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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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Bloggers

Meet the Faith & Family bloggers. We invite you to join us in encouraging and helping the Faith & Family community grow in faith!

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.
Read My Posts

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Chocolate Cake in a Mug

5 minutes to sweet satisfaction

It sounded too good to be true.

Chocolate cake in 5 minutes? When I saw the recipe around the internet, it intrigued me.

Then, when Michelle emailed me the recipe, I knew it was meant to be.

I picked a bleak afternoon (those are rather easy to come by these December days) and told some of the boys we were going to make chocolate cake. In a coffee mug. In five minutes.

They were game.

1 large coffee mug, sprayed with non-stick spray or lightly greased with shortening
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
Small splash of vanilla
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Make sure the tablespoon measurements are level - not heaping! Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high heat). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! Allow to cool a little before eating.

You can tip the cake out onto a plate if you like.

I tasted just a little before handing it over to the boys. It was moist and delicious—pretty amazing for five minutes!

The boys thought so too. It looks like we’ll have to make another.


Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 

I have five minutes and a mug…and am badly in need of chocolate already today.  This just might be breakfast in Fresno!  Thanks for sharing.  Lisa

 

This is great! Thanks for sharing. I’m a total “chocoholic!” =)

 

Yummm!!  I made one of these a couple months ago and it was soooo, soooo good!

 

Okay bakers and food chemists—-can I sub melted butter for the oil?  I usually cannot buy American-style cooking oil.

 

One of the recipes I saw online substituted sour cream for the oil, so I bet the butter would work. Have fun experimenting, and let us know!

 

Hey!  You have my plates!!

wink

 

hello christmas presents!

 

WOW!  This was way too easy for a chocoholic!  I just made one to share w/ my three oldest munchkins.  I was out of chocolate chips, so I added some mini M & M’s.  We loved it!  Thanks for helping w/ my chocolate fix today, Danielle!

 

I have those plates, too!

 

Gotta love the Corelle, eh?

Here’s another recipe note: The kids made some of these again this afternoon and they skipped the non-stick spray. The cake still came out of the cups just fine.

 

For the “scientific” question—oil is 100% fat. Butter is about 80% fat, rest is water. YOu can probably substitute, because both are liquids… If it doesn’t work, try 1T. more butter, and 1 T. less milk, to even out the fat ratio. I recommend you do NOT use margarines or “spreads” that are less than 70% fat…you will notice a difference.

 

We tried this as soon as I read it.  It was yummy, but my kids came up with another idea that is even more amazing.  Pour hot fudge over the cake in the mug after you remove it from the microwave.  Then turn it on to a plate.  Better still…you can even top it all off with ice cream.
And the Corelle plates…we have the same ones, too.  (It must be a sign of a good Catholic family.)

 

I made this last night, and this is totally unorthodox, but I discovered at the last minute I was out of cocoa, so I made it with six tablespoons of Swiss Miss cocoa instead of the sugar and baking cocoa, then sliced it up, arranged it in layers, and sprinkled powdered sugar and chocolate chips on it. My family loved it! This is such a cute, and easy, recipe!

 

I didn’t have baking cocoa, and don’t like over chocolate-y desserts much anyway. So I made this as a “yellow cake” with extra vanilla in it. But when I told my husband I was making “that five-minute chocolate cake without any chocolate in it,” he replied that for supper we should have beans and rice without the beans and stuffing without the bread. Smarty pants. The cake was good anyway.

—SJ

 

I don’t know what happened, but ours was really disgusting.  Somewhat like a chocolate kitchen sponge.  My daughter was calling it “yuck in a cup”.

 

My son and I made a different version of the same thing using hot cocoa mix about a month ago. He must have liked it because he just asked me if we could make it again. I didn’t think it looked that great.

 

Thank you for the yummy (and overly-exciting to my 5) Epiphany treat!

 

I know there are tons of websites with chocolate cake recipes. I’ve found a great one. This chocolate cake with chocolate cream cream frosting is amazing. I would like to see if anyone out there also have an amazing chocolate cake recipe that they love. The kind of cake I love is just slightly dense with a rich, rich chocolate taste that will make you swoom.Oster Breadmakers

 

Chocolate rarely causes any harm to our system except in a few cases of allergy.
Looking for cakes in Adelaide? Get unique, great and artistic cakes at Cakes Business. Special cakes are made fresh everyday!


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