The Catholic Single's Guide to Holy Week

Whether Lent flew by for you, or seemed to drag on forever, here we are at the start of Holy Week. 

One could argue that the entirety of Lent is truly a preparation for the greatest—albeit shortest—season of the Church year. Holy Week. 

Yes, you read that right. Holy Week is its own liturgical season. It’s the climax of our Lenten journey in the desert. Holy Week is the mountain we must climb before basking in the summit of Easter, the joy of the Resurrection. From my entire childhood up until my young adult years, I completely missed out on Holy Week. Palm Sunday Mass was spent folding palms into crosses, and then suddenly it was Easter Sunday and I was wearing a new dress and shiny white shoes. It’s easy and tempting to let Holy Week pass you by, but I’m urging you to reconsider. 

As a Catholic single, this Lenten season might have been difficult for you. The confines of the ongoing pandemic may have prevented you from engaging in the depth of the Lenten season as in years past. Although there’s now a virtual option for just about anything in the world, it doesn’t replace the real-life community one gains from a Lenten Bible study or Fish Fry, or those hours spent in your parish’s tiny (read: non-COVID safe) Adoration chapel. Even a year into the pandemic, life is still different than before, and new spiritual habits take time to build. 

Or maybe you’re coming off your best Lent ever! Maybe the COVID-induced social desert provided just the right template for your deep dive into the spiritual realm. The extra time at home gave way to more spiritual reading, more prayer, and a deeper connection to God. 

Whatever type of Lent you experienced, Holy Week is a time to up your game. 

And the good news? You can enter fully into Holy Week with little impact from the pandemic restrictions. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: as a Catholic single, there is no better time in your life to dive deeply into the richness of the liturgical seasons than now. Your singlehood is a gift—a chapter of your life that only God knows the duration of. Make the most of it in times like this! Trust me, once you’re married with a family, you won’t have the time or capacity to fully enter into such a season.

So as we face Holy Week, see the opportunity. Cardinal John O’Connor says, “if we have not been able to practice our faith as we would like and as we know we should, this is a wonderful week to get started all over again.” Did you know, the Church once called Holy Week the Week of Reconciliation? Make this Holy Week a true “Week of Reconciliation,” uniting yourself to Jesus and readying your heart to greet Him at Easter. 

Cardinal O’Connor also says, “all of our Holy Week observances must be re-lived together with Christ if we are to find meaning in His suffering, death, and Resurrection.” This week, why not take on that very challenge? Walk this week together with Christ, making present in your daily life the suffering and sacrifice He underwent for you.

Here are some ideas on how to do just that: 

1. Pray a daily Seven Sorrows rosary, seeing the mystery of Holy Week through the eyes of our Heavenly Mother. Mary always, always leads us to her son Jesus. 

2. Add some extra physical penances and unite your sufferings to Jesus: give up sugar, meat (not just on Friday but all week), eating between meals, etc. Or take on something extra, like cold showers, waking up without the snooze button, or some other minor physical mortification (hair shirts are sooo 1st century, though!). 

3. Cut out noise. Just as Jesus spent hours in silence in the Garden of Gethsemane, take on extra silence throughout your week. Turn off the radio in the car, put down that podcast, and leave the TV off. 

4. Say no to social media. Unless you’re posting some beautiful reflection on Holy Week, your social media accounts can wait for another week. If you’re truly walking with Jesus this week, you don’t need to see what other people are doing with their lives. 

5. Reconcile yourself to God. Find a penance service or confession time at a nearby parish (many offer confessions several days of Holy Week, and some even on Good Friday!). Take the time to make a thorough Examination of Conscience, preparing yourself to truly meet Christ at Easter. 

6. Dive deeply into the liturgy. If in-person options are available in your area, attend all three days of the Triduum: Holy Thursday Mass (the Mass of the Lord’s Supper), Good Friday Service, Easter Vigil, and then seal it up with Easter Sunday Mass. That’s right… Four days in a row. At church. You can do it! Find out why the liturgy is the high point of this week. In-person isn’t an option? Good thing there are so many live-streamed liturgies out there right now… 

7. Pray the Stations of the Cross. Accompany Jesus to Calvary through this powerful meditation. There are a host of different reflections out there, from scriptural stations, to Holy Land stations, to saintly-inspired stations. Why not try a different reflection each day of Holy Week? Don’t forget to pray it especially on Good Friday, between the hours of 9am and 3pm if possible, which was when Jesus experienced His passion. 

8. Watch the Passion of the Christ. I watch this every Holy Week. And I grit my way through it. Nobody enjoys watching this movie, but every year, I gain such depth and insight into Jesus’ gift of suffering and death. There are just some things that affect us more powerfully when we see it played out with our own eyes. Prayer and scripture can take you there if you’re more of a mystic, but this movie does a pretty fantastic job of doing that as well. 

Jesus longs to experience this week, the holiest of all weeks, with you! Don't miss the opportunity, but seize it and dive deeply in.