Holy Week Missions 2024: “Given”
The 2024 Holy Week Missions theme, “Given,” evokes the mysterious back and forth between God and his people. Christ gives himself to us in his incarnation, in his passion and cross, and through the ages in the Eucharist. We give back to him. We give back to him through others. We give him to others. And we give ourselves to others on his behalf.
Missionaries accompanied Jesus through the sorrows and joys of Holy Week. They supported their parishes, inviting others to celebrate with them. They went out to serve those in need, sharing God’s love. And they do it all because they have the interior conviction that Christ equips them with his love and sends them forth.
At 23 Mission Youth & Family Holy Week Mission sites across the North American Territory, over 3,500 missionaries served an estimated 8,500+ people, parishes, and communities. How? They lived the Spiritual and Corporal works of mercy in every way possible:
- Catechesis for children
- Spending time with the elderly and homebound
- Serving the homeless on the streets and in shelters
- Praying for the deceased in cemeteries
- Evangelizing and inviting parishioners to visit Churches, go to Confession, and come to Masses
- Approaching people on the streets to ask for prayer requests
- Planning Easter celebrations in disadvantaged local communities
- Serving and collaborating with local parishes, pastors, and bishops as they prepared for the Holy Triduum
- Visiting addiction treatment centers and nursing homes
- Leading Stations of the Cross, Holy Hours, and even a 7-Church pilgrimage by bus
- Providing, inviting to, and participating in the Sacrament of Confession and the celebration of the Eucharist
Scroll down to keep reading, or click on the name of a city to read about their mission:
Atlanta
Over 200 missionaries came from all over the Greater Atlanta Area to experience the Triduum in a radically different way, Holy Week Missions. Mercy Missions Atlanta partnered with St. Pius X Catholic High School to bring high schoolers, college students, and young professionals together through impactful service, meaningful encounters, and heartfelt prayer over the three days.
Missionaries were formed through talks and testimony and through team life led by committed young adults, legionary priests, fransican brothers, and consecrated women. Throughout each day mission teams were sent far and wide to blanket the city of Atlanta with Christ’s love and mercy by serving in a wide variety of ministries such as street missions, MARTA encounters, food pantry packing, rehab home visits, soup kitchen service, and many more. Good Friday brings the Lord’s Passion and in remembrance missionaries take part in a live stations of the cross right through the streets of Downtown Atlanta escorted by Atlanta Police.
Through Jesus’ love and mercy, missionaries were able to serve thousands of meals to those in need, encounter people needing comfort and consolation, and stand as a testament of God’s presence to the people of Atlanta. A heartfelt thanks to all those who made this mission possible and Mercy Missions Atlanta partner organizations: St. Pius X Catholic High School, Basilica of the Sacred Heat of Jesus, Salvation Army, AG Rhodes & Rehab, Urban Recipe, Seven Bridges to Recovery, & Atlanta Police Department.
We had two tracks. The overnight track consisted of high schoolers, lead by college students and young adults, from Holy Thursday until Easter Vigil. These 110 missionaries attended all the Holy Week services at Sacred Heart Basilica in downtown Atlanta. They spent the day in teams serving at local homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and nursing homes as well as doing street missions in all the homeless areas of the Atlanta.
The missionaries could be found riding the city transit system, the Marta, all day passing out coffee and collecting prayer intentions. God provided beautiful weather allowing hundred of passersby to stop and pray with the missionaries as they remembered the Passion of Jesus. On Holy Saturday, 60 more young adults joined the mission to help serve the homeless living under the bridges of Atlanta. The mission concluded with a Easter Vigil party with food, testimonies and a concert by the RC Music Collective in a local restaurant downtown owned by a Lumen Institute member.
“A highlight for me was participating in the the stations of the cross in downtown Atlanta. I was able to play the part of one of the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus. The weather was beautiful on Good Friday and so many people stopped to pray the stations with us. Our police escort stopped traffic in some of the busiest urban streets of Atlanta allowing the stations to be seen by hundreds. Standing in the shoes of a Roman soldier, I was able to pray the stations like never before and witness up close the patience of Christ and the depths of his love for me and the world.” -Stephen Perenich RC Mission Corps.
Family missions and ECYD missions with about 300 missionaries were also held in the Suburbs of Atlanta, in Forsyth county, where missionaries served at St. Brendan’s Parish and Good Shepherd parish, as well as in the local community.
“I have been participating in family missions for 14 years. This year we were at St. Brendan in Cumming. What consolation it brings me to see my grandchildren desire to do missions! I was filled with how missions awaken the hearts of the missionaries and those receiving! Missionaries went brought cards and Easter candy to inmates in the county jail, provided an Easter meal and bags with notes and gift cards to a local girl home that serves girls who have been abused and a boys’ home that serves boys who have left home for various reasons. Then a trip to the cemetery to pray for the dead and sprinkle holy water on the graves. Saturday was for visiting the nursing homes and bringing cheer and going door to door to invite others in the community to celebrate Christmas with us at the parish.” – Lucy Daniels
Calgary
Holy Week Missions in Calgary consisted of three tracks this year. Youth track, – 7th grade to 12th grade, Young Adult Track – 18 to 30 years and a Family Track.
We had 60 youth registered and a total of 82 participants in the Youth Track (our maximum capacity- registration had to be closed!). The youth participated in a week of activities, adoration, corporal works of mercy, street missions, liturgies and formative talks. At the end of the Easter Vigil there was a pot luck dinner and dance to wind up an amazing week of coming closer to our Lord throughout his Passion. Several youth committed to deepening their relationship with Christ and to continuing monthly missions throughout the year.
For the family track, 14 families registered with a total of 60 participants. The families were commissioned on palm Sunday and did some home activities throughout the week and finished up with a full day Mission on Holy Saturday that included a Cross Walk and door to door missions along with games and crafts and a formative talk for the adults.
For the Young Adult Mission, we had 18 registered young adults who did a one day mission that included a formative talk, Missionary training, Street Missions handing out hot chocolate and home made cookies to the homeless, a cross walk asking for prayer intentions and an evening meal with Fr. Michael Picard.
“Holy week missionaries are in absolutely amazing group of people. I was blessed to be able to work with them. We did a live stations of the Cross well as distributed care packages to homeless people and prayed for passersby in downtown Calgary. We also did a bottle and food drive and Visited in your home for the elderly. It was beautiful to see how many people wanted us to pray for them. It was also incredible to see how many people went to adoration and were receptive of our assistance.” -Jack Wooldridge
Chicago
In Chicago over 100 missionaries came together for an amazing experience of service over Holy Week. On Holy Thursday we had a 7 Church bus pilgrimage. Southwest suburban churches were visited by Legionaries of Christ, as well as families from East Lake Academy, Everest Academy, and the Regnum Christi men’s and women’s sections.
On Good Friday we held a CrossWalk (Stations of the Cross) through downtown Lemont. Missionaries gathered prayer intentions from the community.
On Holy Saturday, missionaries gathered to fill 100+ buckets of hope (disaster cleaning supplies) and make 300 lunches for a homeless shelter in Joliet. They also prepared and served lunch to homeless and those in need in Chicago at Pacific Garden Missions.
“The events and mission opportunities remind us of the tremendous need for God in this world. Seeing others suffer in mind, body and spirit draws out goodness and generosity. While the suffering are shown the love of Christ, the missionaries find purpose.”
– Joann Conover
Cincinnati
High school missionaries spent Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday morning at St. Vincent De Paul Shelter in Dayton, Ohio! They offered themselves for the needs of the shelter including cleaning, organizing, serving meals. They also ate with the families and women making the meal times an opportunity to speak with the guest and evangelize. We also celebrated the Holy Week masses in their chapel and were able to invite the guest to join us.
We also had a Good Friday Crosswalk in Cincinnati, Ohio. We walked through the streets of Cincinnati with our large crosses on our shoulders, collecting prayer intentions from those we met, and then attended Good Friday service together after praying the rosary over all the intentions. We then had dinner together and were able to share our beautiful experiences during the Crosswalk.
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“It is always a gift for me to see others experience Holy Week Missions for the first time. I spoke with multiple families and missionaries who had a beautiful encounter of Jesus and of service. As a leader and coordinator, it can often be hard to be present to those moments when it’s about completing tasks. I was reminded in big and little ways that the Lord uses any opportunity to reach our hearts and love us even deeper. My highlight was the joy of our high school missionaries while working with the children at the shelter.” – Mary Peach
Dallas
The Holy Week Missions in Dallas for Holy Week took place in three different parts: a high school track, a young adults and young professionals track, and a family track. In all, there were over 250 missionaries.
The high school and family track took place at St Cecilia Parish in Dallas. There the missionaries packed baskets of food to distribute to poor families in collaboration with the Missionaries of Charity in Dallas. They went door to door inviting people to come to the Mass and other Holy Week activities taking place at the parish. They collected prayer intentions in a cross walk. Other service opportunities included helping at soup kitchens, visiting nursing homes, garden work for a parish and a retreat center and encountering homeless on the streets of downtown Dallas. The missionaries were able to participate in the liturgies at the parish as well as have other moments of prayer and reflection on the importance of being a missionary and the significance of each of the holy days.
Our base for young adults missions was Holy Trinity Catholic Church, which is in the heart of Uptown Dallas. We had young adults and young professionals come from all over the Dallas-Fort Worth Area for missions starting on Thursday. Our leadership team coordinated with 9 different sites for missionaries to volunteer at throughout Holy Week. Throughout those 9 mission blocks we volunteered at addiction recovery centers, homeless food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and more throughout Dallas. Some of the mission sites we visited were OurCalling, Nexus Recovery, Monticello West, Bloom Pregnancy Help Center, and City Square Food Pantry.
“Holy Week Missions provided me an opportunity to see clearly the face of God in those we served. Too often in daily life I can gloss over the fact that each person I meet was created in the ‚Äúimage and likeness of God.‚Äù The missions allowed me consecutive days to go through a transformation of heart and better see as God sees. One of the things that always amazes me when I serve is how God can use my desire to help others to also help myself. In this case, I encountered a recurring theme at my mission sites where the people I met were lacking in a worldly sense, but yet maintained an overly joyous and thankful attitude towards life. I heard more thanks and praise be given to God by these people in difficult life situations than I myself give which was both beautiful and a wakeup call.”-Azuzena Oseguera
“This was my one and only mission experience as a deacon and so it was very special for me because the role of a deacon is to serve. To serve the Christian people through preaching and the word, but also through service to those most in need.
One of the more impactful moments was encountering homeless on the streets. Normally people on the streets get food from many different organizations but not many stop and eat with them or to talk with them or pray with them. Not many other organizations do that and we wanted to make sure that we gave these people not just a moment but also some quality time so we can get to know them, to talk with them, to get to know their stories and they were very happy to be able to share that with us. I spent basically all of the time that we had downtown just talking with three different people that I had met. That was the goal, to be with them and to love them. To be able to pray with them, to see their faith in God and love for Jesus was incredible.” – Deacon Kevin O’Byrne, LC
Detroit
2024 Holy Week Missions in the Northwest Detroit Metropolitan area was a busy and blessed week for all those who participated. We had approximately 50 families. 125 missionaries, from ages ranging between 2- and 65-years young. In our Youth Mission we had 25 Teens and Young adults. Everybody filled with the Joy of the Gospel to be brought to whomever we would encounter along the way.
Detroit Missions started with the Traditional Seder dinner at St. Damien of Molokai parish in downtown Pontiac. Fr. Juan Sabadell LC, explained to the close to 80 guests the meaning Christ gave to each of the 14 traditional steps of a Jewish Passover; from the blessings, to the food choices, the 4 cups of wine, the psalm readings/songs pertinent to each one, etc. After this, a packed Procession and Palm Sunday Mass at night was the official send away in commission for our local mission.
The following days, the Youth missionaries helped the Capuchins at a Soup kitchen, prayed outside an abortion clinic embracing the hate from people and the cold and rainy day. They also joined Fr. Andrew Mabee and the Parish youth in street evangelization, participated in talks and Q/A focused on prolife ministry. They reenacted the Stations of The Cross beautifully outside the church, followed by more than 300 parishioners and curious visitors from the area.
The adult’s program, started with daily prayer and a morning reflection. Then off to ‘Door to door’ visits in the neighborhood. A total of 105 houses were visited from 109 who registered a 250% increase compared to 2023. During our visits, we encountered both, material and spiritual need. We prayed with our hosts for their needs and families. Many asked for conversion of family members or physical healing. For the later one, Fr. Jason Brooks LC, prayed over them and we witnessed some amazing miracles.
During these Holy days, there were more than 200 confessions, and were blessed with beautiful liturgies, bilingual and packed to the last choir loft seat in both Churches, St. Michael and St. Damien of Molokai. Holy Thursday, Last Supper Mass and the visitation of the 7 temples. Good Friday with Adoration of The Cross at 3pm and a riveting Tenebrae office at night. Saturday at sunset Easter Vigil. Easter Sunday started with testimonies and experiences, from all the different groups, the kids, the teens, young adults, and the not so young adults.
Then Easter Mass followed by Easter celebration at the Legionaries’ house with delicious food and desserts, the highlight being a taco truck. Once all had full bellies, we proceeded with the and the kids easter egg hunt followed by an award ceremony, such a wonderful time in family and community.
It didn’t end there. On Easter Monday night, there was a follow up… on a ‘last minute’ request for a “disinfestation” prayer service, to implore for the Lord’s power to get rid of recurring “manifestations” of the evil spirit. Some adult missionaries participated in the deliverance rite, with prayers, holy water, exorcised salt, holy oils, while a Priest presided the special mass to effect deliverance. All of which brought great peace and joy to the 6 residents of the house. Thanks be to God!
“This was my first year participating in the Missions with RC in Detroit Metro. What a wonderful experience! As St. Francis said: “It is in giving that we receive”. I Give thanks to The Lord for inviting me to be a part of this service to His people. I loved talking to all those who opened their homes to us. Loved praying with them. Crying, laughing, and praising with them. We are all the Body of Christ and are here to lift each other up. This is something that needs to be done on a regular basis, visiting those in need and bringing the Good News to their lives. Let’s desire to be amongst those with “beautiful feet”. Rom 10:15”. – Maria Goatley
Houston
We had missions in several areas of the city this year with a new record number of 610 missionaries in the Houston North mission site (and over 800 missionaries in total across metropolitan Houston). We offered 12 different missions, including specific activities for youth and children. For the first time, the high school missionaries had an overnight mission with adoration on Holy Thursday and a procession with the Virgin Mary on Good Friday.
Some of the results of our Holy Week Missions in numbers at the Houston North mission site…
– We visited 7 nursing homes, offering 200 gifts baskets to the elderly.
– We visited 1 immigrant center and 1 homeless care center in Houston with our Youth group.
– We delivered 75 Easter Baskets to families in needs.
– We received 24 families in our Guardian Angel Closet to choose clothes and take them home.
– We delivered hundreds of socks and shoes to homeless in Houston downtown.
– We worked 51 men hour for our Parish embellishment, raking, mulching and weeding our campus, as well as performing general clean-up
– We offered 30+ Care packages to homeless in Houston downtown.
– We offered hundreds of prayers, sacrifices and actions during our Holy Week Missions to live our theme “Given to You”
– We walked miles on Good Friday and Holy Saturday to evangelize our neighborhood knocking door to door and invite people to join our Easter celebrations
– We prepared and served more than 1200 meals/breakfast to feed our missionaries
– A lot of deep and powerful testimonies from our missionaries…
“There were a lot of blessings during the 2024 Holy Week Missions. Our missions continue to grow as more people reach out to connect with us, year after year. We have focused our missionaries on self-giving to others, through prayers, sacrifices, and actions, as the Lord was given to us.” – Matthieu Billes
“Holy Week Missions are a time when we encounter Jesus in the most beautiful way by being his hands and feet as we approach our community.The young adult missionaries truly inspire me to be the best version of myself, living in a way that lights up every room they enter. The joy these young adults have is unmatched and it is truly because the Holy Spirit lives within them. We went out to encounter homeless people Friday morning, journeyed through a BEAUTIFUL cross walk Friday night, and finished our mission by celebrating with under-privileged children. It was a weekend to never forget, and I am so grateful for it all.” – Nina Long
Manila
We had 76 families, 249 missionaries, participating in the Holy Week Missions, divided into three sites: Pasig, Parañaque, and Santa Rosa. The biggest activity of each site are the House-to-House Visits, where we knocked on doors, shared God’s love, and prayed with the residents. The Sacrament of Reconciliation was made available to them through our LC priests.
Other activities include the Community Lunch where we broke bread with the locals; the Way of the Cross; the Visita Iglesia; the Living Rosary where local kids formed a life-sized Rosary with each child representing a bead: and the distribution of Kapatid (sibling) boxes donated by Lower School students of Everest Manila to the community children.
During “rest” periods, the Missionaries had in-house activities focusing on formation for themselves.
Lastly, we participated (and encouraged the locals to participate) in the Holy Week services of the local parish. On occasion, our LC priests concelebrated some Masses with the parish priests.
“Having visited these sites for multiple years, it is gratifying to see the growing number of kids who know how to pray. It’s not a forgotten practice.
It is also quite encouraging to see new Missionaries who are attracted to the RC charism through Family Missions. At the very least, they look forward to future Missions, if not participate in other apostolates of RC.” – Joey Contreras
New York
Missionaries went out on the streets at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, inviting Catholics to come in to pray or go to Confession. Why? To bring others to Christ in preparation for Easter.
Ontario
We had 3 separate missions with youth, young adults, and families. They served the homeless, volunteered at soup kitchens, visited retirement homes, cared for the elderly, and did street outreach, in four different cities: Oakville, Hamilton, Kitchener and Toronto.
“Missions were an amazing experience of being radically given! Each missionary encountered the love of Christ in a new way, and learned how to give his love to others. The community was so full of joy at being filled with Christ and sharing him with the world.” – Fr. Adam Zettel, LC
Philadelphia
This year, Mission Youth Philly had over 250 missionaries join us, some for 7 full days of mission, some for the 5-day mission, and some for our Good Friday Family Mission and the Living Stations of the Cross through the streets of downtown Philadelphia. The missionaries were local high schoolers, and high schoolers from Minnesota, New York, Chicago, Texas and Florida. We also had college students join us from schools throughout the country as well as local young adults.
Each day we did Crosswalks and gathered prayer intentions of the people we encountered. The missionaries prayed morning prayers together, shared meals and highs & lows, had daily Mass and Adoration, experienced reverent liturgies throughout Holy Week and formed lasting friendships centered on Christ.
This is how we lived the week as missionaries:
Palm Sunday: we went door-to-door in a nearby neighborhood to share the Good News of Easter and collect prayer intentions.
Monday: We did Crosswalks throughout the Kensington neighborhood and gave food, clothing, and toiletries to anyone in need. However, our friends in Kensington are most receptive to receiving prayer and sometimes the missionaries are even asked, “okay, can we pray now?”
Tuesday: We drove an hour away to Coatesville, PA, and celebrated Mass at a local parish. The pastor, Fr. Juan, always shares with the missionaries how excited he is that we are going out and inviting people back home to the Church in Coatesville.
Wednesday: The missionaries prayed outside one of the largest abortion centers in Philadelphia, and then embarked on a journey over the Ben Franklin bridge, bearing large crosses and all, to Camden, New Jersey. There’s a super-authentic Mexican restaurant in the middle of Camden that has become our missionary hub and they are always so happy to receive us and share the most amazing cinnamon coffee! After missions on Wednesday, the “seasoned” missionaries welcomed all of the 5-day missionaries and filled the air with unity and charity. We played some very fun icebreakers with over 150 people!
Thursday: The missionaries went back to Kensington to make tacos for those on the streets with our friends at the AA/NA clubhouse, encountered more souls asking for prayers with Crosswalks throughout Kensington, and then missionaries participated in the Last Supper Reenactment on the corner of Somerset and Kensington Ave.
Good Friday: The missionaries prayed outside of the Planned Parenthood in downtown Philadelphia and sang the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Then all the missionaries and missionary families participated in the Good Friday Family Mission throughout the streets of Center City, Philadelphia. Afterwards, we had the Living Stations, where a mile of streets were blocked off from Rittenhouse Square down to the The Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. The missionaries were the ones chosen to be in the Passion Play and their witness of faith moved hundreds of passersby to join us as we walked and sang through the streets. Archbishop Perez gave the missionaries a blessing at the Cathedral Basilica when the Living Stations had finished.
Holy Saturday: After so many days of mission, the missionaries had a morning retreat on Holy Saturday. We then cleaned up the campus of Our Lady of Peace Church and had a closing ceremony for all the missionaries.
Easter Sunday: We celebrated Easter with a 4:30am Sunrise Vigil Mass and ended with a breakfast prepared by Our Lady of Peace parishioners!
“We had so many amazing God moments throughout this week of mission. One missionary shared a story that I can’t stop thinking about. This missionary has participated in Holy Week missions for a few years now and she joins us on our monthly missions to Kensington. In December of 2023, this missionary met a man named Vinny. She prayed with him that he would be freed from his addiction and get out of Kensington. She also felt inspired to give him her missionary crucifix that the missionaries receive during the missionary consecration. During Holy Week, this missionary shared that she saw Vinny again, but he was clean. She asked why he was there and he said that his friend left the halfway house they were in together, and he wanted to get him out of Kensington. She asked him if he still wore the crucifix that she gave him. Vinny shared that he didn’t wear it anymore, but instead he pinned it above his bed so he could always see it as a reminder of what God did for him. My highlight isn’t just this story, but all the stories the missionaries had when they came back from mission. They shared their faith and it grew! They shared their hearts with the other missionaries and friendships focused on Christ were formed! The young people that joined us mission had a fire in their heart for Jesus when they left and that is the greatest gift to witness.” – Malorie Leach
One of the missionaries who organized our Holy Week missions wrote a profound prayer at the end of Holy Week:
Lord Jesus,
Months of preparation paved the way for the Holy Spirit to enter into our mission and set our missionaries’ hearts on fire. May our meager preparations for this past mission be nothing compared to Your radical preparation of each of our hearts to be with You for all of eternity. May our sacrifices and preparations go unnoticed and eventually be completely forgotten. Any may Your work in each of our hearts be what’s remembered forever. Thank you Lord for allowing us to share in your mission and in doing so, to see your Sacred Heart, victorious and triumphant over all. We love you.
Amen.”
San Jose
Holy Week missions were powered primarily by RC young adults. We had outreach groups to homeless elderly and door to door visitations. We had a public way of the cross through the streets of downtown San Jose.
“My highlight was seeing the young people adults and children give bold witness to their faith while working with local parish realities.” – Fr. Kevin Lixey, LC
Washington D.C.
ECyD hosted high school holy week missions at Nativity Catholic Church, in Washington DC. The three-day missions included ‘light the city’ missions, street missions, live stations of the cross, a kids camp for the parish, and lots of formation. Mission Youth & Family and the Lumen group also prayed at the local abortion clinic and street missions.
Holy Week Missions 2024 Photo Gallery
