40 Ideas for 40 Days

A Lenten calendar that helps children walk through the season of Lent day by day.

Watch the chain grow during Lent as young people identify their Lenten goals.

Color a cross each day for 40 days showing good deeds done out of love for Jesus.

Children glue cotton balls onto a lamb for each prayer or doctrinal formula they take to heart during Lent.

Create a crown of thorns out of salt dough and remove a toothpick each time a Lenten discipline is practiced.

Symbolize the removal of the Alleluia during Lent in anticipation of its return at Easter.

Brainstorm temptations that young people face and can strive to avoid during Lent.

An opportunity to remind young people of the message heard on Ash Wednesday: “NOW is the acceptable time!”

Search through Lenten hymns to identify the meaning of Lent.

Find strength in numbers by joining together in an experience of fasting.

Learn how to practice an Ignatian form of prayer – the Daily Examen – during Lent.

A Blackline Master that invites young people to complete a puzzle about Lenten practices and then to write out their own promises for Lent.

Introduces young people to Operation: Rice Bowl (Catholic Relief Services), the official Lenten program of Catholic Relief Services.

A simple craft idea that enables young people to create a “stained glass” cross.

A Scripture search on the Seven Last Words of Christ as recorded in the Gospels.

Focuses on the celebration of the rites called the Scrutinies which are celebrated with the catechumens (those to be baptized on Holy Saturday,on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent.

An activity from the Christ Our Life program that enables young people to show their progress in keeping Lenten resolutions.

An opportunity for catechists to help young people focus on concrete, practical examples of practicing the Lenten disciplines.

Young people design a bracelet to record good deeds practiced during Lent.

A Blackline Master that invites young people to create and decorate a scene of Jesus’ Agony in the Garden.

Young people create “freeze frames” of the Stations of the Cross.

Explore ways to have fun with young people on St. Patrick’s Day while also teaching something of spiritual value.

Use the Feast of St. Joseph, who was a quiet man, to teach young people to be quiet during this season of Lent in order to meet Jesus in their hearts.

Do a Scripture search to locate the 5 sorrowful mysteries prayed in the Rosary.

Provides young people with an opportunity to be creative while reflecting and praying upon the Stations of the Cross.

Explore with children the lenten image of the desert where God is encountered in a special way.

An opportunity to combine prayer and almsgiving and to develop an appreciation for the Missions, specifically through the Holy Childhood Association.

Invites young people to create their own Paschal (Easter) Candle as a reminder of their call to renew their baptism this Lent.

An opportunity to help prepare young people to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation during Lent.

An activity to engage those young people who are more visual and perhaps even artistically inclined, focusing on the Stations of the Cross.

Ideal preparation for Holy Thursday based on Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper Painting.

Explore why pretzels are a traditional Lenten food that remind us to pray and fast.

An opportunity to help children become more familiar with the Passion story.

An opportunity to connect Holy Week and the end of Lent to the celebration of Easter by creating Holy Week baskets.

A hands-on activity to help young people create crosses out of palms.

Tutorials on the popular custom of braiding and weaving palms for use in our homes (the domestic church).

A blackline master from the Finding God program inviting young people to imagine drawing the cover of a parish bulletin for Holy Week.

An activity from the Christ Our Life program inviting young people to design a tryptic showing symbols of the Triduum.

Invite young people to actively explore more deeply the story of Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

Use Easter eggs to teach young people to recognize various elements of the Passion reading.