Tuesday, March 8, 2011

A couple of Lenten ideas

This year, my 4-year-old is very excited about Pascha--already! It's hard for him to grasp how far it is away still. I saw this great magnetic door craft, but since we have a tiny fridge I decided to just do a paper chain this lent.

My son and I used a calendar to count down the days of "of preparing" left until Pascha. Weekdays and Saturdays are purple, Sundays are white with their name printed on them (ie. Orthodoxy Sunday, St. Mary of Egypt Sunday etc.), the Annunciation is in blue and Holy week is black.We are already enjoying the count down...hopefully our enthusiasm can last all of Lent!

I'm also doing a Lenten diary with my son. I cut printer paper in half, put a half sheet of purple on the outside, folded and stapled it in the middle. So far entries are: "What was your favorite part of Forgiveness Vespers?" and a tiny 4-year-old reflection on the story of St. Kevin and the bird's nest. The next question I'll try is asking him "Why do we clean things and ourselves?"

 I'm making up questions everyday because I'm not the most organized person, but next year I'll have it down! So far, I'm liking the result because it is also making me think about the things I do with him. Often I forget that I don't have to be reading my Bible or the Fathers to benefit spiritually...I just need to take even a little bit of time to reflect.

 May you all have a blessed Lent!

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