You know Lent is coming when the fast food stores start advertising their fish sandwich...
The Catholic tradition isn't so much we eat fish on Fridays in Lent but that we don't eat meat as a small sacrifice united with that great sacrifice Christ made on Good Friday. The other traditional Lenten practices are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
For prayer, this Lent I will use A Year with the Church Fathers by Mike Aquilina. It has a daily excerpt from one of the Church Fathers with a reflection question and concluding prayer. The book has been on my shelf for a while and has been begging for a start. We still do a morning devotion and night prayers with the children. Sometimes I skip the night prayer because of other activities, something I will try to not do for Lent.
For fasting, I am continuing the tradition I picked up from SciFiCatholic (who now blogs at deusexmagicalgirl.com) of fasting from fiction (written fiction, that is). Of course, it won't look like I have because of a big backlog of graphic novel reviews that are sprinkled throughout Lent, but trust me, I read them all in January and February. I plan on reading English Catholic Heroes, Fearless: Stories of American Saints, and Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week by Pope Benedict XVI.
I'm also giving up beer for Lent. The money I save will go toward buying groceries to donate to a local food bank, which naturally segues into almsgiving!
For almsgiving, in addition to the additional support for the food bank, we have a list of requests from the children's religious education classes for donations to local charities. We will do that as well.
I hope you have a good Lent if you're observing it.
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| Cod, because you love God |
The Catholic tradition isn't so much we eat fish on Fridays in Lent but that we don't eat meat as a small sacrifice united with that great sacrifice Christ made on Good Friday. The other traditional Lenten practices are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
For prayer, this Lent I will use A Year with the Church Fathers by Mike Aquilina. It has a daily excerpt from one of the Church Fathers with a reflection question and concluding prayer. The book has been on my shelf for a while and has been begging for a start. We still do a morning devotion and night prayers with the children. Sometimes I skip the night prayer because of other activities, something I will try to not do for Lent.
For fasting, I am continuing the tradition I picked up from SciFiCatholic (who now blogs at deusexmagicalgirl.com) of fasting from fiction (written fiction, that is). Of course, it won't look like I have because of a big backlog of graphic novel reviews that are sprinkled throughout Lent, but trust me, I read them all in January and February. I plan on reading English Catholic Heroes, Fearless: Stories of American Saints, and Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week by Pope Benedict XVI.
I'm also giving up beer for Lent. The money I save will go toward buying groceries to donate to a local food bank, which naturally segues into almsgiving!
For almsgiving, in addition to the additional support for the food bank, we have a list of requests from the children's religious education classes for donations to local charities. We will do that as well.
I hope you have a good Lent if you're observing it.
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