Lent with the Landreneaus

Lent.

I love Lent.

I love the simplicity, the desert, the growing, the stretching, the sacrifice, the fasting.

I love the universality of this season. I love knowing that all the faithful are growing, fasting, sacrificing together. I love seeing ashes on the foreheads of complete strangers on Ash Wednesday.

I love the anticipation of the Resurrection...spending almost seven weeks contemplating the Cross...His mercy, our sin, His suffering, our redemption. Being reminded of how much I needed my sweet Savior to die on that cross, yet hating the idea of God having to suffer so horrendously so that I could be with Him forever.

Knowing that He had a plan when Adam and Eve left Paradise...a promise that He would come for us, save us, draw us near to Him again, all because of a love so unbelievably immense that He couldn't bear to not have us with Him.

Remembering that He led with service, washing the feet of those dearest to Him.

Remembering the night he instituted the Holy Eucharist, His sacred Body and Blood, and how greatful I am for a Church filled with holy priests, His servants, who pour their lives out that we, the people, might receive Him daily, so that our lives may be made holy.

These are my prayers for my children, that as they grow and mature in their faith, they will hold dear all of these truths.

Lent looks different every year in our home. Some years, last year in particular, I've had the best laid plans only to have God choose something completely different for us. It's hard to let go of my plans, but His always prove to be better, more sanctifying. So this year, I've got lots of things ready to go, but I'm holding them all loosely, wondering what our Lord might have up His sleeve for our family. One thing I did this year to enhance the visual effect (similar to leaving our Christmas tree bare for all of Advent) was to remove several things from our living room. Not much, but enough to notice the bareness. I filled two metal vases with bunches of sticks to remind us that this is a dry, desert time, but that new life will spring forth...and that it's worth waiting for!

Our days begin with our Lenten calendar. I got this idea from Jessica (who just so happens to be the QUEEN of living the liturgical year in way cool and fun ways with her brood). So far, this has been awesome. I love that we are covering all three parts: prayer, fasting, almsgiving. The stars show that we've completed our commitments for the day, and as nice as it is for the kids to see those stars, it's totally an accountability thing for me which is great.

In the mornings, we pray our morning offering, offering up our intention of the day. Then we pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. Next comes the counting of the object of the day and counting pennies for the rice bowl. They think this is such great fun and are trying to find extras to count so they can give more.

Right after dinner, we do our Jesus Tree. Jessica has each week linked on her sidebar with color sheets for each symbol. The kids color while Phil or I read. We did this with the Jesse Tree and they loved it, so I knew this would be a hit.

Tonight we prayed the Stations of the Cross. It was interesting to say the least. We lit 14 tealight candles in front of our crucifix on the prayer table. The kids took turns blowing out a candle when we finished praying each station. Phil explained to them that by the time we finished, it would be dark, just as it was when Jesus died on the cross and the sky went black. That part was beautiful. Trying to keep the toddler from singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out ALL of the candles, not so beautiful. I also made a Stations of the Cross box (made it last year, but not until Holy Week, so we never got to use it) based on the idea here. This was a hit, though I might be making one for each of them next year!

Starting next week, we will do one Catholic Mosaic book for Lent/Easter each week, with a craft, copywork, discussion, etc. I'm really looking forward to this! We've loved using this book more over the last few months. The book selections are wonderful.

So that's the majority of the "stuff" of our Lent. Of course, there are those things for the grown- ups that are kept secret, but these are the things we do with our children to enrich their journey. There are lots of wonderful, intimate conversations about salvation, the cross, suffering, the Eucharist, and Our Lady, that have been happening and will surely continue to. These are the moments where all this "stuff" meets the hearts of our children and brings all of us closer to Our Lord. I remind them (and myself) over and over that none of this "stuff" matters one bit if it's not drawing closer to the foot of the Cross, to the throne of God.

Are we inviting Him into our hearts more?

Are we creating a place to welcome Him there?

Lord, be with us this Lenten season. Draw near to us as we seek your face, as we remember this road you walked for our salvation.