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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.
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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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Who's Awesome? You Are!

Small Successes vol. 25

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 called a friend I’ve been meaning to see and now we have plans—actual plans—to get together.

2. When my husband made a decision I disagreed with, I stated my feelings and then ... stopped talking. Even though this happens to be a smallish matter—oh my goodness, that can be a painful thing to do!

3. Anticipating a busy week, I made a work schedule for myself and so far I have been sticking to it, even through projects I find less than thrilling at the moment. This is a big deal because I generally rebel against schedules of any kind. Friday night shall find me thinking I deserve a glass of wine.

Now you share your successes please. I really look forward to hearing all the big and small ways you’ve found success during the week. Thanks for participating!


Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 

1. I took the kids blueberry picking and we picked about 35 pounds. And in one day we washed and froze most and made some freezer jam.
2. I did not lose my temper when we were ready to leave from blueberry picking (everyone was hot, sweaty, thirsty, tired) and the car would not start. My oldest daughter had not started the car, just turned on the fan while she was watching our youngest and so the battery was dead.
3. I made a significant dent in catching up on grading the kids schoolwork. That is my least favorite task in homeschooling. And I tried paying my oldest to grade, but it just does not work because she gets bossy and I cannot keep track of who needs help with what.

 

Danielle, your number 2 is a HUGE success in my book! WOW! God bless you…you inspire me! That particular thing is SO HARD for me smile
Thanks for hosting this meme…it always brightens my week!

 

I agree, number 2 on Danielle’s is a biggie.. and a work in progress for me.
1 - slept out in a tent with my husband and 2 toddlers instead of taking up the offer of a comfy bed inside. 
2 - Convinced my husband at the last minute to call the sitter and finally used a gift certificate for dinner out even though he wasn’t caught up on his latest project—and he said he was glad I did while we were in the restaurant.
3 - took advantage of a finally dry day and hung out loads of laundry.

 

Well the lay off we expected for my husband occured Thursday—right before we left for a weekend with my inlaws. (Mind you this is not a cost cutting measure- one of the new managers just doesn’t understand what he does. I’m glad actually because he couldn’t look for a job successfully while working there.)
Anyway we came home to a dead fridge so I:

1. Helped DH with COBRA paperwork, resume updates, new cell phone, balancing checkbook etc.
2. Cleaned up the mess with help from my young adults—throwing out $200 worth of food including my strawberries and my sour dough starter :( then lived out of a dorm fridge till this morning.
3. and most of all wrote my resume. We are considering having me work and Jeff homeschool long enough for a friend’s business to have room for my husband.

Off to refill my fridge—which was successfully repaired!
3.

 

I linked to your blog and then read your small successes and was pleasantly surprised to see that your #2 was similar to my #2! A Big small success!! Way to go! God bless.

 

1. Defrosted the basement freezer. LONG overdue.
2. Sat and just listened to my husband when he needed me to without trying to do something else at the same time.
3. Didn’t make a legitimate complaint when I had the opportunity to.

 

1. Went out in the pool finally, and vacuumed it and brushed off along the sides, I had been meaning to do that for weeks!
2. Made it to all three of my sons baseball games this week. I had been going to some, but I really want to make an effort to see them all.
3. After mowing the lawn, I proceeded to do the edging which I usually intend to do but it never gets done.

 

1. Packed up the kids and spent the day at the shore.  I marveled at how easy it was now that I don’t have any kids that don’t swim and/or wear diapers.  Made a mental note to do this more often.
2.  Made it to an away swim meet, sat with a friend and chatted, came home and made dinner without stressing out.
3. Gave each child a garbage bag and we decimated the stuffed animal population in our house.  Amazed at how some children have very little attachment to material things, while others have some room to grow in this.


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