Think of Lent as a time to prepare your soul for true mercy and repentance. These 40 days of sorrow precede our celebration of Holy Week and Easter. It is a good time in the liturgical calendar to be serious with your family's commitment to your Catholic faith. But it doesn't have to be dreaded or mournful. I hope the activities you find here and elsewhere promote the lessons of forgiveness and love, which bring about joy! Make your "Faithful Friday" about giving alms, bible study, prayerful Stations of the Cross, alongside your meatless mealtime.
Gluten Free Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) Celebration
American Catholic: Catholic Roots of Mardi Gras
Activity
Brazil's Carnival and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are the same festivity that occurs the week before Lent begins. This year we are studying the (75% Roman Catholic) Brazil, so we will be celebrating with music, dancing and food! Youtube will be our first stop for watching/learning Samba dancing. And a children's movie "Rio." I am sensing the girls will want to wear the masks they made last fall.
Breakfast
Gluten Free Pancakes from Catholic Cuisine (or buy a box)
>Just add the royal gold, purple and green colors to your batter. purple, a symbol of justice; green, representing faith; and gold, to signify power.
Or perhaps: Sweet Potato Pancakes, green onions and purple grapes with sausage.
Lunch
Turkey Lettuce Wraps, with Blueberries/Blackberries with mandarin oranges & Kiwi
Snack
This year we need to get dirty. We'll dig our hands into some GF DUST CAKE we spotted on Catholic Cuisine. I'll modify using A gluten free box mix, sugar free chocolate pudding and gluten free pretzels (the "arms in prayer" shaped pretzels). After the cake is cooled, have the children break it up, add some pudding and crush the pretzels on top. We'll discuss the dirtiness of sin as we eat, then wash up with our soap bottle, labeled with a quote about repentance from my post in progress HOLY HOUSEHOLD.
Supper
Sage Ground Beef with Sautéed Rosemary Red Cabbage, Apple & Onion. Mix Together - mmm delish!
ASH WEDNESDAY
Activity
We will also open up a SACRIFICE BIN to hold at least one item we will promise not to use during Lent. This has been very effective in the past. It is brought back out on Easter morning!
Food
On Ash Wed, Catholics traditionally fast and abstain from meat. Those of us on a nutritious diet know that fasting isn't for everyone, especially diabetics. Children under 16 and those with health issues are not required to fast. So while we will abstain from meat on Ash Wed and Fridays during Lent, there are some great choices we will humbly enjoy in small portions. As you can see, these are small servings with no snacks in-between.
>BREAKFAST: Egg white omelets
>LUNCH: Cucumber Canoes w/ Tuna from The Michalek Kitchen
>SUPPER: Salmon Patties over steamed asparagus and quinoa
40 DAYS of LENT
Loyola Press: 40 Activities for 40 Days of Lent
Bible Study
Countdowns are the most effective way to teach children when you are awaiting something. That is why we have Our Forever Tree that hosts all of our countdown activities. The Jesus Tree is a printable I created to use as flashcards during the 40 days of Lent. Complete with Bible verse, title and image. Have children hang the cards in a special place after you read them.
Something new this year, we got a sample of The Jesse Box which we will be reviewing. I am very excited about this fun pre-planned way to tell the stories of Jesus to our children in an interactive format. The paper characters are cut by the children, and slid over wood cones. I like that you can reprint the images if they wear out, or to cut again next year. We set the scene together in the quality diorama boxes, and then read the story aloud while they play. It's very family friendly.
It is very similar to the one we have from Catholic Icing which I wrote about in this post.
Stations of the Cross
The Stations of the Cross are such a perfect tool for sharing the story of Jesus' journey towards Mt. Calvary. To aid with a visual, you might consider this Stations of the Cross Printable I created, with directions. As you can see, we have our stations lined up in a prominant place, along with our crown of thorns, Jesus Tree cards, and Stations flash cards. The toothpick thorns will be removed and placed in the center when a sacrifice has been made, or family prayer time is kept. The purple placemat with the Stations images and prayer is available at Sanctus Simplicitus.
Another Cross activity that was very meaningful for our children was "The Crosses We Carry." They actually carried wood crosses during Lent, then gave them new life during Easter. It is meant to be a humbling experience, and the children grew to love their dirty cross and brought it often to town. What a chance to be a witness!
For my toddlers, they enjoy matching up objects with the Stations pictures. This hands-on activity has been a favorite for a few years. Stored quickly away in a file folder and egg carton. I just reprinted and laminated the cards this week. The ones we have are no longer avail to print for free, but CatholicIcing.com has a few other options. More at The Kids Bulletin .
Reconciliation
I encourage everyone to have at least one family visit to confessions. By going together, you set a good example as parents and older kids to the younger ones that this is something we NEED to do. The activities below are great for all ages.
1st Reconciliation Activities (great for review too)
Are You Prepared? Wisdom & Virtue for the last days
Dry Erase Board: Have you children make fingerprints across a sheet of paper as a border. Write "God Wipes Away Our Sins." Laminate and use dry erase markers to write on it and wipe off clean. (from the Our Father VBS lesson)
Keeping LOVE in LENT Blog Link-Up 2013
Hosted by Raising (& Teaching) Little Saints, Truly Rich Mom and Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families. We'll be sharing different ways, tips, stories and real-life experiences that will help us focus on Lenten sacrifices, prayer and good deeds, and how to carry them out with LOVE instead of a GRUMBLE. Click on the logo to check it out!
Also, you can follow me and others at the Catholic Bloggers' Network
**NEW HOLY WEEK & EASTER IDEAS will be in another post. Until then, see Holy Week & Easter 2012