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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.
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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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Kids v Cats

sense of humor needed
http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2007/04/dog-food-blues-waive-of-pancreatitis-is.html

My inbox this morning includes a plea for help.

A friend of a friend posted “8 reasons dogs and cats are better than kids” on her facebook page.

My friend, who has seven daughters, laughingly responded that as “Septomom,”  she could not possibly let that stand.

Now she’s looking for help crafting a lighthearted rebuttal.

Here is the original list.

Dogs and cats are better than kids because they:... READ MORE 


Come To Jesus, Tiger

Says You: is it ever inappropriate to evangelize?

I’m curious to know this community’s reaction to Fox News analyst Brit Hume’s call for Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity.

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After looking at the clip, I find I’m of two minds.

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Journalist and Missionary

Meet Al Kresta on this week's podcast

Download Podcast

Today on the podcast (click here to listen or click on the player above), we welcome broadcaster, journalist, author and missionary Al Kresta, the current CEO and President of Ave Maria Communications and host of the popular show Kresta in the Afternoon.  Al is the author of Moments of Grace: Inspiring Stories from Well-known Catholics, Why Do Catholics Genuflect?: And Answers to Other Puzzling Questions... READ MORE 


Divorce: Now What?

http://www.mississippifamilylawblog.com/divorce/

If you’ve suffered a divorce or know someone who has, you might like to know about Divorced Catholic.

It includes FAQs relating to divorce, and Journey of Hope, an online program aimed at helping divorced Catholics with practical, spiritual, emotional and moral issues related to the experience of divorce, and more.

I’m so glad to see this because Church teaching with respect to divorce seems to be... READ MORE 


Saintly Strategic Planning

I'm headed to an important weekend meeting...

As you read this blog post, I will be winging my way across the country to Atlanta to attend a strategic planning meeting for the board of SQPN.com.  I feel so very honored to be a part of organizations such as Faith & Family, and the Star Quest Production Network. 

Having an affiliation with amazing new media evangelists such as Fr. Roderick Vonhögen and Danielle Bean inspires me so greatly in my... READ MORE 


Putting His Faith Where His Face Is

Tim Tebow evengelizes sports fans

I am not much of a Gator’s fan, but I must admit to being impressed with Tim Tebow.

The Florida Gator’s quarterback and Heisman trophy winner drew “John 3:16” in his eye blacking during the 2009 BCS Championship game and at last night’s last home game he wore the verse Hebrews 12:1-2, which reads, in part:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Amen!


Hug Lady

a one-of-a-kind ministry

Do you know about Elizabeth Laird, “the hug lady”?

Since some soldiers departing for the war zone don’t have the opportunity to hug their moms good-bye, she does it for them—and gives every departing soldier a copy of the 91st Psalm, too.

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Putting God at the Center

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Please excuse this very bad photo of what was, indeed, a wonderful evening.  Yesterday morning, I hit the road for a quick trip to San Francisco.  My destination:  St. Dominic’s Catholic Church and a lecture by Fr. Robert Barron of WordonFire.org.  You may recall my earlier post on Fr. Barron’s wonderful endeavor, The Catholicism Project

Fr. Barron’s purpose in coming to California was to spread... READ MORE 


Word on Fire

An incredible priest with an incredibly important message.

Download Podcast

My special guest for this week’s podcast (click here to listen or click on the player above) is Father Robert Barron.  This month, we are encouraging your support of Father Barron’s latest project, Catholicism.  Please consider a donation of any size and join us in praying for Father Barron and his team.  Father Robert Barron is a sought-after speaker on the spiritual life-from prestigious universities... READ MORE 


CNMC Words of Wisdom

Enjoy Danielle Bean's terrific talk from Saturday.

As Danielle shared with you on Sunday, she and I were blessed to meet in person this week at the Catholic New Media Celebration organized by SQPN.com.  One of the thrills of the weekend for me was spending time in person with Mrs. Bean, who has long been one of my role models.  Danielle and I have “known” one another online for years, so it was a complete joy to simply “hang out” with her for a few... READ MORE 


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