Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Ash Wednesday

Lent begins today with Joseph serving Ash Wednesday Mass. Because Japanese class followed Mass, we had an opportunity to witness to our teacher, who had never heard of Ash Wednesday before. I think she thought it was a little strange, but who knows. We're just planting seeds.

Black beans and rice for dinner, in a recipe from Lent and Easter in the Christian Kitchen, a small, but very useful Catholic cookbook by Laurie N. Gill and Teresa Zepeda.

Our home altar is almost bare, with only a purple cloth, a bottle of holy water, and a picture of Jesus at the last supper with the words Lent 2010 on it. The seasonal table in the front hall has Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son and 14 candles, one for each station of the cross, which we will light when we do family stations on Wednesday evenings.

After the littlest ones are in bed, we will gather for family prayer. John is going to introduce us to lectio divina. If we learn to meditate on scripture as a family, it will help all of us grow closer to God, to hear God speaking to us through our family life. I am looking forward to learning this truly Catholic method of meditation and to .

*working on photos

If you have a minute, please say a little prayer that our Lent calendars arrive soon. I ordered them a bit too late, I guess, as they are not here yet. The kids use them to put stickers on for each day's sacrifice or act of love. It helps them so much. Especially Matthew who still thinks that a sacrifice is not eating what you didn't really want to eat today anyway.

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