Archive for the ‘Lent’ Category:
Divine Mercy Novena- Day 2
Second Day
“Today bring to Me the Souls of Priests and Religious and immerse them in My unfathomable mercy. It was they who gave Me strength to endure My bitter Passion. Through them as through channels My mercy flows out upon mankind.”
Most Merciful Jesus, from whom comes all that is good, increase Your grace in men and women consecrated to Your service, that they may perform worthy works of mercy, and that all who see them may glorify the Father of Mercy who is in heaven.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the company of chosen ones in Your vineyard - upon the souls of priests and religious; and endow them with the strength of Your blessing. For the love of the Heart of Your Son in which they are enfolded, impart to them Your power and light, that they may be able to guide others in the way of salvation, and with one voice sing praise to Your boundless mercy for ages without end.
Amen.
Subscribe to the comments for this postA Lenten Reminder for Holy Week
“Let the mouth also fast from disgraceful speeches and railings. For what does it profit if we abstain from fish and fowl and yet bite and devour our brothers and sisters? The evil speaker eats the flesh of his brother and bites the body of his neighbor.”
- Saint John Chrysostom
Families that pray together . . .
“Catholics and the rosary. They go together like ham and cheese, love and marriage, salvation and redemption. Ok, so that was a little offbeat but then, so are a lot of rosaries.”
Read the rest of Mary Ellen Barrett’s wisdom in her always insightful column Another View
EDIT: Because the article won’t be archived I am posting it here for future reference.
Families that pray together …
Catholics and the rosary. They go together like ham and cheese, love and marriage, salvation and redemption. Ok, so that was a little offbeat but then, so are a lot of rosaries.
Every Friday night will find my family here at my house or at the home of one of four other families consuming pizza and praying the rosary. This rosary group has existed for about 15 years, and my family has been a member for about nine. We gather in the evening, and the hosting family provides pizza while the other families contribute soda, juice, wine and, when not in Lent, desserts. We eat and then settle down to pray together.
This is absolutely, positively not a meditative rosary. There are children ranging in ages from 18 months (my twins) to college age. Our devotions could be considered more athletic than contemplative.
“Hail Mary, full of grace (sit down) the Lord is with (stop swinging the beads) thee. Blessed art thou (ssshh) among women (please leave your sister alone) and blessed is the fruit (get the baby off the table) of thy womb Jesus.”
You get the idea.
There are virtues to be gained in this rosary, patience being the main one. One of the many upsides of this monumental effort is that the children learn the prayers of the rosary, generally, by the time they are three, and this devotion seamlessly becomes a part of their lives. On the occasion when we miss a Friday, there is a hole in our week, a void that can’t be filled by just praying the rosary alone. This kind of public prayer brings us together as the Body of Christ and reaps untold spiritual graces.
My own version of the rosary, my private devotion, is more of a rosarius rapidus. Prayed at 5 a.m. in about 20 minutes with a nod to the mysteries of the day. A busy mom’s rosary. Later, before their school day begins, I pray another rosary with the children. I take the time to read the meditation before each decade and try, try, try to instill some contemplation into their young lives. The virtue is in the trying.
When I taught CCD in my parish, I would often hear parents say they had difficulty with teaching their children the prayers required to receive First Holy Communion. Often they felt it a burden for their children to learn the Hail Mary, Our Father and Act of Contrition. This astonishes me since most children that age can recite entire episodes of SpongeBob Square Pants verbatim. Obviously, memorization is not an issue. Any child who can recite to you the 500 Pokemon characters or the Mets starting line-up is not lacking in skills to memorize. What it takes is a little more effort on the part of parents.
By far the easiest way to teach children to pray is to actually pray with them, every day. Say the blessing before meals every time you eat. It becomes a habit, and your children will expect it and make it part of your mealtime ritual. Once it becomes part of their day, well, heaven help you if you forget. Then every evening before bed say a Hail Mary with them. It will take 20 seconds. Everyone has an extra 20 seconds. Within two weeks most children will have the prayer down pat. Much the same way they learned to sing “Twinkle Twinkle” they will learn their prayers from mom and dad. This nightly ritual will expand as they get older and include more prayers and special intentions. Teach them to pray for the holy souls in purgatory, the protection of the unborn, the poor, the ill and those steeped in sin. Teach them to pray for specific intentions, their friends, their teachers, their grandparents and you. Teach them to keep company with the saints and read saint stories to them as often as possible.
As they grow older, they will develop their own prayer life and a fondness for devotions outside of the ones you favor. My son Ryan has a great devotion to the Divine Mercy Chaplet. He takes out his beads and prays it faithfully each day. Katie always has a novena to St. Therese going, cultivating a beautiful relationship with this great saint. Erin remains a rosary girl, like her mother. The younger children enjoy laying roses at their Heavenly Mother’s feet with each Hail Mary and singing praise and worship songs.
When you teach your children to pray faithfully and make family prayer a part of your daily lives together, you bind them to their faith and to their family. You create an opportunity for them to develop a close relationship with our Heavenly Father, our Blessed Mother and the communion of saints.
That will come in a lot more handy than a relationship with SpongeBob. I promise.
Resources for praying with children
Rev. Lawrence L. Lovasik has written many lively, well written and beautifully illustrated books of devotions for children. They are all available from The Catholic Company, www.catholiccompany.com
Tomie dePaola, an awarding winning author and illustrator of children’s books, has written many saint biographies and books with Catholic themes. Many are available at Adoremus Books, www.adoremusbooks.com and www.Amazon.com
A guide to praying the rosary is at www.rosary-center.org/howto.htm
(Mary Ellen Barrett, a mother of seven, is an active member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Lindenhurst.)
In gratitude
Last night as my husband and I were waiting to pull out of a shopping mall parking lot onto a busy road, a car skidded on the slippery road and came careening towards us. Because my husband has remarkably quick reflexes (he always has) he was able to move the car just enough so that instead of being hit full on the side (his side) we were “clipped” on the rear corner. The car that clipped us then hit a cement divider and sign base. The driver (a 16 yr. old young man) was amazingly not hurt but his car was totaled.
Situations like this have a way of bringing things sharply into focus and I cannot express enough how thankful I am today. I am keenly aware how different my life could be this morning had things happened otherwise. I have no doubt that we were protected supernaturally and while I am certainly thanking and praising God today, I look forward to the day I can personally thank –as in give a huge hug!– our guardian angels, the Saints and most especially our Blessed Mother, all of whom I am sure played a part (we’re all family after all!).
Life can change in an instant and the things we often spend so much time stressing out about in the end count for nothing. Cherish every moment my friends. Hug your kids and tell your husband you love him. Help your neighbor and love God. In the end that’s all that really matters.
Praised be Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever!
Amen.
Can a mother observe Lent?
Please take a moment to read Kathryn Mulderink’s
beautiful Lenten reflection for mother’s.
It’s well worth the click.
Lent - it’s now
I know a good many of you are giving up blogging and reading blogs for Lent. I’m not. In large part because anyone who reads this blogs knows I don’t blog often enough for it to be an issue. Trust me, I have issues - this just isn’t one of them.
What I need is conversion. Conversion of my heart to the heart of Christ. I need it daily, hourly, heck I need it right this minute!
My theme for this Lent is NOW. Right now. Not tomorrow, not next week but now.
“Behold now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
