Lent 2010: Suggestions?

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FishHookOpenEye

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While I have been Catholic my whole life, I have only recently begun to take my faith seriously. Because of this, I really want to use this Lent to grow closer to God. What I’m unsure about, however, is how to go about this. When I was younger, the kids at school would give up candy or something like that, but if I do something like that, I really want it to mean something. What have ya’ll done during Lents past that has been beneficial? Anything that did not go as well? I really want this Lent to mean something and I’d appreciate any helps. Thanks!
 
Why not give up one of your luxuries that you enjoy on a regular basis and use the money you save to give to the poor or to the Church?
 
FishHookOpenEye said:
While I have been Catholic my whole life, I have only recently begun to take my faith seriously. Because of this, I really want to use this Lent to grow closer to God. What I’m unsure about, however, is how to go about this. When I was younger, the kids at school would give up candy or something like that, but if I do something like that, I really want it to mean something. What have ya’ll done during Lents past that has been beneficial? Anything that did not go as well? I really want this Lent to mean something and I’d appreciate any helps. Thanks!
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I got the perfect thing for you! I called Pope Benedict XVI and asked him …:rolleyes:

here is his answer:

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20091030_lent-2010_en.html
 
FishHookOpenEye said:
While I have been Catholic my whole life, I have only recently begun to take my faith seriously. Because of this, I really want to use this Lent to grow closer to God. What I’m unsure about, however, is how to go about this. When I was younger, the kids at school would give up candy or something like that, but if I do something like that, I really want it to mean something. What have ya’ll done during Lents past that has been beneficial? Anything that did not go as well? I really want this Lent to mean something and I’d appreciate any helps. Thanks!
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You don’t have to “give something up” for Lent. You can also do something that you would not normally do, like attend Mass during the week, say the rosary everyday, or maybe even volunteer at your local homeless shelter. The idea for Lent is to turn away from the secular world and focus on the divine.
 
Several years ago my family started memorizing a new prayer every Lent and Advent. We realized there were a lot of prayers we had never tackeled. Our list includes: the Angelus, the Memorare, the Fatima Prayer, the beatitudes, the Divine Praises, the Anima Christi, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, The prayer after the rosary, and the St. Micharel Prayer to name a few. Living our Catholic Faith took on a new meaning and our three children took it as a challenge to learn the prayers. Now that we are empty nesters my husband and I are continueing the tradition.
Other suggestions that I have done during lent: fast from snacking but at the same time fast from stepping on the scale.
I have a bad habit of not fully stopping at stop signs in our rural area so made that my lenten journey one year. Stop long enough to send up a prayer of praise. After all the idea is to do something that can improve our lives and build GOOD habits.
 
FishHookOpenEye said:
While I have been Catholic my whole life, I have only recently begun to take my faith seriously. Because of this, I really want to use this Lent to grow closer to God. What I’m unsure about, however, is how to go about this. When I was younger, the kids at school would give up candy or something like that, but if I do something like that, I really want it to mean something. What have ya’ll done during Lents past that has been beneficial? Anything that did not go as well? I really want this Lent to mean something and I’d appreciate any helps. Thanks!
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I’m spending more time with my mother in law and taking her with me on more shopping trips. (I’m serious. )

She’s a very nice woman with a heart of gold, but she’s very anxious and can be difficult to be around sometimes.
 
I forgot to mention in my first post that when we learn those new prayers we continue to use them on a regular basis as a family. When the kids were teens we started kind of a “team huddle” and would stand together and say the St Michael Prayer asking for protection before they left the house for their activitis or out with friends etc.
 
I’m planning on reducing the amount of time I spend on the computer at home by spending time doing Lectio Divina every night.
 
The three traditional aspects of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It seems like most people focus on fasting, either from food or from something else. Perhaps it would be more meaningful for you to focus on one of the other aspects.

You could spend more time in prayer each day.
You could try out a form of prayer that you don’t normally do such as Lectio Divina.
You could add some spiritual reading to your schedule, perhaps a biography of a saint or something written by a saint.
You could go to Mass an additional day during the week.
You could go on a retreat.

And you could come up with a similar list for almsgiving.

Pray about what might help you to become a better disciple and focus on that during Lent.
 
I subscribe to Dish Network, for my TV service; I usually call them and suspend my service during lent. Then instead of watching TV I do spritual reading and listen to Catholic radio (it’s helpful that I also have Sirius satelite radio, so I can listen to EWTN). When you suspend your service, Dish Network, charges you only a small fee, instead of your normal monthly fee (something like $5.00), to keep your acount curent - then if you want you can give the usual monthly fee to a charity, or put it in the colection basket, in church. When lent is over you just call them back up and ask then to restore your service.
Code: 
 You can probably do the same with your cable company or Direct TV.

 Have a holy lent,

 Danny
 
I think for penance I would have to force myself to watch tv, life is so peaceful without it! LOL

But seriously, I am also wanting a closer walk and Lent is perfect for that. I have begun doing penitantial art and offering it as reparation for all the sacrilege that goes on in the art world.

You don’t have to be a skilled artist to do penitential art. Just take any classical religious theme and choose a disposable medium and spend some time each day making something in that theme, and you can destroy it as part of the process if you don’t want to keep the results.

I am making crucifixes from papier-mache using all household recycled material, and if you wanted, you could do this or do other things like sew one patch each day for a Lenten quilt and then give it to a shelter or a benefit raffle, doing this by hand so that you can be quietly sitting in prayer while you do it. There are lots of activities like this and people with attention/concentration issues can often pray better while occupied with an activity (one of my reasons for using this method)
 
littlequestion said:
I think for penance I would have to force myself to watch tv, life is so peaceful without it! LOL

But seriously, I am also wanting a closer walk and Lent is perfect for that. I have begun doing penitantial art and offering it as reparation for all the sacrilege that goes on in the art world.

You don’t have to be a skilled artist to do penitential art. Just take any classical religious theme and choose a disposable medium and spend some time each day making something in that theme, and you can destroy it as part of the process if you don’t want to keep the results.

I am making crucifixes from papier-mache using all household recycled material, and if you wanted, you could do this or do other things like sew one patch each day for a Lenten quilt and then give it to a shelter or a benefit raffle, doing this by hand so that you can be quietly sitting in prayer while you do it. There are lots of activities like this and people with attention/concentration issues can often pray better while occupied with an activity (one of my reasons for using this method)
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I really like your suggestion, thank you! 👍
 
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