Journey through Lent

Lent has begun.  Are you ready to go through the next 40 or 50 days of lent?  I am an Eastern Catholic and belong to the SYRO Malabar Church. We have 50 days of lent instead of 40. This lent is special to me since this is the first time I am actually helping George understand the meaning of Lent.  The beautiful fact is that more than me helping him understand I am the one who is learning a deeper meaning of Lent through all the activities I am making him do.  I guess that is what the Lord wants because George learns and understands his faith by seeing and watching me practice it.  There is no other better way to teach them other than through our own example.  If we are not doing it right then why blame the kid.  All those times I point my finger at him and correct his mistakes deep within I know that I did that mistake first and that is how my child now knows how to do it.

This Lenten season I am really reflecting upon what are the things that the Lord really wants changed in me.  I can give up many things during these 50 days but by the end of Lent what is the point if I am still the same person I used to be carrying on all my bad habits and sins.  I am praying that the Lord will help me to grow closer to him and help me change the many areas in my life which needs to be changed.  Here is a Lenten reflection by the International Pastor of the Catholic Movement called Jesus Youth (which I am part of).  Lenten Reflection   I just loved his reflection and really helped me to get another view point of this season.

Here are few activities I am doing with George so that it is more child like for my little guy.  We put the Crucifix and the statue of Pieta out at our prayer table.  Now we pray before the crucifix and Pieta during our morning prayer. I do have to answer 101 questions which George ask about the crucifix through out the day regarding why Jesus died?, why is he sad?, what is the statue of Pieta?, where does blood come from? and it goes on..  Yes, I do get tired of answering the same question several times a day but it is worth it because I don't want him to doubt about these things later.

I also created a Jesus Tree inspired by Jessica at Shower of Roses.  The second I read about it on her blog I fell in love with it.  I wanted to buy it but decided to save money and make it on my own.  It was fun making it but it is a lot of hard work.
 

First I traced out the tree on the paper looking at the pattern on Jessica's blog.  Afterwards I stapled it on to the felt and cut it out.  Then used tacky glue and pasted it on to the blue felt.  I tried doing this since last week but for some reason I did not get the time to go to the store to buy it.  Finally when I did go and this is after the noon mass with both the kids I drove up to the fabrics store.  I bought everything I needed and thankfully before the kids got cranky I was at the billing area. Well I guess God really wanted to see whether I was ready for the Lent by testing my patience.  I used my credit card and guess what??  It got declined. Ahh....what can I do at that moment?  I left everything there and got the kids back in the car and came back home with George crying and complaining that he did not want to go home. lol  I really thought at that point maybe God does not want me to do it.  But I was finally able to finish it last night.  I still have to make the ornaments for each day which I will make each day.  

Today we read the bible reading from the New Catholic Picture Bible about the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.  The ornament for today was two doves.  (St Joseph's offering of two pigeons at the temple) 

If you want to use this for your Lenten Journey with your kids and don't want to go through the hassle of making it you can also buy this at Leaflet Missal.  

We did a Lenten Calender also using the ideas of Jessica.  She has given all the details in how to make this calendar and made mine and the many others lives easier Lenten Calendar.

So yesterday morning George came to me asking for cookies and I told him we don't have it and normally when I say we don't have any he get very upset and irritated.  I was expecting the same thing to happen. Just for a trial I started bringing up the idea of offering it up us a sacrifice for Jesus.  I told him about the many poor boys who don't have anything to eat.  I did not expect him to understand at all but to my surprise he did not say anything and just asked me few questions about poor boys.  You have no idea how happy I was that it worked and he actually was happy to not eat the cookie.  So I gave him a cross to color and put it up on the calendar and he did.  It was a real experience for me as well as for him. 

I also made Lenten Sacrifice Beans for George.  Its a lot of fun to do this with him.  He so far has like 8 or 10 beans but every time he does something good I run with the bean bag and he enjoys putting it in them.  I hope in few days he himself will start telling me about putting bean when he does something good.

  

May God bless each one of you abundantly and help you to lead a a beautiful and spirit filled journey through this season of Lent.