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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.
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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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Stations of the Cross for Kids

Make the Lenten devotion child-friendly

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Faith on Friday, February 19, 2010

The Stations of the Cross are a lovely devotion, and they’re especially appropriate on Fridays in Lent. Many parishes celebrate them on Friday evenings during the season of penance, but it can be difficult to attend with children. Repeatedly standing and kneeling while corralling children and keeping them from disturbing others is enough of a challenge. Trying also to concentrate on the prayers becomes... READ MORE 

Comments
10
Filed under blogs, children, devotions, ideas, lent, parenting, prayer, stations of the cross

Last Minute Lenten Ideas

From My Facebook Peeps, With Love

Posted by Danielle Bean in Faith on Wednesday, February 17, 2010

In addition to the 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge, we have some other Lenten aids in the works for Faith & Family readers this year. Look for an announcement about those here later today.

In the meantime, though, for the benefit of those last-minute ladies among us (You know who you are!) I thought I would share some of the ideas I got from friends on Facebook last week when I posted the simple request:... READ MORE 

Comments
10
Filed under facebook, ideas, inspiration, lent, sacrifice

Cleaning Up House

Coffee Talk: Homemaking

Posted by Danielle Bean in Homemaking on Saturday, January 23, 2010

(Join each day’s Coffee Talk discussion: Mon: Parenting; Tues: Open Forum; Wed: NFP; Thu: Marriage; Fri: Education; Sat/Sun: Homemaking)

Our weekend forum is for discussing Homemaking.

Have a great craft idea? Want to share your favorite cleaning products? Have a super recipe to share? Want to ask a question or share a strategy for meal planning, family schedules, laundry techniques, or any other household dilemma? This is the place to do it.

Come on in and join the conversation!

Comments
29
Filed under advice, cleaning, coffee talk, housework, ideas, sharing, tips

Kids and Thank-Yous

How do you handle it?

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Generous relatives and friends sent us Christmas gifts, and so yesterday I wrote a big pile of thank-you notes.

For my own gifts I’m a fan of the classic: lots of raving about the gift and the generosity of the giver, written longhand on pretty stationery.

So far, I’ve written the same kind of notes on behalf of our children for the presents they’ve received. As Camilla gets older I keep thinking... READ MORE 

Comments
28
Filed under advice, christmas, correspondence, ideas, kids, letters, parenting, thank you notes

What Did You Give? What Did You Get?

Tell us about this year's winning gifts!

Posted by Danielle Bean in Reviews on Monday, December 28, 2009

After spending so much time and energy thinking about, shopping for, and wrapping Christmas gifts over the past few weeks, I thought it might be fun to do a bit of a gift assessment today.

Did you give anything that was especially fun or well-received this year?

Did anyone give you anything especially touching or thrilling?

I can give us a start ...

The most fun and unexpected present Dan gave me... READ MORE 

Comments
45
Filed under christmas, gifts, ideas, inspiration, presents

Know Your Spouse…

...and have a love-language-enhanced Advent and Christmas!

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Marriage on Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Over the past few days I’ve been clicking like crazy doing Christmas shopping.

Because gift-giving is one of the love languages, the process of buying gifts for my loved ones has me thinking about the languages.

Are you familiar with the concept of the love languages? I read about it in The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I certainly don’t believe there’s a one-size-fits-all path to marital bliss,... READ MORE 

Comments
7
Filed under advent, christmas, ideas, love, love languages, marriage, spouses

Hamburgers, Dressed Up

Making the old standby new

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Food on Thursday, July 23, 2009

Grilling is an easy way to get dinner on the table in the summer, and hamburgers are cheap and good. I really like mine with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mustard. But eventually that gets old, so this summer I’ve been experimenting with different ways to dress up a burger. This variation was a particular success at our house.

If you have any ideas to make hamburgers more interesting, please share!... READ MORE 

Comments
8
Filed under burgers, food, grilling, ideas, recipes

My Husband's Genius Idea

a handy solution to the problem of cups

Posted by Danielle Bean in Homemaking on Monday, July 13, 2009

Once you have a certain number of kids (perhaps one), you come to realization that cups are a problem.

The problem of cups even came up as a topic of discussion in this past weekend’s Homemaking Coffee Talk.

For those who are blissfully ignorant of the cup problem, I’ll walk you through it: A kid drinks from a cup and leaves it on the kitchen counter. Then, 12 seconds later, when she needs another... READ MORE 

Comments
35
Filed under cups, ideas, kitchen, organization

Creative Re-use

What to do with leftovers?

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Food on Thursday, July 02, 2009

Last night my parents went to a potluck at their church.  My mom took along a Mexican-rice style dish.

It was delicious, which I know because I tasted it.  But the amazing part was that except for the rice, the dish was made entirely of leftovers from my mom’s fridge.

I like to think I’m pretty good at being creative in the kitchen.  Last week I needed to use some leftover salami, and I improvised... READ MORE 

Comments
11
Filed under cooking, creativity, ideas, leftovers

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