Easter Triduum printables: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil activities

The Easter Triduum, including Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil (or Holy Saturday) represents the most sacred days in the Catholic liturgical calendar. I was a homeschool mom in the early 1990s, before the Internet. I made all our curriculum. During Lent, we counted down to Easter with Lenten crafts, lesson plans and activities.

Pope John Paul II spoke of the family as the primary educators of children. He encouraged parents and children to set up altars in their home. Create a niche with votive candles, crucifix and holy relics. Pray with children before the altar.

Use my article to get free printable Catholic Holy Week activities. Help children explore Easter beyond bunnies and Easter eggs. Here are printable Palm Sunday crafts to make with kids. Print donkeys, a palm basket and other child-centered religious lessons.

Pray the Via Dolorosa or Way of the Cross. Use these free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages. The Stations of the Cross is one of the most important Lenten devotions. On Good Friday, the faithful gather to follow the footsteps of Our Lord to Calvary. These free printable coloring pages form a devotional booklet that helps children understand each station of the cross. You might make your own Stations of the Cross by arranging children's pictures in the hallway (we did this). Or kids' could make outdoor dioramas and arrange in a prayer garden.

Here are more free printable Lenten lesson plans for Holy Week and the Easter Triduum. Use these activities to practice the spiritual exercises of prayer, fasting and alms-giving. You can print games, crafts, devotional exercises and lesson plans. Have children color Bible Easter images. Think coloring is too worldy an activity for the holy season of Easter? Consider this: Children learn by doing. What better way to learn about their faith and experience it more deeply than by doing activities that focus their minds and hearts on God?

Free Printable Ash Wednesday Coloring Pages, Lessons

Catholics celebrate several special religious days, referred to as holy days of obligation. These days center around a Bible event in the life of Jesus or His Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary. Holy Days are All Saints Day (Nov. 1), Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), Christmas (preceded by the holy season of Advent), Solemnity of Mary (Jan 1), Ash Wednesday (movable feast which kicks of the holy season of Lent and leads up to Easter), Ascension Thursday (movable feast) and the Assumption of Mary (August 15). Here are free printable Catholic coloring pages featuring Bible stories. prayer, sacraments, mass, Gospel, saints, Lent, Advent, holidays and holy days, life of Jesus, Catholic saints' feast days, rosary and stations of the cross. Holy Spirit Interactive many free printable Catholic coloring pages. Print Bible stories to correspond to the rosary's joyful mysteries, sorrowful mysteries and glorious mysteries and luminous mysteries. free printable Catholic Bible coloring pages

You can also print Bible, saints and feast day coloring pages also. First-school has neat organized, cross-referenced lesson plans for Catholic subjects, including feast and holy days, Saints and bible lesson The link takes you to the Feast of the Annunciation (holy day which celebrates visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary, mother of God on March 25). The Annunciation is the first of the Joyful mysteries of the rosary. Here are all First-Schools' free free printable Catholic worksheets,

Catholic Mom is a ginormous repository of free printable Catholic activities, games, lesson plans, puzzles and word searches organized around the Catholic liturgical year. This link takes you to printable Catholic coloring pages based on Sunday mass readings, Bible stories and gospel verses. Use for CCD (religious education), vacation Bible school, Children's Liturgy of the Word and Sunday school. My favorite are the wonderful vintage images from Fr. Lovasik used in the old Catholic Children's Catechism, missal and Children's Bible.

EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) is a Catholic television and radio station EWTN Kids has Catholic activities, printables and games. You have to register to access but it's free. Check out Catholic Blogger for links to free printable religious coloring pages, Print pictures of Catholic holy days, saints Bible and Christian coloring pages.

Bible Kids has many free printable Bible coloring pages about Jesus, holy days, rosary, saints and Bible stories. Coloring Book Fun has loads of free Christian printables, Bible coloring pages and Catholic activities. There are rosary coloring pages and Stations of the Cross pictures to color. Use these for Catholic school, homeschool, religious ed, CCD, Sunday School, Children's Liturgy of the Word or family devotion time.

Free Printable Stations of the Cross Activities, Catholic Coloring Pages

In the Catholic liturgical calendar, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday continues for 40 days up through Holy Week, the Easter Triduum and Easter. Catholic Christians try to imitate Jesus with prayer, fasting or sacrifice and almsgiving (charity). A Catholic prays the rosary and Stations of the Cross on Friday (and as often as possible).  Here are free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages to guide Lenten devotions.  Print a booklet for CCD, VBS, religious education classes, Catholic school, homeschooling and family devotions.
Catholic Mom offers free printable Stations of the Cross coloring books and prayer devotional guide. This is a fifteen page booklet covering each of the 14 Stations of the Cross. The liturgical prayer used at station is printed on the front cover and is repeated at each station. Children may color all the pages in their coloring books at once, or you may use Stations of the Cross coloring books as daily Lenten calendar countdown to Easter activities. Children might color one page each day for Lenten devotions. Here are other free printable Stations of the Cross activities.
Web Archive has free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages drawn like Victorian church stained glass.  These images are quite small, but could be printed for a flip book or enlarged and printed as quarter or half page coloring pages. Traditionalists will love the neo-classical black and white artwork. St. John the Baptist Religious Ed has loads more free printable Catholic coloring pages for the mysteries of the rosary (Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Lumious Mysteries), Easter, Lenten, Bible and other Catholic themed coloring pages). 

Free Printable Lent Devotional Coloring Pages

The Catholic church enters the Lenten season of preparation before Easter. For Catholic and Orthodox Christians, Easter is about more than just bunnies and candy. Easter celebrates the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, Christians ready themselves for Jesus's coming with prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The date of Ash Wednesday changes each year as Easter is a "movable feast." In 2015, Ash Wednesday is Feb. 18.Here are free printable stations of the cross, rosary, saints and Easter bible story coloring pages.

Lenten season runs for 46 days up to Easter. Lent "follows" Jesus's during forty days of fasting in the desert when He was tempted by Satan. in preparation for His sacrifice on the cross. During Lent, we try to imitate Jesus. We follow the "Way of the Cross" or Stations of the Cross and pray the rosary.

St. John the Baptist Religious Education has nearly 100 free printable Catholic Lenten coloring pages.