Family LENT Practices that are low cost, and engaging for all the Family

Say goodbye to After Epiphany  by eating pancakes on TUESDAY. A Traditional way of preparing for a fast, but a fun way to mark the start of this important season. Can you connect your eating with your Faith, I love vegemite(yes i am an Aussie) and I connect this with the sorrow and loss to come on Good Friday, the saltiness of the tears to be shed, the darkness or the experience. One of my daughter’s likes lemon and sugar, she see’s Lent as a time of sweet and bitter stories and events. I wonder what you will share? Pray as you eat or make your pancake together. And though we do this at breakfast there have been occasions where it has been an afterschool snack. or dessert following our evening meal.

If your church does not do an Ash Wednesday service by zoom or if able face to face, try to mark this special day at home.

FAMILY FAITH PRACTICES AT HOME

If your faith community does not have a Lent practice, be it fasting, giving up something, having a family time of prayer of Bible reading or singing, or 40 days of goodwill acts. This might be the time to find something to mark the Lent days. http://sacraparental.com/2016/01/08/lent-with-kids-how-to-create-a-household-lent-plan/?fbclid=IwAR14kc_3deU8PAqC_3mSbnaRb8qh53hGLfqxUTSlpjN2xdxpuPG2Zl8c3LI

or https://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2014/03/weekly-lenten-disciplines-for-households.html?fbclid=IwAR2QbPdmXAC5gVNNmK7g7vedzu_Mpjo3ZCSDdFu0yqcxB0PpixAdPprat-4

OR https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/93773350/posts/2586325834

OR sign up to get the free Lent study for the Jesus Storybook Bible https://www.faithgateway.com/jesus-storybook-bible-lent-easter-printables-sally-lloyd-jones/

all have great suggestions.

Then make time for a special prayer time on Wednesday. Look for the suggestions on this site for the Revised Common Lectionary readings for the day.

If you have had your Palm cross on your door since last year, you could burn this and make a drawing of a cross with its ashes to hang on the fridge this Lent as a reminder that it is a special time. (Another option if you don’t want to burn the cross, or you can not do this safely) is to draw a picture of the cross with Conte or charcoal stick.

OR https://buildfaith.org/singing-in-the-dark/?fbclid=IwAR1e1myT_SgWHQtpdGFYwYLIu4StQv5DXAJN_CcYxsZHASJttdORsrXUoac

offers another option.

This year I am using one of the templates Praying in Color are making available for Lent, and I am pairing this with Ann Voskamps Lent of More God. For children, i would just let them draw and pray in the template spaces.

If you are using an adult devotional, rather than doing something that you think your soul needs, and finding something for the kids, share what you are doing with them. Answer there questions as you would anything other question, and adjust anything to their understanding just as you would with anything else. Remember, you are thier first teacher, and it’s ok if they teach you a thing or 2 along the way.

Two Studies I like that can be purchased

are Illustrated Ministries Lent resources

OR Sanctified Arts  

Which also has a free Children’s version

So why would you have a Lenten practice?

I definitely didn’t when I was growing up, in fact I was the downright annoying cousin who made it clear that when my Catholic Cousins started fasting for Lent, well, that I didn’t have to. We marked the start of Lent with pancakes for breakfast and my family pretty much coasted in until Good Friday.

I was such the loser.

From young, my cousins learnt something I had to gain later, that the spiritual practice of recognising Lent has very positive affirming benefits.

I made this discovery way to late to share it with my own family as children, though they all get an annoying message from Mum to enjoy a pancake today because Lent starts tomorrow. It is never too late to start good family faith formation practices.

At some time in my Theological Studies, I started taking the practice of Lent seriously.

I have enjoyed Mardi Gras in Merida, and then the still ness of the next mornings as Mass is rung out in the city square, and the excited sound of people interacting is hushed.  The darkness of the interior of the church only helped to shift the pace, though maybe it was the knowledge that this was built by stolen Inca temple stones also added to my unease. IN this experience I learnt the respect for contrast and the importance of finding silence in the season, so continued a meditative practice for the 40 days, till I celebrated it with my home congregation.

I walked this labyrinth in San Juan

to mark the start of Lent one year and finished the season walking another, in another hemisphere. That season I deliberately worshipped away from my home congregation through out Lent, and learnt to appreciate their differences more, but used the time specifically to selfishly seek guidance for a heart call. Which was actually answered.

I have tried to do too many studies, and discovered it is best to choose one, and see it through.

I look forward to seeing Christine Sine’s Lent garden, and keep promising one day I will also make that my Lenten practice. 

Maybe your family like to sing or listen to music, you could learn a new Christain song each day or create a spotify list for listening to. Try for Bible passage based songs, or Colin Buchanan, or https://www.snackmusic.com.au or https://jumpstart3.com/for-my-family/, ORhttps://bethelmusickids.com ,

Each year I say will make up my favourite list of children’s music for Lent.

If your family value’s good deeds as Christian Expression, now might be the time to find a cause to support this Lent. Or use this resource from the Methodist Relief and Development Fund

 This time of looking at the life of Christ, of making time of standing still with GOD has become incredible important to me.

I wish I had shared it with my children when they were young, but while I am here, I can still share with my adult children now. Maybe my grandchildren (still not yet here) will get it and come to understand the power of Lent.

I have read articles this year, from good Christian ministry sources that suggest that it is ok to go easy on yourself this Lent, as there is so much uncertainty and extra pressure on families at this time. I would suggest this is exactly the right time to include Lent in your Family Faith Formation practices. It is not a case of adding more, it is simply a case of doing what you should be doing anyway more intentionally.

May you find a practice to share with your children.

Blessings

Wendy L.

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Sunday Reflection: Having THE conversation with your grown-up kids.

No not THAT conversation, hopefully by this age that has been done and dusted. No, I’m talking about that other S word, Spirituality.

Many in the Grandparent bracket, have never contemplated that a conversation about faith is really a conversation about spirituality.

By being so fixated on Church attendance or faith sharing we often by pass the idea that what we are asking about is the spiritual well being of our families. And as it has always been implicit in our conversations or needs for faith formation, we haven’t got our thinking around this very first element, spirituality. In fact, many don’t even know what it means or why it is important.

Spirituality is so important that, “The United Nations Convention on the Rights http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx of the Child (1989) refers to spiritual rights in four of its articles, with a further four also outlining specific religious rights.”[1]

So, what is Spirituality? Nye’s little book Children’s Spirituality[2]explores and clearly explains how complex a definition it can be. She sets out the number of disciplines; educators, theologians, psychologists and they’re different way of looking at what1spirituality is. Nye looks at 3 explanations, the first an over simplified “God’s ways of being with children and children’s way of being with God”, but it is far broader as her next attempt shows, “children’s spirituality is an initially natural capacity for awareness of the sacred quality to life experiences. This experience can be conscious or unconscious, and sometimes fluctuates between both, but in both cases, can affect actions, feeling and thoughts. In childhood, spirituality is especially about being attracted towards “being in relation” responding to a call to more than “just me” –i.e.to others, God, to creation or to a deeper inner sense of Self. This encounter with transcendence can happen in specific experiences or moments, as well as through imaginative or reflective activity.”[3] It is about relationship and the interconnectedness of all things. As Grandparents, the concern is our grandchild’s spiritual development will be stifled and not developed.[4]

Thus, the question we should be asking our unchurched adult children is how are they going to cultivate their child’s spirituality, especially when they have rejected faith themselves?

You also need to listen to their answers as they may have already worked out what is spiritually significant to them and how they will express that with their child.

Or it might give you a missional opportunity to share with your child, and how the Christian faith can benefit them and their child.

The very first point of connection a child has is with its mother, so strong bonding is an important spiritual beginning. Thus, your first duty to the spiritual formation of your grandchild is to help facilitate or provide the necessary support to allow that significant bonding experience to happen.

For something practical you can do, if your church does not have a mother and baby group, help start one, so that they can help nurture the parents in your local area.

You might also like to suggest that your child attends one near to them.

A grandparent’s support group or the creation of good relationships within your congregation can help you gain the support you need in your role as grandparent.

Also, what liturgies take place in your congregation to support the grandparent. One congregation we attended had a liturgy for the new grandparents, that involved handing them a rose and praying over the grandparents. Do others have this type of liturgy?

Blessings

Wendy L.

[1]Nye, Rebecca, Children’s Spirituality: What it is and why it matters, (2014, Church House Publishing, London) p. 15

[2]Nye, Rebecca, Children’s Spirituality: What it is and why it matters, (2014, Church House Publishing, London)

[3]Nye, p.6.

[4]Nye, p. 85.