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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 …
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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Work for Peace Everywhere

In response to Obama's Nobel Peace prize

Posted by Arwen Mosher in News on Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Last Friday I was listening to Teresa Tomeo’s morning show, and they were talking about President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win.

From a political perspective there are plenty of things to say on this topic, but I think most of them have already been covered on the thousands of political blogs out there.

Teresa Tomeo’s guest was Janet Morana of Priests for Life and Silent No More, and I loved the... READ MORE 

Comments
3
Filed under abortion, nobel prize, obama, peace, sanctity of life, teresa of calcutta

Obama's Euthanasia Mistake

Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Here’s one of the most interesting pieces I’ve read on our health care debate.

It’s written by a bona fide Liberal who has little sympathy with “right-to-lifers” and ardently desires universal health care.

But he thinks the “end-of-life” issues in the current proposals are morally repugnant.

Bad for everyone, but especially for the poor they’re supposed to benefit.

Read the whole thing for an interesting... READ MORE 

Comments
28
Filed under bioethics, end of life issues, euthanasia, health care, medicine, obama, politics

Divide & Conquer?

Can all those pro-choice Catholics be coincidental?

Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Thursday, July 23, 2009

image.examiner.com/.../obamahopepope_pic(1).jpg

The occasion of Dr. Regina Benjamin’s nomination to the Surgeon General’s post caused Tom Hoopes to pose a provocative question.

Does the President have a deliberate “divide and conquer” strategy when it comes to the Church?

Many commenters scoffed when I raised that question myself a few months ago (agreeing with another columnist).

But Hoopes draws attention to the comments of a political science... READ MORE 

Comments
11
Filed under abortion, catholics, obama, political tactics

The Pope & The President

Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Friday, July 10, 2009

Here’s footage from the BBC of Pope Benedict XVI’s meeting with President Obama this morning.


I have to laugh at about 45 seconds in when one gaggle of reporters is suppressed and a second gaggle comes bursting in from the other side.

We can’t know fully what the two said to each other in their 40-minute private session, but it is clear from the Vatican statement that the Pope, while cordial, nonetheless... READ MORE 

Comments
2
Filed under benedict xvi, gifts, humor, obama, press

President Meets With Catholic Press

Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Thursday, July 02, 2009

official white house photo: Lawrence Jackson

President Obama met with members of the Catholic press for about 40 minutes today.

Head on over to our sister site, NCRegister.com, for a series of posts on what they talked about. Our publisher, Fr. Owen Kearns, LC was present (you can see him in the foreground of this photo).

Items of particular interest might be the discussion of conscience protections and the President’s response to a question... READ MORE 

Comments
5
Filed under abortion, catholic press, common ground, conscience clause, kearns, obama

Obama To Meet Benedict

Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Wednesday, June 24, 2009

composite of CNS images

President Obama and His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI are scheduled to meet for the first time on July 10th.

This is historic because one is a charismatic leader whose followers believe he was chosen by God, and the other is Pope Benedict.

Now…don’t get angry with me you Obama fans! A very Liberal friend of mine who writes for a Hollywood comedian sent me his latest line—and of course I had to share.

Comments
6
Filed under benedict xvi, historic meeting, humor, obama

What Makes A Person Say, ‘Send Me?’

one more Memorial Day post

Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Tuesday, May 26, 2009

White House photo, Lawrence Jackson

In case you missed them, President Obama’s remarks at Arlington Cemetery yesterday are really quite lovely.

Comments
7
Filed under arlington cemetery, memorial day, obama

The President At Our Lady’s University

Says You: What is your reaction to the President's speech at Notre Dame?

Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Monday, May 18, 2009

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

We talked so much about it before it happened.

So of course I have to ask for your reactions to the President’s speech at Notre Dame’s commencement.

Here’s Fr. Jenkins’ introduction.

You can watch C-Span’s coverage of the ceremony here. 

Were you there? What was it like? What is your response to either of the addresses linked here?

Comments
45
Filed under commencement, jenkins, notre dame, obama, speeches

Mrs. Glendon Refuses

says no to the Laetare Medal

Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Monday, April 27, 2009

Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon has elected not to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare medal at next month’s commencement.

Her letter to Notre Dame’s President, Fr. Jenkins, is here.

Primarily, she seems to to resent being used as a “balance” to President Obama in the school’s talking points about the event, as if her presence made the school’s disobedience to our nation’s bishops okay.

as a longtime consultant... READ MORE 

Comments
12
Filed under commencement, laetare medal, mary ann glendon, notre dame, obama

He’s Got Mail

White House confirms receiving 2 million pro-life letters

Posted by Danielle Bean in News on Thursday, April 09, 2009

Remember the pro-life project Rachel blogged about a while back? The one that encouraged us to mail red envelopes to President Obama with a pro-life message as a means of protesting his pro-abortion activities since taking office?

People are doing it. Millions of them, in fact.

The White House mail office confirmed receiving 2.25 million red envelopes in the past two months.

“I’ve been here 35 years, so I’ve seen presidents come and go,” says White House mail worker Steve. “This campaign ranks up there with the big ones.”

Read more about the red envelope project.

Comments
6
Filed under abortion, obama, pro-life, red envelope

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