Being able to live out the liturgical seasons as a family is such a privilege and Lent is no exception! You will have the opportunity to witness to one another, encourage each other as you struggle and sacrifice and come together in the beauty of communal prayer. Here are just some of the ways you can get the whole family involved this Lent!
Have A Daily Intention
For each day of Lent write down the name of a family member, friend or an intention and offer that day for them. You can include your intention in a morning offering, offering any prayers, works, joys or sufferings of that day for this person or intention! Starting your day knowing you are offering it for someone, can really transform a mundane day into a gift. I used a normal calendar and simply wrote on a name/family/intention on each day. You could also use a printable Lenten calendar found online.
Sacrifice bowl
To make a sacrifice bowl all you need is a decorative bowl or vase and a small bowl to hold dried chickpeas or beans (we just reuse them every year). This provides a physical way for your children, and yourself to “offer up” any sufferings, sacrifices or good works. For every offering drop a pea into the vase saying a few words to Jesus in your heart “I offer this for..” or “This is for you Jesus” and slowly watch your vase fill up! On Easter Sunday swap out the peas for mini Easter Eggs. My kids have been so keen this year, offering up every ache and pain or chore! It takes real humility to offer your sufferings! They are way better at this than me!!!
Daily Prayers
As a family you can make a commitment to increase your daily prayer habits. This may include introducing a morning offering and night prayer for the kids, and for you in addition to these, including the noon Angelus or 3 O’clock Prayer for Divine Mercy or the Chaplet, into your routine. It’s a really nice way to spread out some prayer time throughout the day. Stopping to pray every few hours for only a few minutes can really transform your day, and its relatively easy to do! Choose what you feel is actually doable for you, make a little plan, set some reminders on your phone and just go for it! Another idea if you are not already doing it, is to sit down as a family after dinner and say a decade of the Rosary or a few short prayers together, offering intentions and thanking God for all the you received today. Click here for a simple prayer book for kids. Click here for a prayer book for mums, including all the prayers just mentioned and more!
Family Fasting
Choosing to give up something as a family is a great way to share your sufferings and offer encouragement to one another. The family can all go without sweets or another favourite food, an activity like tv, music and swapping screen time for daily reading. You could make a promise to go to daily mass more often or attend more frequent confessions. You could also sit down together to discuss something each family member can do to contribute to daily family life, by each taking on an extra daily chore, like emptying the dishwasher each day, sweeping underneath the dinning table or bringing their little brother his milk bottle in bed each day.
At Home Stations of the Cross
Of course you could attend the weekly Stations of the Cross at your parish each week, but if late nights are a struggle for little ones with early bedtimes or hubby’s schedule doesn’t allow for an evening outing, you can do an at home Stations of the Cross. You could set it up in your backyard or around the house. Simply set up your stations and follow along in the prayers as a family. You will find everything you need here for your backyard stations, including printable colouring pages and prayer booklet, plus all the instructions for making you own backyard stations set. Alternatively If you would like to make an indoor set, find the printable coloured images and instructions here.
Make a Paper Mache Empty Tomb
Unleash your creative side and take on a Lenten project together with your children. A paper mache tomb is a great way to see through new eyes the resurrection account. You can use this as a model to reenact the story with your children leading up to Easter and on Easter Sunday. On Good Friday we place our little Jesus doll in the tomb and on Easter Sunday the stone is rolled away and He stands risen! Click here for a more in depth look of how I made it.
Garden tomb
If the thought of paper mache give you hives you could try making a garden tomb. See here for instructions on how to make your own. The barren tomb garden will spring forth with new life (hopefully) by Easter Sunday to the delight of your children’s eyes!
Write Down your Promises and Hide the Alleluia
A great little activity taken from the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is to “Hide the Alleluia.” What does this mean? As you know during Lent we do not say Alleluia at mass, nor do the children say it in the atrium. So the children would take the “Alleluia” prayer card and hide it away during Lent, then bring it back out in Easter. What you can do is write Alleluia on a piece of card, place it in a box, along with your written down Lenten promises. Place this under your home prayer table or bury it if you like! And of course remember not to use the word. Then on Easter Sunday you can bring out your Alleluia prayer card and truly appreciate the joy of Singing “Alleluia He is Risen!” You can also reflect on the fruits of your Lenten journey by looking back on the Lenten promise you wrote down. On Easter Sunday I like to set up our empty tomb, Alleluia sign and Sacrifice bowl (with eggs inside) all together on the dining table for the children to discover in the morning!
Lenten Wreath
Like Advent, Lent is a time of preparation, as well as sacrifice, preparing for the great and Holy feast of Easter! A great way to countdown to Easter and keep track of your Lenten progress, is to create a Lenten Wreath. The light of candles remind us of the light of Christ, and the wreath; the crown of thorns. In light of this it seems rather fitting to make a wreath for Lent as well as Advent. Place it, along with a crucifix as the focal point of your prayer table/space. See here instructions to make your own.
Grotto or Garden Chapel
As the summer heat dies down you may feel more inclined to go outside, so it is the perfect time to take on an outdoor Lenten project! To compliment your commitment to an increased prayer life an outdoor prayer space may be just the thing for you. This can be as simple or as complex as you like, note even the smallest of additions can make a big difference! I made a very simple space between two trees and it stands as a lovely reminder every time I walk by to stop and visit with the Lord for a few minutes. Click here to see my simple Garden Chapel.
Spend Time Reflecting on the Passion Together
Take some time to sit together and reflect on Jesus Passion. Read John’s Gospel account, and then take it a step further act it out! Have the children step into the role of Jesus, St Veronica, Mary or the soldiers. If you’re not the acting type use a model with figurines or even dress up the kids’ toys and make a setting out of household items, like pillows and sheets. Pray the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary together, reflecting on each mystery. If your children are old enough you could watch “The Passion of the Christ” as a family. Look with your children at artwork depicting the Passion. Don’t be afraid to expose them to the truths of Jesus suffering. If you can communicate well that Jesus did this by choice, all for the love of them, just watch their compassion overflow! Remember if you were the only person on earth Jesus would have done this all for you!
What are some of your Lenten traditions? Share in the comments below!
Originally posted 2018-02-28 15:00:41.