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Daily Lenten Meditations

«  March 2010  »

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
  • Pray Light a candle. Every time you pass that candle today, offer a prayer of thanks. Don’t ask for anything. Just thank him.
  • Fast Don’t cut corners. Even if no one will know, complete today’s work thoroughly.
  • Give Touch is a powerful thing. Make an effort today to touch your children: a hug, a shoulder rub, a tousled head -- especially the bigger ones
1
  • Pray Make five minutes in the morning, at midday and in the evening to be still, silent, and alone, only asking God to infuse your soul with his will.
  • Fast No noise today. Turn off the TV, the radio, the iPod. Find God in the silence.
  • Give Pay particular unsolicited attention to your least demanding child today.
2
  • Pray Begin a gratitude journal. At the end of the day, jot down five things for which you are grateful. Think upon these things.
  • Fast Remember the first time you had a moment alone with your first child. What did you promise him? Do that. Be that.
  • Give We can only expect what we inspect. For every task you assign today, follow through and before it’s truly finished ensure that there is praise from you.
3
  • Pray “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me." -- John 10:27
  • Fast Every time a child interrupts you today, stop what you are doing and look into his eyes as he talks.
  • Give “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” -- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Speak kindly all day long.
4
  • Pray Ask God to show you how weak and small you are. Open your heart to see it.
  • Fast Don’t argue today. As much as possible give up, give in, give way.
  • Give When you are tempted to put on the TV for kids today, pull out a stack of favorite picture books instead. Invite the kids to join you on the couch.
5
  • Pray Take a walk, even if it’s cold or raining. Leave your iPod at home.
  • Fast Think of someone whose life you are tempted to envy and then choke out these words: Thank you, God, for the blessings you have given to X. Help me to see my own.
  • Give Think about the kind of person your husband married. Be that person for him today.
6
7
  • Pray "Love consumes us only in the measure of our self-surrender." -- St. Therese of Lisieux
  • Fast As you go about your daily routine today, remember that you are expecting someone very important for dinner tonight. Together with your children, work towards your husband’s homecoming as if you were expecting to welcome a king back to his castle.
  • Give “You can do nothing with children unless you win their confidence and love by bringing them into touch with oneself, by breaking through all the hindrances that keep them at a distance. We must accommodate ourselves to their tastes, we must make ourselves like them.” -- St. John Bosco
8
  • Pray Take this quote to prayer today and listen to God’s answer: “Real love is demanding. I would fail in my mission if I did not tell you so. Love demands a personal commitment to the will of God.” -- John Paul II
  • Fast Stop looking for encouragement and approval. Genuinely encourage and affirm someone else instead.
  • Give Let your child choose a huge stack of picture books (use that word “huge” when you ask her to gather them). Read them all to her today.
9
  • Pray Persevere. “He who does not give up prayer cannot possibly continue to offend God habitually. Either he will give up prayer, or he will give up sinning.” -- St. Alphonsus Liguori
  • Fast Don’t forget that the only pedestal you need ever stand on, is the one your husband and children build for you.
  • Give Focus on your home today. The world can find another volunteer, but your husband and children have only you.
10
  • Pray Insist on quiet from all your children during naptime today. Pray the Divine Mercy chaplet.
  • Fast We’re half way through. Compare yourself now only to yourself when Lent began. Tweak the plan.
  • Give Reach out to a local friend today. Reconnect.
11
  • Pray Ask God to make you humble and lowly.
  • Fast Don’t compare or complain. Do compliment.
  • Give Pack a picnic and go somewhere to eat it with your children. If the weather is prohibitive, build a tent in the living room and it eat there. Sit on the ground with them. Be fully present.
12
  • Pray Sometime before bedtime tonight, make time to pray with and for each of your children.
  • Fast Rise a little earlier and bring your husband breakfast in bed. (If it’s too late today, plan for tomorrow).
  • Give Plan a date night.
13
14
  • Pray Give thanks for food, clothes, and shelter. Listen to His plan for stewardship.
  • Fast Clean out the refrigerator today instead of eating lunch. Pull everything out and wipe it all down. As you do it, thank God for the food he provides for your family.
  • Give “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” -- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
15
  • Pray Before you read or do anything else today, pray this prayer, taken from the writings of St. Louis de Montfort: Lord, help me to imitate Mary's deep humility, lively faith, blind obedience, unceasing prayer, constant self-denial, surpassing purity, ardent love, heroic patience, angelic kindness, and heavenly wisdom. Amen.
  • Fast Give up thinking things have to be perfect.
  • Give As you do laundry today, bless the person for whom you are folding. With every crease, offer a prayer.
16
  • Pray For a few minutes tonight, after your children are sleeping, kneel beside their beds. Let your breath rise and fall with theirs. Entrust them to the Father and thank him for lending them to you.
  • Fast Let go of self-recrimination. “There is still time for endurance, time for patience, time for healing, time for change. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand among sinners, but leap aside.” -- St. Basil the Great
  • Give Do not say “In a minute” or “When I finish this” at all today. Instead, put aside your agenda and meet their needs (and even some wants) immediately and cheerfully.
17
  • Pray Pray to know how God wants you to spend your time today.
  • Fast Let go of despair and know that God gives you sufficient grace. "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." -- St. Francis of Assisi
  • Give Make sure that every one in your family gets at least one of your hugs today.
18
  • Pray Is there someone who inspires feelings of inferiority in you? Offer a Memorare for her intentions.
  • Fast Refrain from self promotion. “The only way to make rapid progress along the path of divine love is to remain very little and to put all our trust in Almighty God. That is what I have done.” -- St. Therese of Lisieux
  • Give Page through your wedding album with your children today. Remember how loved you felt that day. Love your family well.
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Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea: Musings of a Catholic Mom (Pauline 2005) and Mom to Mom, Day to Day: Advice and Support for Catholic Living (Pauline 2007). Though she once struggled to separate her life …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and together they are the parents of five lively boys. Besides being a mom, she is also a writer and a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has maintained her personal blog at Testosterhome.net where she …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, a Catholic web site focusing on the Catholic faith, Catholic parenting and family life, and Catholic cultural topics. Most recently she has authored The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also employed as webmaster for her parish web sites. …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their young children Camilla and Blaise. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site is ABC Family. …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is the managing editor of Faith & Family magazine. She is (yikes!) an almost 30 year-old, single lady, living in Connecticut with her two cousins in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law …
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Hallie Lord

Hallie Lord
Hallie Lord married her dashing husband, Dan, in the fall of 2001 (the same year, coincidentally, that she joyfully converted to the Catholic faith). They now happily reside in the deep South with their two energetic boys and two very sassy girls. In her *ample* spare time, Hallie enjoys cheap wine, …
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Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr John Bartunek, LC, STL, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and …
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Guest Bloggers

Melissa Wiley

Melissa Wiley
Melissa Wiley is a homeschooling mother of six and the author of The Martha Years and The Charlotte Years, two series of books about the ancestors of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She blogs about children’s books, family, and home education at Here in the Bonny Glen.
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A Rotten Choice

NBC nixes pro-life ad

UPDATED WITH IMPORTANT CONTACT INFORMATION

You’ve most likely seen the incredible pro-life video produced by CatholicVote.org that has exploded on the Internet and has also run as a commercial on BET television.

If not, be sure and get a good look here because unfortunately, you won’t be seeing it on the airwaves, not this Sunday anyway.

NBC-TV, the broadcast network showing the Superbowl this weekend, had initially given permission to run the ad, and then later withdrew, saying it was going to avoid “political or advocacy ads.” You can read more about this here.

All of this leaves me thinking one thing: you can’t handle the truth!

I’m not trying to be glib. That’s simply the thought that comes to mind each time I see this beautiful message. It just flies in the face of everything abortion advocates stand for—and it also proves the message of the pro-life camp.

God is bigger than any problem you have in this moment. Life always trumps everything else. Imagine the potential.

UPDATED TO ADD: Here is the contact information provided by Julie at Happy Catholic. Thanks for the tip, Ambrose!

Through some internet detective work I dug up some useful contact information for the folks over at NBC Television. I emailed John Miller, NBC’s Chief Marketing Officer and Jeff Zucker, the CEO regarding the decision to pull the CatholicVote.org pro-life ad. John was kind enough to email back and suggest that I contact Sales or Broadcast Standards as they are the divisions that make calls on commercials. Unfortunately he didn’t provide me with any names, but I have turned up the following list. I suggest we unleash the power of St. Blog’s to make sure the NBC execs know how we really feel.

Jeff.Zucker@nbcuni.com
President and CEO, NBC Universal

Jeff.Gaspin@nbcuni.com
President and COO, Universal Television Group

Kenneth.Schanzer@nbcuni.com
President, NBC Sports

Derek.Bond@nbcuni.com
Executive VP Studios & Broadcast Operations

(Barbara) Bo.Argentino@nbcuni.com
Senior VP Advertising & Media Sales, NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution

Scot.Chastain@nbcuni.com
VP Affiliate Advertising and Promotion Services, NBC Entertainment

Dick.Ebersol@nbcuni.com
Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics

Mike.McCarley@nbcuni.com
VP Communications and Marketing, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics

Jacky.Olitsky@nbcuni.com
Director of Program Standards

 


Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 

Life.  Imagine the Potential.  Imagine the lives that could have been saved by the airing of this wonderful video.

 

That’s completely outrageous.  Hence, we will be boycotting the Superbowl.

 

NBC trying to avoid politics during the Super Bowl?  Then why is Matt Lauer from the Today Show interview President Obama on Sunday night?  Yeah right, NBC knows who lines their pockets!

 

What a bummer! It’s such a great ad; I’m really disappointed, but not surprised, in NBC’s decision.

 

I agree with all of the above. Is there something being done about this decision? I haven’t heard this news anywhere else. Can we spread the word and encourage a boycott that’s wide spread enough to make an impact, or post an email address to send NBC comments expressing our disappointment etc? This info should be flying though the Christian/Catholic email network to encourage people to act BEFORE Sunday. After that our opinion doesn’t matter much smile

We are going to need to become even more proactive and MUCH quicker to respond, because I think there are going to be some major hurdles created over the next four yeas that will hinder our ability to get a strong pro-family message out there.

 

Julie, the Happy Catholic Blogger has some contact information on her blog to write to NBC to complain.  I think even if they won’t run the ad, they should know that families watching the Super Bowl prefer the Pro-Life ad over GoDaddy.com or E.D. ads. 
I think we should strive to make much noise as we can and perhaps at least get some people to seek out this ad out of curiosity on You Tube.

 

This is outrageous. Should we boycott NBC?

 

Hello NBC.  I hope you will change your minds, and allow “Life. Imagine the Potential” air during the Super Bowl.  Right now, in the U.S., we are killing 330 unborn babies every day.  If we are ever to become a great nation again, this has to end.  The public needs to know.

 

By not running it they are being political and advocating not giving people the choice to make their own decisions regarding politics and life.

 

What a great pity it won’t be shown . The perfect picture of the beating tiny heart is unmatched .
Saddened ....;.

 

I always like to read something like this. That is usually a bit hard to find valuable information on the internet. And I found your post using Yahoo and I can say I the time spent was worth reading.

 

No, no body tried to get Bush to set a time table to get out of Afghanistan. But, Someone has forgotten how the Democrats screamed (almost as loud as the mobs shouting about health care) about Iraq.The answer to your question is that Obama doesn’t have a exit strategy in Afghanistan. The troops will not be coming home anytime soon and more will be sent over, you can bet on that.


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