Lent is here!

So I have been running a little behind lately and I just cannot seem to catch up!! But ready or not, Lent is here so we are jumping in. Here are some of the things we have going on in our house.

I really enjoy the Stations of the Cross. It is one of my favorite prayers. This book does an amazing job of giving some background for the Stations and then going through them. Plus the pictures are beautiful and it has great kid-friendly prayers. We are going to read this book many times this Lent, I am sure.

This is the Traveling Chalice from church. A different parishioner (or family) takes it home every week to pray for vocations. It is our week. We have been doing our best to further vocations through prayer.

This is our crown of thorns (pre-baking). Every time someone does a good deed or sacrifice, that person gets to remove one of the toothpicks. In this way, we unite our small works with Christ. The crown will find a home on a platter with a purple cloth beneath (if I can find one), a candle (because my kids LOVE candles), and a small bowl to hold the thorns. The platter will reside on a bookshelf during the day and come down to the table during dinner for daily thorn removal. For more on a crown of thorns like this (and tons of other Lent ideas) check out Catholic Icing.

This is our Lenten Cross. This idea came from the book Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church, which I highly recommend. Every day of Lent (not Sunday's - those are extra) we have a symbol we put on and a reading from Scripture to go with it. I am not so good in the crafty department. I enjoy doing crafts, but I'm no amazing artist in any sense. But fortunately, kids are forgiving and do not mind my giant cross here made from cardboard and purple sticky notes. We are going to glue each of our symbols to the appropriate sticky note (as the sticky notes are stuck with tape). I went ahead and put the day number and the bible verse at the bottom of each note so we just need to add the symbols. Maybe next year I will be able to start my Lent planning a little earlier and come up with something that may last, year after year (such as my friend Monica did - yes, Monica, I found this idea on your blog and thought it was so awesome I bought the book and we are doing it as well - thank you dear friend!).

This is a close-up of the empty sticky notes (with the day number and verse at the bottom), awaiting their fulfillment :)

Here is the cross I mentioned in a previous post. As we do good deeds and sacrifices, I will write them (and the date) on a flower (which I still need to cut - no good deeds or sacrifices allowed yet! :) and then we will tape or glue it to the cross. I'm thinking we will do this throughout the day and then at dinner we will look back over the cross and have everyone pull out the appropriate number of thorns from our crown.

Also, at the foot of this cross we have our hands with the sacrifices we are planning to make for lent. (I say "planning" as I think we need to be open to where the Holy Spirit is leading us - in directions we had not anticipated. I also say "planning" as sometimes things come up and we are not able to do what we meant to for whatever reason and I believe it is important we don't get so hung up on not being able to do that particular thing at that particular time -if that makes sense.)

So there you have it - May your Lent be meaningful and come to fruition as we celebrate together on Easter!

Blessings!

'Yet even now,' says the Lord, 'Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your clothing.' Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. -Joel 2:12-13