NWR Lent traditions

scrunchythief · January 2016

I can't believe how fast Lent is coming up! Last year I was really awful about observing the season, and I'd like to do better this year. So I'm actually trying to prepare in advance.

Apart from the requirements, we normally do a rice bowl. But especially with DD, I'm hoping to establish more traditions for the different church seasons.

So, I'm curious; what are your favorite Lenten traditions?

Edited because I hit the button early.

tigerlily6 · January 2016

Rice bowl was always fun as a kid -- my mom gave us our "own" rice bowl to put some of our allowance into. We also did Stations of the Cross every week, either at church or sometimes just at home reading through a booklet. One year my dad even set up "stations" in the yard (we put little crosses around the yard for each station) and we went through it as a family. Holy Week we say the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and try to really rough it out with fasting and bland meals.

Almost every year my brothers and I would give up candy and/or soda. And every Easter day, my parents let us completely gorge ourselves on chocolates and jelly beans and root beer floats to make up for it. And of course we would do a big dinner (my family is Polish, so pierogies and sausages) and we'd set the table nicely and put fresh flowers everywhere. Easter is still to this day my favorite holiday, in part because I think Lent gives so much build-up for it, both spiritually and physically.

holyguacamole79 · January 2016

10 years ago or so, I worked downtown and the cathedral was within walking distance from my office. So I made a Lenten promise to go to daily Mass during lunch once or twice a week (they have 12:10 daily Mass). The next year, I started going daily during Lent. I was able to do that several years when I worked downtown, and it greatly enhanced my Lenten experience. I need to see it the church near my office has it ... (the pastor there used to be a priest at the cathedral, and he got to know me as one of the "regulars").

On a lighter note ... my husband doesn't like fish / seafood. EXCEPT for Gorton's fish sticks. So our freezer is stocked with fish sticks during Lent for him. My brother has nicknamed him "fishsticks".

scrunchythief · January 2016

@holyguacamole79 I love the idea of going to daily Mass once or twice a week. One year I tried to do every day and I couldn't stick to it and just gave up. I think I tend to try to go too big. And I've never been too big on fish for Lent, since I love pasta so much and it's so easy to make vegetarian.

@tigerlily6 That's so cool how much you all did as a family growing up. My parents didn't really bring religion into our day to day lives that much and I'd like to do that more for DD. Easter's my favorite holiday too! I'd never thought about how big of a role Lent plays in that.

banana468 · February 2016

With the kids, we try to show them that Friday isn't just a reason to have pizza.

When I was about 4, my mom made eggs and homefries for dinner. I was NOT a fan and she said, "It's Lent!"

My Godmother called the house and said, "How are you?" My response was, "Not good. My mom made Lent for dinner and I HATE LENT." It took some explaining to get me to understand why such a meal was dinner.

tigerlily6 · February 2016

@banana468, love your story! Also, as a complete Catholic tangent, let me just say I really appreciate all the NFP championing you and the other PPs do on the general boards. My mom has always been a big NFP proponent (she's a family doctor who overall tries to avoid women's health issues by referring patients to a gyno to avoid professional/ moral conflicts, but she has always encouraged NFP as viable, healthy option for women to be aware of). But I never really learned much beyond the basics of "don't have sex during your fertile period" as a teen. So now I'm trying to figure the details out, and whether others find your posts persuasive or not, I am certainly thankful for the info and picking up a few extra resources to review. One of my goals this Lent is to get more educated on the different methods for charting, so it's nice to read a bit about that.

banana468 · February 2016

Thanks @tigerlily6! Some of the knotties are also on a FB NFP board and along with other family members, it's helped me understand NFP more. I have a lot of family members that are skeptics so it's nice to be able to use something that works and feel like this is all making sense.

holyguacamole79 · February 2016

banana468 said:

Thanks @tigerlily6! Some of the knotties are also on a FB NFP board and along with other family members, it's helped me understand NFP more. I have a lot of family members that are skeptics so it's nice to be able to use something that works and feel like this is all making sense.

@tigerlily6 , if you want in on that NFP board on FB, PM me. I'm one of the admins & it's a closed group.

holyguacamole79 · February 2016

@scrunchythief, if you told me 15 years ago that I'd cherish daily Mass every day during Lent, I would've laughed at you. It's definitely baby steps. But once I got to that point ... wow, I felt a difference!

Ghostie625 · February 2016

banana468 said:

With the kids, we try to show them that Friday isn't just a reason to have pizza.

When I was about 4, my mom made eggs and homefries for dinner. I was NOT a fan and she said, "It's Lent!"

My Godmother called the house and said, "How are you?" My response was, "Not good. My mom made Lent for dinner and I HATE LENT." It took some explaining to get me to understand why such a meal was dinner.

Growing up we always had breakfast for dinner on Ash Wednesday.
Once when I was a kid my parents made breakfast for dinner on some random, non-Lent day, and little me goes "Is is Ashes Wednesday?" I guess it didn't occur to me that you could have breakfast for dinner on other days of the year.

ETA: My older sister was always a fussy eater and didn't like eggs, so breakfast for dinner usually meant pancakes! We were definitely good with that as kids!

scrunchythief · February 2016

I found a decent list of suggestions: http://www.piercedhands.com/100-things-to-do-for-lent/

Though fasting from sin seems a bit strange to me. I'd understand using Lent as a time to really focus on eliminating a habitual sin, but I wouldn't personally call it a fast.

MesmrEwe · February 2016

The thing I give up every year for Lent - and it really is harder than one could ever think - is Negative Guilt... The "I should have done _____" or just life circumstances where one is constantly taking care of everyone else's needs long before your own and the feelings of guilt take over when something just doesn't get done in the course of a day.

It was fun explaining to DD this AM about how she would be observing and her complaints about others in her class and teacher who are Catholic not observing fasting during Lent. I told her they were free to choose, stay out of their business, but in our house she'd be taking Tuna or Egg Salad in her lunch box on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent... She quickly realized she wasn't going to win any arguments... Especially since I already purchased the tuna packs LOL...

holyguacamole79 · February 2016

I just found out that the church near my office is offering 12:10 daily Mass during Lent. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

NWR Lent traditions

Re: NWR Lent traditions

Choose Another Board

Search Boards