Lent is the perfect season for us to recommit and strengthen our faiths. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are three ways that the Church encourages us to grow during our Lenten journey. Here in this post, I will share some activities you and your family may want to consider to dive deeper into this holy season of Lent.
My Lent Prayers:Â Some things you can do as an individual.
- Each day I will pray.. (Pray) and so you and your children can write what you want to pray every day (Divine Mercy Chaplet, read the Bible more, go to daily mass, adoration hour, daily devotional, longer prayer time, etc.) What can I do extra in my prayer life for God?
- What can I give up? (Fast) Usually we give up something that we enjoy —sweets, social media, a favorite food, TV, shopping, video games, a favorite toy, or movies. Encourage your family to pick something that’s challenging for them.
- My good works will be.. (Almsgiving) Some examples may include picking up an extra job around the house, donating some allowance to the church or to the poor, raking or cleaning up someone’s yard. Declutter my house, potty train my child you can always get creative.Â
Lent for Family: Some things that can be chosen to do together as a family.Â
- Each day we will pray…Consider praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet or a decade of the rosary together. You could also read the Mass readings for the day, go to daily Mass as a family, do a holy hour at church as a family once a week, or do the stations of the Cross with your family every Friday.
- What can we give up? Fast or abstain together. Maybe your family loves movie nights or going out to eat. You could also give up TV, candy, and sweets as a family.
- Our good works will be… As a family, what do you want to do to bless others or to bless God? Consider calling your local parish and and ask if you could help in some way. Other ideas include helping at a soup kitchen, visiting the lonely, maybe a nursing home, visiting the sick, or going to a grave and praying for the dead as a family. Pray about it and ask God how he wants you as a family to bless him.
Stations of the Cross
Another great thing to do as a family during Lent is ‘Stations of the Cross’ on Friday evenings. There are some great books and posters of each stations here if you wanted to do them at home this can help children walk you through the passion of Christ.Â
I highly recommend stations — I think it’s really important to teach our children what happened. I like the little kid versions because they’re a little more subtle and easier for kids to understand. I grew up going to stations of the cross every Friday during Lent at church.
To read along with my video, print out my Stations of the Cross here.
Simplify your Home
One of my favorite traditions is to strip everything off the walls —family pictures, artwork, etc. Get the house down to it’s bones. Take away pillows or blankets from the living room. Keep everything very minimal so that way when you look around your house , you are reminded that we are in a time of Lent. This is a time for avoiding chaos and distractions, as we want to focus on God during this time. Another alternative to this is to replace these things and maybe put purple around your house (curtains, pillows, tablecloths, candles, etc.) Purple is the color we use during Lent, as it is a reflection of the Passion of Christ.
I have an entirely new ministry called Faith in 5. It’s purpose is aimed at teaching the faith to our families. Every week there are five new questions, which can be printed out or downloaded on your phone. I have them as well. We’ve been doing this as a family every night, and it’s been really good. We’ve had some amazing discussions and questions. I have two writers who put these together. I highly recommend printing these out once a week and then you will have all your table topics with the kids! If you don’t know the answers to the questions, don’t worry, the answers are provided as well! To find Faith in 5 click here or just check it out at the top of this page! Â
The Lent Box
This one is simple! Get out a box and put one of everybody’s favorite things in it! Ask everyone to grab their favorite toy. It must be something that they are willing to part with for a little while. Place it in the Lent box, close it up and put it away for all of Lent. On Easter morning, open it back up and enjoy watching your kids get their missing toys back! Obviously you don’t want to go too crazy. My daughter Bella loves her blankie and goes no where without it, so I wouldn’t go that extreme.
Lenten Readings
Another thing you can do as a family is to read a chapter book with your kids. These books teach the faith in a simple, easy to understand way as it’s in story form. I have a great list on my Amazon wish list! There are so many of these. They are all about different saints —their lives, their stories. They are fun, interesting books to read even for us adults! There is Our Lady of Fatima and St Rose of Lima, St Therese, and so many more! I grew closer to God by reading about the saints! Maybe reading aloud to your kids every night can be the almsgiving activity for yourself our your husband! To see my favorite Chapter Books for kids, click here. (Also for 15% off everything at the Catholic Company )
What does your family do for Lent to help the kids go deeper? Obviously on Fridays, we don’t eat meat. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, we fast. Keep it at their level with ideas like “no sweets today.” It’s a good idea to do something that is different or set apart from how we eat the rest of the year. I hope some of these ideas are helpful. Please share your thoughts and ideas down below!
I hope you have a beautiful, Holy Lent. Until next time!
If you are looking to start your Easter shopping, check out all my Catholic Discount Codes here.Â
10 Responses
Awesome!!!
Thank u!!
Sue
Thank you for the charitable spirit doing this great evangelization of God’s people. God bless you.
Nice to have the planner !
Thank You!
Thank you so much for all you do! God bless you!
Very useful and great way to prepare, thank you so much.
I used it. Thank you!
I love this. Although I have completed my RCIA classes a while ago, I am still learning. I feel like learning just never ends, because revisiting a topic can open your eyes to something new and you can always listen to a new perspective. I am printing out the lent sheets for myself and my husband to complete. I also share your youtube channel to share your beautiful stories. Thank you for all you do! May the Lord continue to Bless you.
Thank you so much. I haven’t been to church in over 25 years. I’m going tonight and my daughter and grandchildren are going also.
God bless you for all your good
many thanks, Heather