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
  • 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		 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

Stay in the Loop with F&F

?
Full feed
Danielle Bean’s feed
Rebecca Teti’s feed
Arwen Mosher’s feed
Lisa Hendey’s feed
Rachel Balducci’s feed

Get our FREE Daily Digest

Add Faith & Family to iTunes

Weekly Reader Poll
 

Top Tags

advice | coffee talk | discussion | parenting | christmas | lent | prayer | family | children | books | moms | recipes | podcast | cleaning | love | encouragement | sharing | education | babies | learning | housekeeping | saints | relationships | humor | fertility | traditions | links | school | art | couples | food | casual fridays | small successes | homeschool | sex | giveaway | marriage | television | nfp | pregnancy | joy | saints of christmas | fun | tips | pro-life | technology | support | laundry | fashion | videos | career | faith | benedict xvi | cooking | new media | time management | haiti | resolutions | photos | charity | super bowl | teens | blogging | toddlers | questions | style | new years | clutter | winter | jesus | video | kids | priests | clothing | women | reading | mass | vegetables | mary | tradition | homemade | shopping | forgiveness | modesty | gifts | preferences | dinner | beauty | 40 bags | music | work | spouse | celebration | book | ideas | health | meals | time | sin | breakfast |

 

Eat It How?

Bite into a great spring vegetable

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Food on Friday, March 12, 2010

Back when I had more free time, I loved reading archived columns by Miss Manners online. Much of my own behavior is not “painfully correct” but I enjoyed the etiquette maven’s quick wit and I learned a lot, too.

My favorite pieces of manners trivia are the ones that make me go, “Who knew?” because they’re archaic or contrary to our instincts about what the rules *should* be.

For example, do you know... READ MORE 

Comments
6
Filed under asparagus, recipes, roasting, side dishes, spring, vegetables

Eat It How?

Bite into spring's star vegetable

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Food on Friday, March 05, 2010

Back when I had more free time, I loved reading archived columns by Miss Manners online. Much of my own behavior is not “painfully correct” but I enjoyed the etiquette maven’s quick wit and I learned a lot, too.

My favorite pieces of manners trivia are the ones that make me go, “Who knew?” because they’re archaic or contrary to our instincts about what the rules *should* be.

For example, do you know... READ MORE 

Comments
0
Filed under asparagus, etiquette, finger food, food, recipes, roasting, side dishes, spring, vegetables

Beans and Rice Recipe

upon request!

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Food on Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Yesterday when I posted about onions, quite a few of you asked in the comments section for the beans and rice recipe I mentioned.

First of all, I want to point you to this post from two weeks ago, where I shared one recipe I enjoy and many readers contributed other recipes that look delicious. So you should definitely check that out.

Since you asked for it, though, I’ll also share the one-dish beans... READ MORE 

Comments
7
Filed under beans, dinners, entrees, meatless, recipes, rice, side dishes, simple

Between Your Daily Bread

More Ideas for Simple Meals

Posted by Danielle Bean in Food on Monday, March 01, 2010

Wow! You all gave me some wonderfully “green” ideas in my recent post about salad add-ins. I’m going to be making some creative and delicious salads for more than 40 days!

Your ideas were so helpful, that now I am back for more.

I recently had a simple but amazingly delicious sandwich that someone else prepared for me. While I am fully willing to admit that the someone-else-made-it factor could be... READ MORE 

Comments
18
Filed under lent, meals, meatless, recipes, sandwiches, simple

Breakfast on the Go

from your very own kitchen!

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Food on Monday, February 22, 2010

I’d love it if I could eat a good breakfast every morning. Some days when the kids cooperate, I do manage to sit down for a fried egg or a bowl of cereal. But many days it’s not possible, and I end up scarfing down a piece of toast while directing potty trips and putting the day’s first load of laundry in the washer.

This is why I love the idea of a granola bar. It’s like a breakfast of oatmeal that... READ MORE 

Comments
5
Filed under baking, breakfast, granola bars, homemade, recipes

Rice is Nice

With beans for Lent - share your recipes!

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Food on Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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 

Comments
17
Filed under beans and rice, cooking, food, lent, meatless, recipes

New Orleans Baked French Toast

What are you cooking up for Mardi Gras?

Posted by Danielle Bean in Food on Monday, February 15, 2010

Do you have something special planned for Mardi Gras?

I like to mark the day with something out of the ordinary and it’s customary to enjoy a rich treat that uses up the sugar and eggs before beginning a Lenten fast.

With those thoughts in mind, here’s something simple and yummy I am putting together tonight for tomorrow morning’s Mardi Gras breakfast (I got it from the awesomely inspiring Bake until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Cookbook... READ MORE 

Comments
12
Filed under breakfast, french toast, lent, mardi gras, recipes

Enjoying Innovation

What's your favorite time-saver?

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Homemaking on Tuesday, February 09, 2010

I made rice crispy treats and minty brownies for the Super Bowl on Sunday, and in the process I got to use one of my favorite kitchen innovations: nonstick aluminum foil.

Are you familiar with this stuff? I grabbed it off the shelf at the grocery store once on a whim, and as soon as I tried it, I was hooked. At the time I was making my family’s favorite lemon bars often, and the filling had an awful... READ MORE 

Comments
12
Filed under budget, foil, food, housekeeping, kitchen, recipes, time-saving

View From the Laundry Pile

Coffee Talk: Homemaking

Posted by Danielle Bean in Homemaking on Saturday, February 06, 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
13
Filed under advice, cleaning, coffee talk, housekeeping, laundry, recipes

Super Snacks for Super Bowl

Share your recipes here!

Posted by Danielle Bean in Food on Thursday, February 04, 2010

We all know that fully half the fun of Super Bowl Sunday is the food. What’s cooking in your kitchen for Sunday’s big game?

Use the Mr. Linky form to share links to your blog post, Facebook entry, or F&F Connect page with recipes—or share in the comments! Happy cooking!

Comments
15
Filed under entertaining, football, recipes, snacks, super bowl

Page 1 of 10 pages  1 2 3 >  Last Page »