Lent 2012

I realize that we are eighteen days into this Lenten season, but I'm going to post this anyways because I'd started it so much earlier and already invested a significant amount of time.

Wait! What I meant to say was that, if you are needing a little pick me up to reassert your heart into your Lenten efforts, these might get your creative juices flowing. Also, you can think of us and pray for us on our Lenten journey. Please?

The above crown is a reminder of Jesus' passion and death which demonstrates his great obedience to the Father as well as his tremendous love for us. I like to use it during Lent to remind myself and the kids that our sacrifices and trials are nothing compared to Jesus'.

As Saint John of the Cross put it..."Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent." (YIKES)

I made this out of a grapevine wreath I bought at Michael's (I think it was like $2.99) and then I cut thin, flat wooden craft sticks into pointy tips and colored them with brown and black marker. I got the idea from here and hers is fantastic. Each time the kids do something nice or sacrificial for another family member, they remove a thorn from the crown. On Easter morning, the bowl of thorns will be replaced with candy as a way to celebrate the selflessness they practiced.

This is our traditional Lenten calendar. You might remember last year's. Bubbles and Prez love that they can see the "road" ahead of them and it gives them hope to make it to each Sunday (not officially part of the Lenten 40 days) and then of course to the "Alleluia", as Prez puts it. In our effort to pray more, as Jesus did for 40 days in the desert and in the Garden of Gethsemane, we each wrote down the names people that needed prayers. Each night, we pull from those names and pray for that specific person or group of people. Below each day, we do a different form of spiritual discipline. Mondays is a Bible story, Tuesday a saint's story, Wednesday a rosary (sorrowful mysteries only during Lent), Thursday is a chaplet, Friday the stations of the cross, on Saturday we prepare the Sunday readings, and on Sunday we arrive early to Mass for extra prayer time. It's definitely a lot of discipline to do these, but the kids like the variety and I do too.

Below are some signs I've posted around the house to keep our minds focused on discernment this Lent. I love that Lent is a time to remember obedience. Yes, Jesus loved us enough to die for us, and God loved us enough to send his only Son, but without perfect obedience to the will of the Father, the resurrection would never have happened. So, I often wonder what sort of "resurrections" God has in store for me if I would just surrender to his plan, even if in my eyes it seems like it might hurt a bit.

By the way, these signs were a gift from my dear friend, Mitzi. She shared a great idea the Holy Spirit gave her and now we've used them every year as part of our Lenten practices. :)




Another Lenten practice is that of alms giving. In Matthew 6:2 - 4, Jesus teaches about how to gives alms. "When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

This Scripture speaks volumes because Jesus says, "WHEN you give alms, meaning that He is expecting us to DO THIS."

One way we practice almsgiving is by having a box in the kitchen. I put some motivational quotes on the edges and I rotate it every day or so. When it comes time to cook, we look for ways to scrimp on what we would like and offer that to the box to be given to a family in need for Easter. For example, we had pasta tonight. Bubble's favorite is Alfredo. We had a jar of Alfredo sauce in the pantry, but we put that in the box and just opened a can of tomato sauce that we added basil and garlic too. Bubbles really wanted cupcakes the other day. We put the cake mix in the box to be donated this Easter and instead Bubbles ate an apple with honey. One last example, Prez likes green beans so instead of choosing green beans for the veggie the other night, he put that can in the box and we had peas instead. We will either drop it off at a food pantry to donate or ask Father for a family in our parish that needs the food.




On a final note, anything you can do to prepare yourself spiritually for Easter, will reap great spiritual benefit for you and those whom you are praying for. I tell the kids that even though some of the 40 days it seems hard to do the extra praying, fasting, and almsgiving, to remember that the church denotes 50 days to celebrate Easter! That means that even after Easter Sunday, we will have 49 more days of Easter egg hunts, dying eggs, and feasting. Yeah! So hang in there. Christ did and so can you!