Lent 2012

Lent is here!!  I had hoped to get this published before but I have just barely finished preparations for us to begin today.

 I will begin with perhaps my favorite lent activity.  I put this big cross up on the wall (made from brown construction paper). Each day, as we do good deeds, keeping our lenten resolutions and such, we get to put flowers up on it.  (See picture below for the flowers my daughter will hopefully be cutting soon - as she is old enough to be really helpful like that now and does not seem to mind so much.)  I believe I found the idea through a blog called Catholic Icing last year.  (Tangent: Catholic Icing has LOTS of good stuff, for Lent and for all the time.)  The direct link, however, is here.

As you can see in this second picture, I added a few "suggestions" for lenten sacrifices.  They are the Spiritual Works of Mercy and the Corporal Works of Mercy.  Now I don't anticipate us doing ALL of them, by any means and the words are BIG for my kids (Admonish the sinner, etc) but I'm hoping I can link some of their deeds to these such as to forgive offences willingly, or to comfort the afflicted.  At the least it spurs discussion and explanation, I hope.

I also have my hand there with my own personal lenten resolutions.  Last year we did hands for the whole family, but the younger ones just don't seem to "get it." And I don't want to push them.  Maybe as the season progresses they will show more interest.  Rebekah, however, has her hand there, as well.

The three charts with the sun in the background we got from church.  They came with a set of stickers.  There is a numerical sticker (a cross or a lamb or a cloud, etc) for each day of lent that the kids can each stick on their respective chart. Then there is an empty tomb and Jesus for Easter.

 We also have one Lenten Countdown page.  We did these last year, but having one for each child was a bit much as the younger ones really were not so into it.  I almost skipped it this year as we have the sticker charts, but I thought they might enjoy being able to see how much is left.

Above the Lenten Countdown we have our memory verse.  This is a concept I borrowed from my friend, Monica.  It is the responsorial psalm from Sunday.  Well, it is supposed to be, anyhow.  For Ash Wednesday and the rest of this week I chose the responsorial psalm from Ash Wednesday: Be Merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.  (Psalm 51).

 Next up we have our crown of thorns that loosely corresponds with the flowers on our wall cross.  Each good deed done means the child gets to pull out one of the thorns.  Last year I baked my crown of thorns and I think that looked a little better, but I was running low on flour and time this year, so I tried making it out of play dough.  I'm not overly impressed with the result, but it works.  I should have put in less blue and probably took a little more care in rolling.  Also, as it dries, it is starting to crack, but it still works.  Our candles are rather humble, but I had to fit four (as you may recall from my earlier post, our prayer time REQUIRES four candles so each child can blow one out) and these were the four I could fit.  I would like to add a small cross to the center but as if yet I had not found/made one.

We light the wreath when we say our prayers. I posted earlier about our Family Prayer Time that is really working for us.  For Lent we do pretty-much the same set-up, but with a lenten reflection from Welcome Risen Jesus.  I'm trying to get us all up earlier so we can pray that reflection in the morning, before school, and have all day for the action part.  It worked today, but I imagine getting up early is a battle to be fought one day at a time.

Finally, I am eager to read The Story of the Cross again as we discovered it last year and enjoy it a lot.

That's all I have for now.  I hope your lent is fruitful and leads you closer to Christ!

Create a clean heart in me, O God.

-Renew in me a steadfast spirit.