Faith & Family Live!

Faith & Family Live is where everyday moms offer one another inspiration, support, and encouragement in Catholic living. Anyone grappling with the meaning of life or the cleaning of laundry is welcome here. Read the blog, check out our magazine, join our community, learn more about our mission, and come on in! READ MORE

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
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31

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 …
Read My Posts

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. …
Read My Posts

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. …
Read My Posts

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 …
Read My Posts

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 …
Read My Posts

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, …
Read My Posts

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 …
Read My Posts

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

Get our FREE Daily Digest

Add Faith & Family to iTunes

 
 

Broth Okay on Fridays?

Your questions answered!

In the comments on my beans and rice recipe, wisdomandpeace asked “A question I’ve always had, though, is it allowable to use chicken broth (but no actual pieces of chicken) in a recipe on a day we abstain from meat?  I’ve always avoided those recipes on Fridays during Lent, just in case, but if it were allowable, it would certainly open up my repertoire of Lenten meals!”

I found quite a few articles that address the topic, and thought that two in particular were worth reading.

The first one, on EWTN, is by Fr. Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university. The entire thing is worth reading, but he specifically mentions the broth issue in the clarifications at the end of the article: “Present canon law allows the use of sauces made from animal fats, as well as their use in cooking, so the use of beef or chicken stock would enter into this category.”

In a piece on his blog, Jimmy Akin analyzes the canon law on the topic and comes to the same conclusion. You can read his analysis here.

I hope this helps!

image credit


Bulbs You Can Bite

Onions: love 'em or hate 'em?

A friend of mine asked if I have a good beans and rice recipe. I do, and I happen to know it off the top of my head, so she grabbed a pen and I started reciting it. “Chop an onion, heat some oil in a pan, and saute the onion in it.”

As I told her the rest of the recipe it occurred to me that at least half of my entree recipes start this way. Almost daily, I find myself beginning dinner prep by sauteing... READ MORE 


Rice is Nice

With beans for Lent - share your recipes!

When I mentioned “beans and rice for Lent” in my post yesterday, I was using it figuratively to refer to penitential eating in general.

But then reader Ashley mentioned in the comments that her family actually eats beans and rice on all forty days of Lent, and she piqued my interest.

One of our family Lenten resolutions this year is to squeeze our grocery budget as tightly as we can, and give the... READ MORE 


Make Your Own Gnocchi

Little dumplings of deliciousness

Danielle’s recipe for mashed potato soup looks wonderful, and I’ve bookmarked it to try the next time we need a warm, comforting winter meal. (Soon.) Cheap, easy, and delicious is a trifecta that will draw me to a recipe every time!

But sometimes I like a challenge. Although I usually want meals to be easy to prepare, it can be fun to make slightly more time-consuming dishes, if the work-investment... READ MORE 


Start the Day Right

good eats in the a.m.

So we talked about breakfast for dinner. Now let’s discuss breakfast for…breakfast!

One of my favorite cooking sites recently had an entry on cinnamon toast for breakfast and man did that bring me back. We ate cinnamon toast quite a lot growing up and I loved it! It’s one of those simple, delicious treats that I totally forget to make for my family.

What else am I forgetting?! I was thinking we could... READ MORE 


Crock and Roll

Life Rocks when I cook with my Crock (Pot)

It is the end of a long day—the kind of day that included an OB check-up (everything is great!) and sending my brother back to Utah (oh how we will miss him!) and then finding out that tonight’s basketball game, the one that started at 7 p.m., actually started an hour earlier. We found that out thirty minutes before the game started.

Fortunately after all that, we came home to a crock pot full of... READ MORE 


Coming to My Kitchen Aid

Can a domestic mess become a baker?

My Christmas present arrived early this year, in time to help me through the onslaught of Cookie Exchange parties, teenage get togethers, and treat plates for neighbors.  Yes, I’m now the proud owner of a KitchenAid Artisan 5-qt. Stand Mixer.

The good news is that in the four days I’ve owned this appliance I’ve already used it three times.  The bad news is that I know I’m not employing her to her... READ MORE 


Spud on the Web

Never peel again!

I know I should have posted this before Thanksgiving, but I was too busy peeling all my potatoes so I could mash them. Now I know better!


Sharing the Good Stuff

What's on your Thanksgiving menu?

I must admit, I love this time of year. My kitchen never feels so cozy, warm, and inviting as it does the days before Thanksgiving. I love having an excuse to clear my calendar and focus on food.

When it comes to Thanksgiving recipes, my family does not approve of experimentation. Don’t put funny things in the stuffing, don’t mess with the mashed potatoes, and for Pete’s sake, let a perfect pumpkin... READ MORE 


The Meatloaf That Made Me a Meatloaf Fan

I share the recipe

Some people love meatloaf, and some people hate it. I’m not in either camp. I’ve always felt indifferently toward meatloaf. I’d eat it without complaint if someone served it to me, but I certainly never went out of the way to make it for myself.

Then some friends had us over for dinner and served meatloaf. It was absolutely delicious. I was shocked to find myself turning down a second helping of potatoes... READ MORE 


Page 1 of 5 pages  1 2 3 >  Last Page »