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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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Him: Out, Me: In

How do your family members feel about the outdoors?

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Tuesday, March 16, 2010

My husband is an outdoorsy person. I am not. When we were in college, he spent an entire summer in New Mexico working as a ranger at Philmont, an intensive hiking camp for Boy Scouts. He would call me up and tell me, “I haven’t showered in five days!” and I would shudder with disgust. He did admit that the every-five-days showering was a little bit gross, but Bryan loved everything about his summer... READ MORE 

Comments
5
Filed under challenges, children, enjoyment, love, nature, outdoors, parenting, personalities

Bowling Lessons

Learning from my daughter's joy

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Monday, March 15, 2010

Babies are easily amused, which is useful. At Mass last week, I amused Blaise for half an hour with a tube of lip balm and an errant sock I found in the diaper bag. Put the tube in the sock, then dump it out… he was mesmerized.

The downside to this is that while it can be fun to take babies on outings, it often feels a bit pointless. Yes, we could pack up the baby and spend the day doing something... READ MORE 

Comments
5
Filed under bowling, children, fun, joy, lessons, outings, parenting, preschoolers

Raising Up Saints

Coffee Talk: Parenting

Posted by Danielle Bean in Family on Monday, March 15, 2010

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

Terrible toddlers? Trying teens? Something in between? This weekly forum is the spot to share your questions and struggles about all things related to parenthood.

Please join us!

Comments
44
Filed under advice, coffee talk, discussion, parenting

Boy Moms and a Beautiful Book

Get a sneak peek at Rachel Balducci's new book!

Posted by Lisa Hendey in News on Thursday, March 11, 2010

Download Podcast

On this week’s podcast (click here to listen or click on the player above), we focus on Rachel Balducci’s fantastic new book How Do You Tuck In a Superhero?: And Other Delightful Mysteries of Raising Boys. To kick off the show, we share a great review of the book from Maryan Vander Woude. Available at AdoremusBooks.com.

During our first segment, Rachel reads from her chapter about “Rules I Can’t Believe... READ MORE 

Comments
4
Filed under books, boys, humor, parenting, podcast, rachel balducci, sons

Overcome Your Lenten Temptations

Ask a Priest vol. 10

Posted by Fr. John Bartunek, LC in Faith on Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Q: My 11-year-old son decided to give up sweets for Lent, but at two weeks into Lent he’s in misery about wishing to have a dessert.

I have coached him from different angles—“Look what a strong person you are becoming” or “Why don’t you choose a different sacrifice? You know you can change your sacrifice” or “When you really want that sweet and you feel angry or desperate, think of Christ’s suffering... READ MORE 

Comments
6
Filed under lent, parenting, spirituality, temptation

It's a Girl

Welcoming Maddalena Marie Sansone!

Posted by Lisa Hendey in News on Wednesday, March 10, 2010

On Saturday, March 6th the world got just a little bit sweeter with the birth of precious little Maddalena Marie Sansone, the first daughter of Chris and Sarah Sansone.  You likely know and love Maddalena’s mommy—Sarah Bauer, the lovely Catholic artist who is the voice behind our Faith & Family Live Cast’s theme song “Radiance”. 

I’ve been a Sarah Bauer groupie for years.  My love for her music grew... READ MORE 

Comments
7
Filed under babies, catholic music, moms, parenting, sarah bauer

Babies & Big Kids & All in Between

Coffee Talk: Parenting

Posted by Danielle Bean in Family on Monday, March 08, 2010

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

Terrible toddlers? Trying teens? Something in between? This weekly forum is the spot to share your questions and struggles about all things related to parenthood.

Please join us!

Comments
40
Filed under advice, coffee talk, discussion, parenting

Making Alone Time Good Time

Enjoying one-on-one with my baby

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Thursday, March 04, 2010

Blaise and I are traveling this weekend. It’s a fun trip, visiting our dear friends who are also his godparents. But - since it involves me being solely responsible for my baby for four days - it’s also an exhausting trip.

Especially since I’m coming off three days of solo-parenting both my children while my husband was on a business trip, I’m just plain tired. I’ve been up since 5:50am with my early-rising... READ MORE 

Comments
1
Filed under babies, experiences, love, parenting, time alone

Spring Cleaning and Spiritual Simplification

Cleaning inside and out on this week's podcast

Posted by Lisa Hendey in News on Thursday, March 04, 2010

Download Podcast

On this week’s episode of the podcast (click here to listen or click on the player above) I’m joined by Elizabeth Foss and Sarah Reinhard to take on two great topics.  We hear from listener Lauren who shares a question about spring cleaning and deep cleaning when you have little ones at home.  Do you have any practical tips or favorite product suggestions to share?

Our Faith & Family Feature Product... READ MORE 

Comments
1
Filed under homemaking, lent, parenting, podcast, prayer, simplifying, spring cleaning

Toothsome Tales From a Fairy Failure

We're getting there

Posted by Danielle Bean in Just me on Thursday, March 04, 2010

Pardon me, but I have something I just need to share ...

THE TOOTH FAIRY CAME LAST NIGHT!

I thought about sharing this exciting news in this week’s Small Successes but it feels just a bit too monumental for that.

You see, the Tooth Fairy remembered that a child had lost a tooth, found a dollar bill, and actually placed it under the sleeping tooth donor’s pillow before going to bed herself.

This is... READ MORE 

Comments
33
Filed under growing up, imagination, milestone, parenting, tooth fairy

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