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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
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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 …
Read My Posts

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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Small Successes (6)

What did you get right this week?

It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that.

To participate, just write up a list of 3 of your recent Small Successes and post it on your blog along with the Small Successes button (go here to get the code). You are not required to use the button, but please do link back to the main post here. Then you can add your blog here using the Mr. Linky form (please link to the individual blog post, not the home page of your blog).

If you don’t have a blog, you can share your Small Successes in the comments.

To get us started, here are my Small Successes for this week:

1. I used the post office. To mail packages. With handwritten notes inside of them. I amaze myself.

2. No ponytails! I have been wearing my hair down and styling it each day, even if I am not going anywhere. Schlepping it into a ponytail every day was practical but dowdy and I knew it. Little effort, big pay off in how I look and feel.

3. I had only one small piece of the infamous “Look at it for Too Long and You’ll Gain 3 Pounds” coconut cake. I put the leftover pieces in the freezer on Tuesday night. And I only thought about them maybe 67 or 68 times on Ash Wednesday. Just a slight edge over the number of times I thought about bacon double cheeseburgers (which I only ever think about on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday). I know, I know, I rock.

Now you share yours. I really enjoy reading everyone’s contributions each week. Thanks for playing!

 


Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 

Handwritten notes, resisting coconut cake, stylish hair…you DO rock!

I look forward to celebrating others’ successes.

Blessings!

 

So I’m not the only one who dreams of greasy—or really, ANY kind—of red meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and every Friday of Lent?  Really?  Danielle, YOU DO ROCK!  smile

And maybe you will inspire me to get a haircut so I CAN wear my hair down in the coming weeks.  I need that reminder and external encouragement (my 4yo has been telling me for two weeks that I need a haircut, but she’s a bit easier to, um, ignore on that front).  smile

 

I ironed a patch on my jeans AND ironed the half dozen shirts that had been waiting for about a year to be pressed.

I didn’t freak out my husband with my financial worries after paying the bills thereby sending him into a hysterical spiral. Instead I decided to pick a good time to talk to him about it and start with the positive. (It’s only taken me 13 years to learn this!)

I cleaned two windows so that you can actually see the outside from inside!

 

Gotta think hard this week:
1 - delivered dinner and dessert on time to a friend and her family the day she had outpatient surgery.
2 - with the toddlers’ help, had the playroom neat and clean for when Hubby got home from work yesterday.
3 - actually put the laundry away rather than digging theough the baskets all week.

 

Here are my small successes:

http://moss-place.stblogs.org/archives/2009/02/small-success-t.html

 

I too dreamed of cheeseburgers on Ash Wednesday. Isn’t it funny how we always want something when we can’t have it? Thanks for hosting Small Successes every week. God bless.

 

I was so happy to read Danielle’s - I thought I was the only one who was continually thinking, ok, dreaming of food yesterday!

 

Thanks Danielle,
Didn’t realize until after I posted that this was mainly moms~do you need to be one to post? Love the site as well as this little activity.

 

posted on http://www.bucketoglee.blogspot.com

 

You definitely do not need to be a mom to participate, Karinann. We’re so glad to have you here with us!

 

I finally did it! And I only crave bacon and sausage on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Something about going to Church and getting ashes makes me think of nothing else than a big breakfast sandwich with nothing but meat.

 

1-clean diapers are put away, not sitting in the dryer
2-everyone was dressed and fed by 10am!
3-my husband and i finally decided on our new carpet

oh, that feels so good just to get it out and be proud!  Thanks Danielle - I’m looking forward to this post of yours every week! smile

 

1 - I have finally written down and posted a morning and evening routine for my very type A daughter C-Sunshine. It is also complete with pictures for my little K-Doodle.

2 - I have special surprises and activities planned for K-Doodle’s 6th birthday including a trip to Medeivel Times on her birthday and a dinner with extended family the day after.

3 - I have done a MOUNTAIN of laundry and have made peace with my washer and dryer whom I have hated for years. They are now my friends. smile

 

I put my blog on Mr. Linky but I can’t figure out the button thing. Whenever I try to paste it it says it won’t accept it.

 

I actually acomplished a small thing yesterday I cleaned off a table in the living room..
I also plan on removing old newspaper from the house this afternoon. Life is good.

 

Oh I hope you have inspired me to get out of my ponytail.  My husband always loves when I wear my hair down, but with holding a 3 month old the greater part of the day, it is so convenient to not have to unravel hair from little fingers.  But I could put it down for when he comes home for work.  Hmmmm…there is an idea.
1. I actually took down the Valentine decorations today, finally.
2. I returned a pair of navy blue sweatpants to my niece that we were forced to borrow when my 5 year old had “an accident”.  The last time we “borrowed” a navy jacket and by the time we returned it she no longer fit in it :(
3. I cleared OFF the diningroom table.  It is usually clean, as I swore when we moved to a house with a diningroom, I never had this room before, so I will not be set in my ways of cluttering it up.  So it has been gathering things for 2 weeks.  Nothing like a clear tabletop!

 

-I cleared off my dining room table. (A big accomplishment) Stay tuned for next week to see if I kept it that way!
-Had no coffee yesterday and today.  A biggee!
-Managed to not be too bad of a back seat driver when my husband drove me to the doctor on Tuesday.
I am inspired this Lent.  I have had no headache from caffeine withdrawal, do you think the Lord is trying to tell me something?

 

I actually got a good many things accomplished today—-too many to list—-and I’m not bragging friends—you know those days when things just click.  But now, as I take a 10 minute refresher break before I get to dinner and the evening, I’ve decided that I’m taking tomorrow off! I’ll actually nurse the baby while sitting down…fold the laundry correctly instead of the fly-through-it method (which means it will have to be redone tomorrow!) and I just might get my latest NCR read before the next one hits the mailbox!

And, you do ROCK Danielle!

 

1- I got both bathrooms and their floors cleaned.

2- Got the car washed AND got gas yesterday BEFORE it jumped up 18 cents today!

3- In addition to fasting, I had no caffiene Ash Wednesday!

 

I made a list of things to do…That is a very small success, now if I can just do the things I wrote…


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