Living Lent Joyfully

Back in 2008, Lent took on a different meaning in our home and I admit to dreading it since that time. It dragged on forever and the brightness of Easter was lost in the mist of our family's sadness. It was much like Narnia's eternal winter with no hope of Christmas. We've come a long way since those days, yet Lent still needs dusting off. Tonight we are spending Fat Tuesday putting out the purple cloths, putting away remnants of the Christmas season, and creating a salt dough crown. This year we'll use the crown in the spirit of the Advent wreath, adding six candles to count down the weeks until we again can see the brightness of Easter! I'll post a photo when we get it done. The big kids are helping with the crafting and hemming the prayer cloth and I'm enjoying seeing everyone working together.

There are notebooks filled with Lenten resources on the shelf, family meditations, crafts, prayers for the stations of the cross, etc. However, this year I realized what was needed was for me allow myself to enter into this time willingly and to recognize and trust in the period of waiting. Our Lord loves us so, how can we not trust in His perfect plan?

Tomorrow I'll attend Mass with the kids - our foreheads will be marked with ashes and we'll be reminded: "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel." The gospel tells us to not be afraid and to love one another. That will be my focus this year. Let us pray for one another that a spirit of peace and love permeates our families and all that we do.

Last year's post has the instructions for the Lenten Crown of thorns project and can be found here. Just remember, keep it simple and enjoy this time waiting for the Resurrection!

In the peace of the Good Shepherd,
Beate

Lent

The Great Lent  by Alexander Schmemann (intro)

...Easter is our return every year to our own Baptism, whereas Lent is our preparation for that return - the slow and sustained effort to perform, at the end, our won 'passage' or pascha' into the new life in Christ. If, as we shall see, lenten worship preserves even today its catechetical and baptismal character, it is not as 'archeological' remains of the past, but as something valid and essential for us. For each year Lent and Easter are, once again, the rediscovery and recovery by us of what we were made through our own baptismal death and resurrection.

A journey, a pilgrimage! Yet, as we begin it, as we make the first step into the 'bright sadness' of Lent, we see - far, far away - the destination. It is the joy of Easter, it is the entrance into the glory of the Kingdom. And it is this vision, the foretaste of Easter, that makes Lent's sadness bright and our Lenten efforts a 'spiritual spring.' The night may be dark and long, but all along the way a mysterious and radiant dawn seems to shine on the horizon. 'Do not deprive us of our expectation, O Lover of man!'

Chapter 1 - Preparation

The desire to see Christ - Zacchaeus, Lk.19:1-10
Humility, seeing ourselves honestly - the Publican and the Pharisee, Lk. 18:10-4

Return from Exile - the forgiving Father Lk. 15:11-32

I first heard of this book during a CGS formation in 2006. Father Schmemann was an Orthodox priest, so the book takes one through the intensity of the Orthodox Lent. It is on my prayer table every Lenten season, but I have never read it cover to cover. Instead, I dip in here and there, savoring the richness of the meditations. We will use these 3 scripture readings starting Wednesday for our prayer time, as a reflection on our journey to Easter. The scripture readings are already familiar to us, so it's always interesting to find what we hear differently this time around.

As my children have grown, it's been more difficult to gather together for most things. When they were little, they naturally gravitated towards me - they were well equiped with the Mommy radar as my husband liked to say. Now, the older kids like one on one time with either of us. They are busy and independent. It's my goal to invite and encourage, rather than insist. If nothing else, I can send them texts of quotes that jump out at me ;-)

May God's peace be with you and your families ~
Beate