Lent begins March 5!

For by your gracious gift each year 

your faithful await the sacred paschal feasts 

with the joy of minds made pure. 

From the Preface for Lent

I love how the focus in the Preface is joy! Are you ready? I need to replace my purple cloth for the prayer area and figure out where I've put the Lent tub! Maybe we'll make the crown of thorns, but I'll leave that up to the kids.

CROWN OF THORNS Lenten Project

 

Ingredients

1 cup salt 

2 cups all purpose flour (I also add ½ c cocoa powder)

1 cup luke warm water (or left over coffee)

Directions

1. In a large bowl mix salt and flour.

2. Gradually stir in water. Mix well until it forms a doughy consistency.

3. With your hands form a ball with your dough and kneed it for at least 5 minutes. The longer you kneed your dough the smoother it will be.

Form 3 long ropes and braid loosely into a ring, joining the ends.

Stick toothpicks into the wreath in every direction to represent the thorns. Bake braid on parchment paper at 275 degrees for one to two hours or until dry.

There are a few options to color your salt dough:

1. Add powdered tempera paint to your flour,

2. add food coloring or paint to the water before you mix it with the salt/flour, or

3. add natural coloring like instant coffee, cocoa, or curry powder.

For each sacrifice that a child (or adult) makes or act of love he commits he

takes out a "thorn."  The goal should be to remove all "thorns"

from the crown by Easter. 

Once the thorns are removed, glue brightly colored beads where the

thorns once were and if you'd like paint the crown. This makes a

beautiful Easter Sunday center piece with a great story to share.

Apparently I'm the mom of saintly children - last year the crown was picked clean before the first Sunday of Lent!!

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If you're wondering how to approach this season with your children, my advice would be to keep it as simple as possible, yet interesting enough to engage everyone to participate. Young children have no concept of sin, but do know about waiting ;-) It can be terribly difficult, so taking advantage of the feast days that fall within Lent is great. When Lent starts early, I'm the one counting down to St. Joseph's feast day on March 19! (Not that we ignore Lent on solemnities, but a nice dessert is definitely in order!) 

As our children mature, they recognize sin and often need reminders of the mercy and love our Lord so desires to share with us. Participating in the sacrament of reconciliation as a family is a wonderful activity esp. for older elementary and middle school children.

Counting the days of Lent is done easily with either a calendar, or with a paper chain. I'll have a calendar for you to pick up in the entrance way of the RE building. The children can mark off the days, add a sticker, or color the squares, whichever works best for you.

A nice way to start the season, is to celebrate Fat Tuesday by having pancakes for dinner. The kids also like to gather up the palm branches left over from last year in order to burn them for the Lenten prayer table. Sometimes I'm just a tad concerned at the pleasure they seem to take in burning things!

In our family, we've run the gamut of creating elaborate plans only to end up with mom and kid burnout ;-) and coasting through Lent with barely a nod at the season. Believe it or not, there is a middle ground! This year, my youngest is 10, so the goal is to have all the kids help to plan the season. As a family, we do talk about sacrifice as well as adding a spiritual exercise to our lives.  

If you like to be inspired by some things others are doing during this season, here are a few links I've found helpful:

Exploring Lent is a nice starting place with some background and activities that are well suited for families.

A Lenten Guide poster that can be printed and posted on the fridge.

How about some Lenten trivia? Challenge each other with these questions at dinner one night.

There are some other sites listed in the "helpful links" section, but again, keep it simple! Oh, speaking of keeping it simple, here is an article aimed at adults titled "Keeping it simple this Lent with Fr. Jim's 1-1-1 Plan"

May the peace of the Good Shepherd be with you all ~

Beate

"Be courageous, and go to confession,” ~ Pope Francis