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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
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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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Knowing Your Health Care Options

Do you have a local children's hospital?

Posted by Lisa Hendey in Health on Wednesday, February 03, 2010 7:12 PM

Yesterday, I went on a “mom field trip” to visit my new friend Genevieve who has the enviable job of “Social Media Coordinator” at our regional children’s hospital, Children’s Hospital of Central California.  In her newly created position, Genevieve is using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to better educate the families of the Central Valley about her hospital, but more importantly about health care in general.  This is one cool lady, doing a fantastic job that will impact lots of families living in our valley.

During our tour of the NICU, Genevieve and I spent some time talking about how we wished we had been more educated about our health care options during our pregnancies.  I must admit that I gave absolutely no consideration to that horrible “what if” question and would have been completely unprepared had my boys needed neonatal intensive care services.  I thought about strollers, clothing, and a car seat, but not about what I would have done if one of my babies needed immediate treatment following his birth.  One of the things that is great about Genevieve’s new job is that she will have a voice to help new and first time moms think about these types of things before they actually might need to make a decision.

Strolling through the NICU and seeing the care being given to those tiny little treasures made my heart swell.  No mother wants to see her newborn preemie hooked up to equipment, but thankfully there are places like the Children’s Hospital of Central California where skilled and dedicated doctors and nurses are ready and waiting to help our children.

Do you have a local children’s hospital?  Have you—during your pregnancies or even now that you have children—given any thought to where you would go in the event of a health care emergency or crisis in your family?  Let’s say a prayer today, on the Feast of St. Blaise, for all of those providing health care services to our families.

Comments
6
Filed under babies, health care, hospitals, pregnancy

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Christina on Wednesday, Feb 3, 2010 11:10 PM (EDT):

I used to live 15 minutes from a fantastic children’s hospital but luckily never needed it. Now I live 300 miles from one and I REALLY hope that I don’t need it. Any emergency medical care that requires a children’s hospital or specialty health services involves a helicopter ride. I haven’t given much thought to it except to think that if my child needed to be there I would either have to get an apartment and live away from the rest of my children, or only visit the hospitalized child once or twice a month. I hope to God I will never have to be in that position.

 
Posted by Arwen Mosher on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 12:26 AM (EDT):

We live about fifteen minutes from the nearby large university’s children’s hospital. It’s where Blaise stayed last year when he was sick. I hope we won’t need it again, but I’m very grateful that it’s there.

 
Posted by Claire on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 8:14 AM (EDT):

There are three hospitals in my area that have NICUs.  If I were to carry a pregnancy to term, I would definitely deliver at one of those.  The problem with delivering a a hospital that doesn’t have a NICU is that first of all there is no neonatologist on staff to stablize the baby if there’s a problem, and if the baby requires transfer to a hospital with a NICU, the insurance won’t pay for the mother to transfer.  So the mother and baby end up being separated.

 
Posted by Lucy on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 10:57 AM (EDT):

I’m delivering my 2nd baby at the only hospital that has a level III NICU. While I’m hoping I don’t need it (I’m 37 weeks, so the likelihood is definitely low), I am glad that it is there. And the best children’s hospital in the country, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is just about 45 minutes away, should we ever need it.

 
Posted by Lisa Hendey on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 12:10 PM (EDT):

Sounds as though you ladies have much more foresight than I had.  That’s great!!

 
Posted by Diane on Friday, Feb 5, 2010 12:14 PM (EDT):

Having three healthy babies, never dreamed of how a family’s life can be that has sick child.  When my daughter did get sick (she was spitting up blood), we were in an out of the Cleveland Clinic for almost a year before we found out the problem.  The social worker and Ronald McDonald’s presence in the hospital help us sooo much and we were so very grateful for them!!


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