Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Lenten Chain - Days 1-4

This is a picture of our Lenten chain. Each chain has something for us to do during each day of Lent to help us focus on this wonderful season leading up to Easter.

Feb 17 -Day 1: List five ways to help the poor during Lent.
The boys came up with the following list:
1. Give them some of our toys. (They will be going through their toy box and donating toys.)
2. Give them some food. (We sent a check to our local food ministry that will feed a Senior citizen for a year.)
3. Give them clothes. (We will be donating clothes.)
4. Give them money. (We will send money to a Catholic charity for this. The boys will contribute their allowance.)
5. Give them shelter. (We will contact Our Daily Rest, which is our local homeless shelter, to see what they need in ways of donations.)

In each of the above, the boys will be actively involved. Dennis and I want them to grow up helping others. We want them to be generous in heart and spirit.


Day 2: Take a snack for everyone in your class at school. (Since we live in a predominately non-Catholic area, this will give the boys a chance to explain to their teacher and classmates about Lent.)

Day 3: Write a letter from Jesus to you. Keep it in a safe place.

Day 4: Read a Bible story to your family.

I would encourage you to think about these tasks and perhaps join us in our Lenten journey. If you would like to make your own Lenten Chain, please feel free to email me and I will send you what we used for ours.

Have a blessed day!

Love,

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Lent is here


Lent is the period from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (forty days). Easter always falls on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25, roughly corresponding to the Northern Hemisphere's early spring. Ash Wednesday, which can fall anywhere between February 4 and March 10, occurs forty-six days before Easter, but Lent is nevertheless considered forty days long, because Sundays in this period are not counted among the days of Lent. The traditional reason for this is that fasting was considered inappropriate on Sunday, the day commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus. ~Wikipedia

I am a few days late in starting the countdown of Lent. The boys and I made our Lenten chain this morning and I will be following that each day.