help our children personalize their own books. These plans may seem like a lot, but I will be sure to post typed pages to go along with the Liturgy of the Eucharist section. If you are able to print them out, it should save quite a bit of time and make it easy to complete this final portion of the notebook.

     Part 4. The Liturgy of the Eucharist (in brief):

1. The Preparation of the Altar and the Gifts (with collage-style decorations) 2. The Prayer over the Gifts (with drawings representing the children's love, prayer and sacrifice--magazine clippings showing things given up for Lent might make a nice touch) 3. Gift page--the girls' Lenten sacrifices written on hearts contained in a gift-shaped envelope 4. The Eucharistic prayer--preface page (with three flaps showing the words of the priest and the responses)followed by the Preface Acclamation 5. The Eucharistic Prayer I, Memorial Acclamation, and Doxology (printed out, although we might attempt this for copywork at a later date)

6. The Communion Rite--beginning with The Our Father (puzzle pieces) 7. Rite of Peace page (using the child's own handprint along with at least one sibling's or a parent's) 8. The Breaking of the Bread (with a lift-the-flap altar cloth and lamb) along with the Prayer of Communion 9. A final page showing the Resurrected Lord and the Concluding Rite

    By the way, it would be lovely to learn the hymns for the Easter Vigil and teach them to your children in advance. Perhaps your parish choir director or leader of song could tell you what to expect. My girls know many Advent and Christmas Hymns, but they are not as familiar with the beautiful music of Easter. "Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise," "Jesus Christ is Risen Today," "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name," and "To Jesus Christ, Our Sovereign King" are examples of hymns I want the girls to know every bit as well as they know Silent Night or O Come all ye Faithful. Perhaps these hymns could be sung at home during the days and weeks following Easter. If you are able to photocopy the lyrics to these hymns or print them off the internet, they would make a perfect appendix at the end of your notebooks.

Alice M. Gunther(copyright 2007, all rights reserved)

Please note: These printable plans were originally posted on the 4Real Learning Message Board, Living Faith Forum in 2005. At the time, many talented mothers commented and made suggestions. If you are interested in reading more, the original thread may be found here: http://4real.thenetsmith.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=81&PN=1&TPN=1

2005 Postscript

Dear Friends,

I can't tell you how great it is to read your posts and hear about your Easter Vigil experiences. It has been a joy working on this project with you, and I am already looking forward to the additions and ideas we will share next year.

The girls and I really enjoyed the Vigil this year, and I know we will never miss it again. They loved using their books to follow along, and every prayer and action of the priest meant so much to them. One of my favorite moments came after Mass when we passed several of the catecumens and candidates. They were standing in a group chatting, and I congratulated them, telling them that we had been praying for them during their preparation. With that, my daughters added such heartfelt best wishes--it was as if they were our family. The group was astonished when the girls rattled off all their names and told them how happy we were to meet them. It really seemed to mean a lot to them to know that these young girls knew of them and had been praying for

them.

We have a wonderful pastor, but I still felt a bit sheepish asking him if we could take home some blessed flame from the Easter candle in our little homemade lantern. When I finally approached to ask his permission, he seemed to love the idea and lit our lantern himself. It was such a lovely and surreal experience to drive home with that little Easter light flickering in the car. I know it made a lasting impression on the girls. We used the blessed flame to light our homemade Easter candle and, along with my husband (who had been home with the little ones), carried it through every single room of the house, singing Easter hymns. Thanks to Lara Muse, our candle actually has five grains of incense attached to it, just like the big candle in church. Thanks once again, Lara, you are too kind!

Love, Alice