Posted in Christianity

I cannot believe how fast the two months between Christmas and Ash Wednesday flew by!  I realized last week that Lent was starting soon.  My first reaction was to cancel Lent (although when the College of Cardinals elected me pope I don't know) but last night I sat down and looked through the three books I have about celebrating the liturgical year.  Because of me hurting my back and being exhausted and our six times a week tutoring or speech therapy schedule, I knew that anything complicated or anything that required going out was not going to happen.

A few years back the children and I made small purple crosses out of those sheets of foam and every Lent we put one up on all the doors in the house.  In the middle of the cross, we stamped the Fatima Prayer: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Your mercy.  These crosses are just a visible reminder to pray more during Lent.

Here's a closer view so you can see the stamp.  It doesn't stand out too much because it's blue ink on purple.

From looking through my books, I came up with the idea of making a large purple cross out of another sheet of foam, which I already had.  Then as I lay in bed last night, I fleshed out the idea to come up with this:

This morning I cut out the large cross and hung it up above our kitchen table.  Then I printed out the words and cut them in roughly egg shape.  Since I had leftover purple foam, I put a piece behind each word so it would stand out.  Those are the four things we are supposed to do in Lent: pray, fast, give, and sacrifice.  Whenever one of us does one of those things, we will go over to an envelope hanging on the wall just to the left of the picture which has little white stickers in it (really cut up mailing labels because I had to use what I had on hand), and take a sticker and put it on the cross.  Throughout Lent we will be gradually turning the purple cross white, so that it will be entirely white by Easter.  We have made a good start!

Since the Lord gave me wisdom, once I stopped being tired long enough to ask for it, I wanted to share this idea on my blog. Lent is definitely not cancelled!

May your Lenten sacrifices bring you closer to Him!