Lent 2010

Lent begins next week, and I've spent a little more time than usual thinking about it before Ash Wednesday drops on my head.  I ordered the book, Sacred Space for Lent 2010, to give me some focus during the season.  I ordered 2, and gave one to a friend.  I thought we could encourage each other to read from it daily.  When she asked me why I chose that one -- I answered honestly "The price . . ."  (It's $2.50)  But, now that I have it, I am glad I ordered it!  There is only 1 - 2 pages per day of reading and I think it will help me focus this season.

I also ordered Live Lent at Home: Daily Prayers and Activities for Families, in the hopes that it would help me guide the kids through the season as well.  I've looked through it, and think it'll be a nice resource for my family. There are things to think about, and suggestions -- but none of it seems difficult to do with the busy-ness of a family going on.

And, while there is no reason to purchase things for the season -- I made one more purchase for this Lent. As a family, we used to say a daily rosary fairly regularly.  It's a habit we fell away from when I was pregnant and sick with Lydia and it's one we never picked up again. I miss it, and the boys do as well, so I purchased a rosary CD from the Desert Nuns that live near us.  It includes all the mysteries, has some beautiful hymns sung, but my favorite part about it is that there is NO music behind the prayers.  I have other rosary CD's, but there is always some sort of background music which is distracting to me, and makes it difficult to hear the prayer.  (Since most rosary CD's have music, I am clearly in the minority.)  We won't use it every day, but it will help us get back in the rhythm of daily rosaries.

For almsgiving, the boys are going to ask for sponsors to donate money for each book read this Lenten season. We'll match the donations and send off a donation to Heifer International.  We've also committed to donating 25 cents for each kind deed, so we're hoping that we're able to provide a few honeybee hives, or perhaps a pig to a needy family.  I'll probably post about this project again, as we talked about it today but I haven't quite figured out all the details.

And the final piece is sacrifice.  Which I think is a rather private affair so I'm not going to share the things we've chosen to give up this year.

What about you?  Have you thought about Lent this year?  What are your plans?