Lent 2012: Fasting. Praying. Almsgiving.

This year Pope Benedict draws on Hebrews 10:24 for his Lenten message.

"Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works"

He points out that this one verse teaches us three important things about living a Christian life: responsibility towards each other, the gift or reciprocity and personal holiness. I highly recommend taking the time to read the Lent 2012 Message. It isn't long.

For Lent, our family focuses on three things: Fasting, Praying and Almsgiving. Last year we chose a variety of activities to help prepare ourselves for the celebration of Easter. This year we've decided to keep things simple because we'll have a newborn to care for soon. Here a few things we've decided to do.

Fasting

Friday Lenten Meals. Our family will eat simple vegetarian meals each Friday during Lent.

Praying

We will be using this Lenten Calendar to help Monkey journey through Lent. Here's another Lenten Calendar from Pondered in My Heart.

I will continue to read daily from A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms.

My husband will go to daily mass twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Almsgiving

We will use the Development and Peace 2012 Solidarity Calendar. I really like this year's calendar. There's a bean growing activity, which will be fun for the little ones, and a focus on the environment and cultivating justice.