Lent 2011

I'm excited about some of the things we have planned for Lent this year and wanted to share them here as a record for myself in coming years and also in case anyone else was interested in using some of them; namely because all of these ideas are ones I've gotten from others as well.  Not a whole lot of originality.  But why reinvent the wheel, right?

I have drawn from three main sources.  The books Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church and Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler and Catholic Icing's blog and subsequent linky's etc. (check out this post).

First off, I really like Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler's take on fasting. (quoting) "Your child is too young to fast, or understand the purpose if you have him "give up" something.  For example, abstaining from meat on Fridays may be something you do with him, and this is good.  But he will not understand its purpose when he is 1-4 years old!  ... Instead of 'giving up' for Lent, have him 'give out' food."  It goes on to explain a really neat activity that I've modified a bit to use with Gemma (3yrs).  While it has you having your child pick an (inexpensive)  grocery item each day to give to the poor at the end of Lent, we're actually going to use baby items.  I have some friends who run a pro-life outreach, so I bought a bunch of small baby items (socks, onesies, toys, teethers, sippy-cups, etc.) and Gemma will get to choose one on the days that we focus on "fasting" to put in a box for the babies and after Easter she'll get to deliver them with me.  I am hoping this will be just right for her, because some of the items are potentially things that she might like to have for herself but doesn't "need" (the cups, toys, etc.) so hopefully the message of generosity and giving to those in true need won't be lost on her.  It seems fairly age-appropriate in my mind (we'll see how it works in practice), and I think it will be more effective (for her) than food items would.

I made a Lent calendar for her from this template from Catholic Icing (again, love that site).  On each day I wrote either a "prayer", "fasting" or "alms" item, and we'll color each day purple as we go.

• The PRAYER days we will pray for things like peace, an end to abortion, grandparents, priests, etc.
• The FASTING days she will choose a baby item to give away.
• The ALMSGIVING days she will count a specific thing in our house (pillows, rooms, windows, etc.) and then put that number of "moneys" in a jar, also to be given to the pro-life outreach after Easter (this was another idea from Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler).

Then, I am using the Lenten Cross Readings idea from Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church.  I think most of the Scripture readings from this will be a bit above Gemma's head, but I still think it will be a really good family activity and something we can do as a family each Lent in years to come as well.  Basically, it is kind of like the Jesse Tree for Advent, only there are 40 images in the book that I copied, cut, colored, laminated and glued velcro on the back.  I made a big cross on a piece of sturdy foam poster-board, and attached 40 pieces of velcro to it as well.  Each day we will add an image, talk about its meaning, and read the corresponding Scripture, which follows the messianic prophecies through the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the Crucifixion narrative.  I (intend to) put a picture of the Risen Lord and "He is Risen, Alleluia" on the back, and we will flip the board around Easter morning at the end of our forty days to see what the Lord has done, how He makes all things new!  I am glad that I decided to make this more "permanent" so I don't have to either do it again or come up with something new next year.  I am really excited about this.  I don't read the Bible nearly as often as I should, so I think this "rich in Scripture" activity will be just perfect.

I plan to focus on one Station of the Cross each morning when we do our morning prayers.  I have a few children's stations books with good, age-appropriate meditations.  I'm hoping we can make it to Stations of the Cross once or twice at Church as well during the Lenten season.

Maybe next year Gemma will be old enough for this jelly bean activity.  I debated about it this year, but honestly I think she would just want to eat the jelly beans and would totally miss the point.  And that's not the kind of battle I want to fight all Lent.  So we'll see. 

And there you have it!  I'd love to see what others are doing.  Feel free to share any ideas in the comments section, and if you have a post you've done on Lent (this year or another) you can link it up on this Catholic Icing post as well.

BLESSINGS!