Lenten Activities

This year I was not as organized with our Lenten activities as I was last year.  I never did make the salt dough crown of thorns, we only did the Stations of the Cross together once, and our Alleluia banner from last year got destroyed and I never made another one.  I really have no excuse, except for the fact that some years are better than others :)

The few things we did do this year that I really enjoyed were:

-our Lenten calendar that we made together with different sacrifices or acts of service for each day

-our morning devotion, which consisted of: our morning prayers (including the girls' daily prayer intentions that I would write in a cute little notebook), reading a couple stories from the Children's Bible as well as the daily reflection from our Lenten Mother Teresa book.  This idea was not mine, of course, it was taken from my favorite blog:  http://mychildiloveyou.blogspot.com/2013/01/morning-devotion.html.
The girls especially loved the bible stories, always wanting me to read more.  I especially loved hearing who or what they wanted to pray for each day...it was so sweet what they would come up with.

-our special Holy Thursday dinner representing food that may have been eaten at a Passover meal...find the symbolism of all the food here:  http://klinkersinkentucky.blogspot.com/2012/04/holy-week-treats-and-crafts.html.

-the homemade pretzels we made on Good Friday

Ella had to help too!

All the girls rolling the dough

The girls wanted to put together a "how to" video

The final result...not too bad

-the girls Good Friday sandwiches for lunch :)

-Holy Thursday mass and Good Friday services.  Paul and I split up due to a squirmy and quite loud 20 month old, so I took Rose and Ava with me both nights and we sat as close to the front as possible.  They loved watching Father wash the feet of the volunteers on Holy Thursday (in fact, they washed each others' feet the next morning trying to be like Jesus) and it helped them pay attention being up close.

-and the watching of the Passion.  The girls watched an animated version and Paul and I watched the adult version later that night.  It is always hard for me to watch (I still have to close my eyes in some parts), but it is such a good reflection for me on what really happened that day...all that Jesus went through...because of MY sins.

I also just started reading a book, thanks to Mollie's recommendation, called Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, which made everything more meaningful.  It explains how as Catholics, we can not fully understand the Eucharist and Jesus's words without understanding the Jewish roots of our faith...their traditions, beliefs and their culture leading up to the time of Jesus.  I am only two chapters into it, but it is already fascinating!

So, despite my slacking a bit during Lent this year, it really was a reflective and prayerful Holy Week.