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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.
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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.
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Easy Costume Ideas

great ways to make do -- for Halloween and All Saints

Posted by Danielle Bean in Family on Monday, October 27, 2008 6:53 AM

It’s that time of year again. As the poll we have going in the sidebar indicates, in late October many Catholic moms find themselves preparing to celebrate Halloween, All Saints Day, or some combination of the two.

And that means COSTUMES.

Have you been sewing for weeks and now your little cherubs are decked out as perfect likenesses of St. Cecilia, St. Anthony, and Barney the dinosaur? If so, congratulations. We love you and we’ll see you at the party, but this post is not for you.

This post is for the rest of us—those of us who go light on the seamstress skills and heavy on the glue-gunning and safety pinning with a splash of makeup and an occasional prop this time of year. Don’t be shy. I’m right there with you.

If you have a clutch of children to outfit before the end of the week and are in full panic mode already, Susie Lloyd’s All Saints Day round-up in the September/October 2008 issue of Faith & Family magazine is a great place to find practical tips and inspiration.

Other places to find ideas are Living Catholicism and Waltzing Matilda.

My own advice for manic moms wielding hot glue guns and panicked expressions this week?

  • Be original. Coming up with a creative idea can be a major labor-saver. One year, we pinned stuffed animals to an old t-shirt and gave Eamon a cotton beard to make him an instant Noah—and the talk of the party.

  • Buy it. Not everyone can afford the gorgeous costumes available at Our Coats of Many Colors—but if you can ... go for it! They’re lovely and you’ll be supporting a small family business. You can also buy costumes elsewhere and adapt them to suit your purposes. Thrift shops can be great for this. I found an adorable lion suit in a thrift shop last year and for about $5 I turned 2-year-old Raphael into his older brother “Daniel’s” companion.

  • Give props. The right props and accessories can really “make” the costume so that you won’t have to sweat the other details. It was easy to turn our own Stephen into his martyred namesake, for instance, with a large rock and some fake blood. I even got bonus points for the gory coolness!

  • Relax. This is supposed to be fun, not stressful. Letting the kids join in the brainstorming and costume design can take the pressure off of you. The results might not be “perfect” but your kids will enjoy every minute of it. And in the end, the Butterfinger bars they collect will taste every bit as good.

How about you? What costumes are you whipping up this year and what are your Halloween and All Saints Day tips?


our holy handful last year

top photo credit: Hub Willson

Comments
8
Filed under all saints, costumes, halloween, liturgical year

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Mary L. on Monday, Oct 27, 2008 1:33 PM (EDT):

We always plan a big celebration for All Saints Day… We plan a party, put up decorations (Saints feast days, pictures and symbols in art), dress-up and play lots of games [swing the ‘Saint’, Do you love your neighbor?, Saints charades, Saint jeopardy, What Saint am I? etc.]
  We make easy Saint costumes out of dress-up clothes. This year we have a St. Cecelia, St. Judith, all 3 Archangels, St. Pio, St.Patrick, St. Ann, St. Barbara, and St. Agnes represented.
In the past, we had a great St. Lawrence—a tee shirt with black and orange marker lines for the ‘grilled’ St., rubber-tipped arrows glued to a tee—St. Sebastian, a pinned black skirt makes a great nun’s habit..etc.
Happy All Saints everyone!

 
Posted by Margaret on Monday, Oct 27, 2008 3:37 PM (EDT):

My sophomore wasn’t going as anything until he remembered that he needed to be in costume for the Boy Scout Halloween party tonight—the Scouts are all expected to dress as something for the amusement of the little kids at said party.  The last-minute costume will be: Charlie Brown.  Already have black shorts.  Picked up a yellow t-shirt today at Michaels ($2.50 on sale!) and still need to get a roll of wide black tape at the hardware store to add stripes.  Done.  Phew.

 
Posted by Emily on Monday, Oct 27, 2008 5:26 PM (EDT):

I’m lucky, for some unknown reason my husband has taken responsibility for helping with any child wanting a homemade custom. grin

I’ve excused myself from finding/making a costume for the four month old, the two, five and seven year olds are wearing hand-me-down costumes [polar bear, pink poodle and alligator] and my husband and ten year old will be making a tiger costume using a large orange t-shirt plus black and white felt (plus face paint and purchased ears and tail).

I’m looking forward to seeing the end results!

 
Posted by Beth on Monday, Oct 27, 2008 5:48 PM (EDT):

Mary L—LOVE the St. Lawrence.  your home sounds wonderful—full of love and FAITH!

 
Posted by Kate Wicker on Tuesday, Oct 28, 2008 12:19 PM (EDT):

Our homeschooling co-op celebrated All Saints’ Day last Friday, and we included a saintly treasure hunt for the kids that was supposed to get them thinking about how we’re all called to be saints and that our true treasure is eternal happiness with God in heaven. Of course, the “treasure” at the end of this hunt was a goody bag. I’ve included the clues for the hunt on my blog, and they could be easily adapted for family use.

If anyone is interested, you can find them here.

God bless!

 
Posted by Beth on Tuesday, Oct 28, 2008 12:44 PM (EDT):

Kate—thanks so much for your All Saints Treasure Hunt!  I did something similar for our 8th graders the past couple years for our Resurrection parties at school.  They loved it.  I will be tweaking your format to fit my family for this Saturday’s celebration.

 
Posted by Kristy on Monday, Oct 12, 2009 10:34 AM (EDT):

During Halloween, people prepare for scary costumes especially kids. They would going out with their Halloween costumes and going house to house to do trick or treating. So don’t be left out in getting your own scary costumes.

 
Posted by john walter on Thursday, Feb 25, 2010 2:41 AM (EDT):

i guess there is big celebration going on over there and kids are fantastic in their Costume especially the boy with the stick looks cute .for halloween they are wearing weird stuff


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