Food for your Lenten journey

Lenten food:http://goodnessofthegarden.blogspot.com/ have a look.

Words to ponder on a Lenten Friday

Prayer Before a Crucifix
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus,
while before your face I humbly kneel; and with burning
soul I pray and beseech you to fix deep in my heart
lively sentiments of Faith, Hope and Charity, true
contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment.
I contemplate with great love and tender pity your five
wounds, pondering upon them within me, calling to
mind the words which David your prophet said of
you my Jesus,

"They have pierced my hands and my feet; they have numbered all my bones."

As we prepare our families for the Lenten season...

Tomorrow is "Fat Tuesday" and the following day is Ash Wednesday, our Church's official beginning of Lent.

Kate Wicker has some advice for families for Lent in her post titled, "Lent for Little Ones." She said, "My oldest daughter is only five, so I don't expect her draw a long list of sacrifices. However, it's my firm belief that even the smallest children can begin their journey to the cross with Jesus during Lent. Here are a few ways I make this liturgical season come alive for my little ones (and I'd love to have others share how they approach Lent with their kids as well):

1. We give up sweets as a family except on Sundays and special saints' feast days. I know this is cliche, but it's an easy sacrifice for kids to understand. It's also a good way to detox from all the sweets we scarfed down back in December. Now I consider myself an understanding mother, so I allow my children to savor their last treat on Fat Tuesday. (Who am I kidding? I NEED the last hooray for myself.) So on Tuesday night we'll be eating ice cream for dinner. It's our feast before the fast, and Madeline looks forward to it every year (I score some serious cool points for serving ice cream for dinner).

Visit Kate here at her blog to see her whole post.

Reflecting on our Blessed Mother...

Can a woman like me aspire to emulate such an amazing woman—the Virgin Mother of God, the first disciple, the matriarch of the Holy Family, and the Mother of the Church? Recalling instances in Mary’s life, we call to mind her gentleness, humility, holiness, perseverance, selflessness, and unwavering faith.

I ask myself this because I know I will never accomplish what our Blessed Mother has, or even come close to her holiness. Yet all women are called to holiness—whether in the sublime role of raising children, as a wife, as a single woman, or as a woman religious. And Mary demonstrates attributes and virtues that all women can emulate, whatever their vocation...

Go on over to CatholicMom.Com to see a reflection I wrote about the Blessed Mother.

Lenten Reflection: Searching

We are constantly searching for signs and wonders, never satisfied, always looking, seldom quiet or still enough to listen. Pope Benedict said, “As long as we live in the world, our relationship with God consists more in listening than in seeing; and even contemplation comes about, so to say, with eyes closed and thanks to the inner light lit within us by the Word of God.”

He said, “Human life is, in fact, a journey of faith and as such, progresses more in the shadows than in full light, and is not without moments of obscurity or even complete blackness.”

Each day we get up to face a new day. We may feel we have our lives figured out to a certain extent, but in actuality, we are always venturing into the unknown, walking in faith. Our Holy Father also told us that the Blessed Virgin “advanced in her own pilgrimage of faith day after day.” We should remember that although she was the mother of Jesus, she was human like us and needed to be steadfast in prayer to walk in faith.

Humbly listening to the voice of the Lord, Mary meditated on the Word of God through Scripture and through events in the life of her Son in which she knew and accepted as the voice of God.

By remaining close to our Lady, we can progress in our faith through the shadows of this Lent and the uncertain days ahead in our lives. We can seek the Blessed Mother’s help in our journey, asking her to teach us to be quiet so that we will be able to listen.

Our Lord is always present even when He seems obscure or absent. He is always waiting for us to communicate with Him and listen to His loving words to us. We have to learn how to be still to hear Him. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament help us to quiet our thoughts and move aside the clutter of our minds that gets in the way of a real communication with our Lord. Resting in our Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament will refresh our souls. Seeking out more time for prayer in the stillness of our hearts wherever we are in our walks of life will help us come closer to our Lord and His holy will for us.

Our Holy Father specifically told the faithful during Lent to “listen to Him in His Word, conserved in Holy Scripture…listen to it in the events of our own lives, seeking to read therein the messages of Providence,” and finally, “to listen to it in our brothers and sisters, especially in the smallest and the poorest, towards whom Jesus Himself calls for a concrete display of our love.”

Jesus gives us this message through His Vicar on earth asking us to begin to truly listen for Him. We can take some time out each day to pick up the Bible, the Divine Office or the Readings of the day and after reading, pause to listen. We can be more attentive to the nitty-gritty of our lives and the events that fill our days. Nothing is a coincidence. Is our Lord speaking to us?

We need to look outside ourselves and find the “smallest” and the “poorest” in our families and in our neighbors and coworkers and respond with a “concrete display of our love.”

Pope Benedict told us that our Lord “always speaks to us, and expects us to pay the greatest attention, especially in this period of Lent.” Our Lord is speaking to us. Do we hear Him?


Go on over to These Forty Days and see my Lenten Reflection.

Releasing souls from Purgatory

Check out this post at "These Forty Days" to see how you can aid the souls in Purgatory this Lent.

Ash Wednesday thoughts

God bless your Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time to repent and repair. We should be prayerful, of course and mindful that we need to make up for our past sins. What more better time to do so than Lent? As Catholics, we are blessed with the Liturgical seasons and now here we are in Lent. A great time to ponder and pray.

We may wonder what to give up, how about "getting up" a little earlier for those of us who can to get to at least a couple of extra Masses during the week. If we can't get out due to small children health issues, or other obligations, we can use that extra time to pray. We can commit to a daily Rosary which will take fifteen or twenty minutes of our time but will be life-changing!

If you get a chance, please listen to the radio segment which is posted under this post some place to hear my conversation with Teresa Tomeo when we discussed some Lenten ideas. Then, afterwards, take a few minutes to think about which "thief" you will be, the one on the left or the right of Jesus? You'll need to listen to the segment to understand fully what I mean.

You can also go over to "These Forty Days" for Lenten inspiration. The information is in a post below. That's it for now. It's a busy day.

God bless you as you embark upon your Lenten journey! Let's pray that it's the best one yet!

God bless and hugs,

Donna-Marie

Taking time to speak with Our Lord

Some words to calm us and guide us during Lent..."It is good when a soul loves solitude; it's a sign that it takes delight in God and enjoys speaking with Him."~St. Jane Frances de Chantal

More on Lent

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Penitential Practices for Today’s Catholics:

“Fridays During Lent — In the United States, the tradition of abstaining from meat on each Friday during Lent is maintained.

“Fridays Throughout the Year — In memory of Christ’s suffering and death, the Church prescribes making each Friday throughout the year a penitential day. All of us are urged to prepare appropriately for that weekly Easter that comes with each Sunday.”

Ash Wednesday, Good Friday

Canon 1251: “Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless (nisi) they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Canon 1252: “All persons who have completed their 14th year are bound by the law of abstinence; all adults are bound by the law of fast up to the beginning of their 60th year. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.”

Canon 1253: “It is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.”

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Penitential Practices for Today’s Catholics:

“Traditionally, the canonical obligation of fasting has been understood in the Church as the taking of only one full meal a day.”

Lent Stuff

Hi Everyone,

I'll be posting my segment soon (maybe later today) from my radio show with Teresa Tomeo this morning. We discussed things to do and maybe not to do during Lent. I'll be having regular posts over at "These Forty Days" Blog all throughout Lent. The link is in the post below this one. Check that out when you get a chance because there is a lot of great stuff there from others too.

I'll also offer suggestions here for your Lenten journey.

God bless you!

Donna-Marie

Check out my Lenten article...

Check out my Lenten article, "A Mother's Lenten Strtegies" over at These Forty Days

I'll be posting excerpts from my book, "The Domestic Church: Room by Room" throughout Lent over at "These Forty Days."

God bless you as you prepare for Lent.

Donna-Marie

Tune in tomorrow for "Mom's Corner"

I may be on a little sooner than 9:15 AM Eastern time tomorrow morning on my "Mom's Corner" segment with Teresa Tomeo on Catholic Connection, Ave Maria Radio. Check below in the post with the photo of Teresa and me for details for tuning in.

God bless!

Donna-Marie

Mary De Turris Poust shares this for Lent...

Mary De Turris Poust, a Catholic Mom, author and a contributing editor for Our Sunday Visitor newspaper recently wrote an article about Lenten family traditions in which she offers us some ideas and resources for Lent.

She said on her blog, Not Strictly Spiritual, "I recently wrote an article on Lenten family traditions for Our Sunday Visitor, a national Catholic news weekly for whom I am a contributing editor. I thought some of you might like to hear what other people are doing to celebrate this special season. Some families go the whole nine yards, giving up TV for the entire season of Lent. Whoa! We are nowhere near that level of holiness at our house. Give up watching Lost? But I waited so patiently for new episodes to begin -- almost simultaneously with Lent. Bad timing. Anyway, here’s the article with some great ideas from some really cool people and a few links to other Lenten resources as well."

I feel very honored to have been mentioned in Mary's article, 'Making Lent More Meaningful."


Read her article by clicking here.