Search
40 Ideas to enrich your Lent
-
February 22, 2017- Prayer Box - On slips of paper write prayers of petition, praise, thanksgiving, joy on them. Reread during your day/week. Read again after Easter.
- Intention Journal - Date when the intention is made then date it when the petition is answered.
- Intention Crucifix - place intentions behind the Corpus.
- Prayerfully consider one way you can continue the Year of Mercy in your life.
- Create a prayer chair in a quiet place. Take time to just sit in silence on a regular basis.
- Pray while driving - CD of the rosary or Divine Mercy chaplet.
- Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Divine Mercy chaplet apps on cell phone
- Pray for those you find difficult.
- Adoration - if no one is present, sing softly. “They who sing, pray twice.” St. Augustine.
- Allot $5 for each member of the family then each will use that money to do something creative for the poor.
- Have a prayer partner. Consider your patron saint as a prayer partner. Join a prayer group.
- Consider using a prayer booklet with Morning and Evening Prayer.
- Use the Jesus Prayer - “Lord Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Repeat during a set time of quiet.
- Prayer tree - Prayers attached before Ash Wednesday. At supper each member take one then pray that intention the next day or for the week. How does this connect to Ash Wednesday’s Mass readings? Option: use a bowl or basket.
- Make a collage of pictures of what or who you want to pray for during Lent. This would be a fun activity to do with your children or CCD class. Post in prominent place.
- Pray for vocation - religious, marriage, single life. Use a globe, Texas/US/diocese map, for your parish. Mark an area as a focus for prayer. Pray also for vocations for the marginalized: the disabled, the homeless, minorities. Change daily or weekly.
- Plastic eggs - Each family member pick one, open and pray for the intention hidden inside.
- Outline hands on paper - On each finger write a prayer intention—one for each day of the week. For Saturday, use the intention written on the palm. Take some time to meditate on “See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hand.” Isaiah 49:16. This is another activity for a CCD class.
- Learn the Lord’s prayer/Hail Mary in sign language. Pray it together at meals.
- A few days before Holy Week begin a meal in darkness. Light a large candle. Take turns sharing what Christ’s light means to them. Turn on lights.
- Pray at the baptismal font/confessional for who will be baptized, enter the Church or have their marriage blest at the Easter vigil.
- Discover the history of the Stations of the Cross.
- Daily appointment time - pause for five minutes to recall God’s presence and love.
- Prayerfully read The Velveteen Rabbit.
- Create a Lenten basket - Give something worthy of God’s poor.
- Create a to-do list calendar - One hidden deed of mercy each day then take that deed to prayer.
- 40 days of gratitude. Thank at least one person every day (clerk, police, teacher . . .) Take that person to prayer.
- Use Lenten foods and practices from other countries/cultures.
- Spend 15 minutes preparing for daily or Sunday’s readings.
- Write thank you notes for the staff of a nursing home, hospice staff or the staff at your doctor’s office. Deliver on Ash Wednesday. Include that you will be praying for them during Lent.
- Instead of toys, give books to the children staying a women’s shelter. Treat the staff to warm rolls. Then prayerfully read the temptations scene in Luke 4:1-13.
- Ash Wednesday - make a prayer list of the invisible in our society. Example: those who are bitter, feel unloved/unwanted, those who clean public bathrooms, garbage collectors . . .
- Make a section of your computer desk a prayer corner. Refresh yourself during a project with a few moments of prayer.
- Make it a point to do something you have kept putting off. Example: your annual physical, making a will, becoming an organ donor . . .
- Pray for those you see on the nightly news, in the newspaper and on your Facebook.
- Large food stores often throw away ugly fruit and veggies. Ask the manager for a donation. Take as is to a shelter or make and bake to drop off. Pray for those who work there and for farmers.
- Sponsor a child’s education. Even a small donation can help.
- With a picture of the Sorrowful Mother, pray for those who mourn at during Lent; especially parents and siblings who have lost a loved one due to tragedy or violence.
- When you pray this Lent, pray as if everything depends on you.
- Finally, pray for the grace to grow closer to God. When you do, know it is a prayer He cannot refuse.
