Advent wreaths and calendars are a fairly common approach to preparing for Christmas, but during Lent it can be more difficult to keep our eyes focused on Easter when we have less visual reminders of the season that we are in. Here are two simple ideas to create a suitable visual reminder in your house this Lenten season.
What you will need for Option one – Create a Lenten wreath
- Branches (that are easy to bend or shape) or a coat hanger and fabric cut into strips
- Purple fabric, cloth or placemat
- Candles
- Crucifix
What to do:
Lenten wreath – in a penitential take on the Advent wreath you could create your own wreath from cuttings from plants in your garden and work them into a wreath.
Use string to tie them together for added stability.
Alternatively, you could bend a wire coat hanger into a circle and cut strips of purple fabric/paper/ribbon, or whatever colour you’d prefer, and tie in knots to create your wreath.
Add some candles – there are six weeks in Lent so you will need 6 candles plus one for Holy Week which I suggest purchasing in a different colour. You could opt for a similar style to Advent in purple and pink (5 purple, 1 pink and 1 red for Holy Week) or if you’d like to keep things a little more muted in colour you go use plain beeswax candles and one alternate candle for Holy Week.
And a crucifix – a small, freestanding one is ideal, otherwise you could set up your Lenten wreath/prayer space underneath a hanging crucifix in your house.
What you will need for Option two – Create a candle cross:
- Candles
- Purple fabric, cloth or placemat
- Candles – arrange your candles so they form a cross on top of the purple cloth.
Prayer challenge:
Each day this week, set aside a few minutes to light one candle and offer one Our Father for the intention of the Church.
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Check out the other posts in this Lenten Calendar HERE.
Originally posted 2015-02-19 22:04:47.