Next week is Ash Wednesday, and I am just squeaking under the wire with a Lent planner for you guys. Sorry I have been a bit distracted around here.
I don’t know about you, but I am going to go ahead and admit my conundrum with the Lenten season. I stink at sacrifice, quite honestly. Â I think Lent backfires a bit on us all-or-nothing, legalistic types.
I tend to hyper-focus on what I have given up and how to stick to the letter of the law, that God gets pushed out of the picture. So I need to find a way this year to offer up my sacrifice and focus more on prayer and growing closer to God. I would love to hear any tips you have for this.
The kids tend to anticipate Lent, because our parish does a great job preparing them for the meaning of the season with our annual Lent Day. Rice Bowls help with the meaning of giving alms, as does a visual aide for sacrifice, like a crown of thorns.
This year I would like to really work on our Rosary habit, and Lent is a good time to do that. There are Rosary and prayer resources on the Living Liturgy resources page.
Some Favorite Lenten Resources
As for Lent specifically, here are a few more resources to give you (and me) ideas for the season:
- Amongst Lovely Things : Preparing for a Simple Lent
- A Meaningful Lent: The Monstrously Long Post
- A Round-up of Lenten Resources
- A Family Journey with Jesus Through Lent: Prayers and Activities for Each Day
- The Way of the Cross for Children
- Pray the Liturgy of the Hours in Three Easy Steps
- Saint of the Day for Kids app review
The Lent Planner
You can download your Lent Planner here. I would love to hear how you plan to use it. What will you focus on this season?
Linking up with the Keep Love in Lent carnival hosted by these bloggers:
- YMB #101 Bethany Stuard: Choral Music the Great Room - March 29, 2023
- Using a Loop Schedule to Manage Multiple Kids in Your Homeschool - March 24, 2023
- Managing Multiple Kids with a Time Table - March 17, 2023
Hey Pam
Great links AND lovely planner!! Thank you SO much for sharing this.
You might like to link up with the catholic Bloggers’ network for the annual Keep Love in lent carnival. I’m organizing with Monica of Equipping Catholic Families and the linky tool for the hop will be on our blogs, as well as the blogs of 3 other ladies. Here’s the announcement post: http://campfiresandcleats.blogspot.com/2014/02/lent-2014-is-coming-here-are-all.html So many would benefit, Pam, from this post. 🙂
All the details as well as what we ask participants to inc in the post ( intro, button and our hosts’ blog urls for linking up) are in there. Hope to seer you there!
Hope all is well..:)
“See” you soon!
~Chris
Will do Chris. Thanks for the invite.
Read this the other day, you might enjoy getting something out of it, as well. http://www.sortacrunchy.net/sortacrunchy/2014/02/waiting-tables-observing-lent-with-a-servants-heart.html
I am intrigued and would love to follow the series, except there is no email subscription. :-/ Unfortunately my RSS goes too often ignored these days. I will never remember to check back.
I’ve been looking forward to this post! I’ve been clicking around and making list, but I haven’t done any planning yet. That is my goal for this week and weekend! Lent is hard! It is meant to be hard and that is why we struggle. I’m working on a book list, projects, sacrifices. We have a sacrifice jar in our house that everyone puts a pom-pom in when a sacrifice is made. The goal is to fill it up and on Easter Sunday morning the sacrifices are replaced with a treat (always starburst jelly beans). My goal is to teach my kids that making sacrifices is hard in the short term, but the benefits come in the long term. Making those sacrifices are challenging to everyone in the house. I try to make it simple. If I asked them to do a chore and they do it without complaining they can put a pom-pom in. Everyone decided on their own if a sacrifice has been made and something they need to ask me. I don’t supervise the pom-poms unless I feel like there has been some abuse. If someone complains about a task I simple say, “had you done that without complaining you could have earned a sacrifice.” After days (if not weeks) it starts to sink in. As a parent, I struggle with the sacrifice jar too. I try to challenge everyone on new ways for us to make sacrifices. It’s hard since we are all pretty selfish around here!
I like your version of the sacrifice jar Cassie — work without complaint. I like it so much I may have to borrow it.
Pam, I really appreciate your honesty. Your site is great and I am glad that I found you via the Keep Love in Lent. I published a 40 day Lenten calendar, that was adapted from our kindergarten teacher. Many adults made comments to me that is was intended for children. My thought is that if I can achieve these 40 small acts of kindness than I am doing pretty good. Glad to follow you. Peggy http://creatingspaceinyourlife.com/
Love your site and so glad to discover it. Your writing style is inviting and I call sense a generous spirit behind it. That’s confirmed by all the resources your furnish. Glad I found you!
The kids and I have been doing a decade of the rosary in the car on the way to school. It has been so awesome to hear them pray and talk about the different mysteries.