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WELCOME TO Week four |
Prayer
Candle Prayer (Send a Candle Prayer)
Lighting candles to represent prayers in a tradition that spans many centuries, countries, and religious traditions. Candle flames are a simple way to make the prayers of our hearts visible. (Choose wax or battery-operated candles depending on the ages represented in your household, and remember never to leave wax candles unattended!)
*Taken from Faithful Families: For Lent, Easter, and Resurrection
- Send a candle prayer. Light a candle and take a picture. Send it to someone you are praying for with a message: "This candle is a prayer for you. Thinking of you and sending you love."
*Taken from Faithful Families: For Lent, Easter, and Resurrection
Candle Prayer (Specific Prayer)
Lighting candles to represent prayers in a tradition that spans many centuries, countries, and religious traditions. Candle flames are a simple way to make the prayers of our hearts visible. (Choose wax or battery-operated candles depending on the ages represented in your household, and remember never to leave wax candles unattended!)
- Specific prayer. When you have something specific to pray for, say the prayer out loud and then light the candle. "God, this candle is my prayer for_____." When you extinguish the candle, say, "Hear my prayer. Amen."
Simplicity
Enjoy More Fruits and Vegatables
Instead of: Giving up meat
Try: Enjoying more fruits and vegetables
Ecologists and climatologists tell us that the amount of meat we consume has a tremendous negative effect on the planet. There's great value in consuming less meat and going vegetarian, even for one meal per week. But instead of focusing on giving up meat, turn your focus to enjoying vegetables and fruits. Diets are unique to each family and culture, so I hesitate to speak specifically about what foods to eat and how (clergy and ministry leaders, we would do well to remember this), but a simple challenge to enjoy a bounty of fruits and vegetables is one way to gradually decrease our consumption of meat.
Lenten challenge for enjoying fruits and vegetables: How many different preparations or types of fruits and vegetables can you try this Lent?
Try: Enjoying more fruits and vegetables
Ecologists and climatologists tell us that the amount of meat we consume has a tremendous negative effect on the planet. There's great value in consuming less meat and going vegetarian, even for one meal per week. But instead of focusing on giving up meat, turn your focus to enjoying vegetables and fruits. Diets are unique to each family and culture, so I hesitate to speak specifically about what foods to eat and how (clergy and ministry leaders, we would do well to remember this), but a simple challenge to enjoy a bounty of fruits and vegetables is one way to gradually decrease our consumption of meat.
Lenten challenge for enjoying fruits and vegetables: How many different preparations or types of fruits and vegetables can you try this Lent?
Sit in Silence for Three Minutes and Use Your Senses
Instead of: Listening to a podcast or music or watch TV
Try: Lenten Challenge: Sitting in silence
Kenny preached a few Sundays ago and encouraged us to sit in silence and do these things much like Samuel:
Try: Lenten Challenge: Sitting in silence
Kenny preached a few Sundays ago and encouraged us to sit in silence and do these things much like Samuel:
- Find a space outside or inside that is the most quiet.
- Be still and know that God is Love
- Sit for three minutes - what can you hear? What can you smell? What can you feel? What can you see?
- Think about what you love to do and know that God loves you while you do it.
- Consider how you can use what you love to do to be a blessing to someone else
Act
Spread Kindness
What we know about Jesus’ death is that he was so kind and positive throughout his life and up to the point of death. With people not liking Jesus when he was alive and being mean to him. Jesus kept on spreading kindness and love towards everyone. While you are thinking about how to be kind to others, when they might be mean to you. Look for different rocks around your home, school, church, sports fields, etc. Pick up a rock that speaks to you and decorate the rock. After the rock dries, put it somewhere in the community that other people can see. If you see a rock that has a kind message on it, pick it up and place (do not throw) it in another open space for other people to see. As children of God, we need to spread kindness throughout the world around us.
Almsgiving
Giving to the poor is a key feature of most of the world's religions. In Christianity, giving is especially important during Lent. Almsgiving is one of the three traditional Lenten "pillars," along with prayer and fasting. This practice is modified for families to be an offering of food, rather than money. Food is a tangible thing for young minds to grasp and it also offers an opportunity to talk about hunger in your community.
Designed for Ages 6+
Materials
Time Investment
30 minutes to make the box, 1 minute per day for 40 days, and time to deliver the box to the organization receiving the food.
How To
Notes
Variations
Designed for Ages 6+
Materials
- Large cardboard box
- Materials for decorating the box
- Paper
- Markers
- Tape
- Glue
Time Investment
30 minutes to make the box, 1 minute per day for 40 days, and time to deliver the box to the organization receiving the food.
How To
- Before the 40-day period of food collecting is to begin, research a food pantry or nonprofit organization that would welcome 40 food items at the end of your collection period. The best match is an organization that accepts a wide variety of food items. One of the goals of the practice is for children to choose items they enjoy and to think about how these items will benefit others. Be sure to check and bring food items that are useful to the organization.
- On Ash Wednesday (or when you start), the first day of Lent, explain to the family that one of the pillars of Lent is to give alms. Alms are a monetary sacrifice to help people in need. Tell your family that your alms will be to give one food item per day from your pantry.
- Decorate the bow and label it "The Giving Box." As you are decorating, talk about the practice and how it will work: each day one family member will select something from the pantry to put in the box of food will be delivered to the organization that has been selected.
- For each of the 40 days, take turns putting an item in the box. Choose a time of day to do this that fits into your family routine (at the beginning or end of dinner, first thing in the mourning, last thing at the end of the day, etc.) Talk about hunger every day, what would you pray for?
- Deliver the food as a family after Lent (or the 40 days) is over.
Notes
- One focus of almsgiving is to give out of our sustenance, not our excess. For this reason I suggest you challenge family members to choose their favorite foods for the box. Try not to "censor" what goes in the box. If a child chooses a box of cereal that you were planning to use for the weekly breakfasts, challenge yourselves to eat something different for breakfast. If someone chooses a canned good that was needed for supper, go without and talk about how it feels to make changes or sacrifices for others.
- Make sure all food is unopened, unexpired, and is appropriate for the demographic that will receive the food.
Variations
- Find an organization that needs gently used household goods and choose one item from your house per day for 40 days.
- Give money each day for 40 days.
- Take the food weekly instead of storing it up for the entire 40 days.
- Do the activity during any 40 day period of time, not only Lent.
- Try to give one food item per day for an entire year.
Sources
Materials taken from excerpts of:
- Faithful Families for Lent, Easter, and Resurrection by Traci Smith (Chalice Press; 2021, All Reserved Rights)
- Faithful Families Creating Sacred Moments at Home by Traci Smith (Chalice Press; 2017, All Reserved Rights)