During last evening’s Lenten Webinar, I invited participants to share brief descriptions of some creative things they have done for Lent either for themselves or with a group they were teaching. SO MANY GREAT IDEAS! Thanks for sending them in. Enjoy perusing them!
Newsworthy
What it Means to Pick Up Your Cross
I had the pleasure of attending an evening of reflection at the McDonough Chapel of Saint Xavier University last night to listen to Dr. Barbara Reid, OP, Professor of New Testament Studies, Vice President, and Academic Dean at the Catholic Theological Union at Chicago. Barbara did a wonderful job of helping us to reflect on the meaning of the Cross of Jesus, very appropriate for the Lenten season. She talked about how most people will respond to […]
Lent
Lent, Ashes, Penance, and Mrs. Doubtfire – Catholic Blog Day
(Jonathan Sullivan has invited all Catholic bloggers to write on a common theme today – penance – as a way to mark Catholic Blog Day. I’m happy to participate with my fellow Catholic bloggers!) There is a great scene in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire in which Robin Williams, dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire (a matronly British nanny), has had too much to drink. In his inebriated state, his eyes land on a sexy woman at the […]
Lent
More About Pretzels
In my 40 Ideas for 40 Days of Lent calendar, Monday, March 14 is an activity titled “What’s with the Pretzels?” which goes into the meaning of the pretzel as a traditional lenten food. I received an email from a 6th grade catechist named Marie who had quite a bit to say about the topic. Thanks, Marie! Enjoy! Joe, I’ve been on your mail list for about three months and have enjoyed the information and […]
Here is another Lenten idea — I did this last year with a group of kindergarteners and also with 1st and 2nd graders and it worked out REALLY well:
During the first week of lent, take a piece of posterboard and color the bottom brown for dirt/ground. Hand each of the students a little brown “seed” (out of construction paper) and ask them to write their name on it and what they gave up for Lent (or what they are doing extra). Help each child tape or glue their seed into the ground.
Ask the students what else we need to help seeds grow.
Add a sun to the poster. This sun represents Jesus who is the Son of God. He brings us into God
Theresa, thanks for sharing your idea!
I didn’t attend the webinat but wanted to share an idea. This year, we are having families decide what to do for Lent as a family. Then they will decorate paper cups (as flower pots) in a way to remind them. for the closing prayer, we will “bury” the alleluia by giving them seed crosses (which we have started germinating) to bury in their flower pots as we sing an alleluia. As they bury theirs, they will stop singing. Hopefully it will start with many voices and end with just one and eventually none.
Maureen, thanks for sharing your idea. Be sure to check out the recording of the webinar that will be available on my blog in just a few days.
Joe, would I be able to get a copy of some of the material from the Webinar from last evening: Making Lent Easy. I had three Catechists with me, and we would like to share your information with our students, especially Jr. High.
Awesome presentation. We surely would like to view another.
Peace Barb
Hi Barbara, perhaps you’ll be able to arrange a viewing of the recording of the webinar which will be available in just a few days here on my blog.
Great job Joe. Enjoyed the presentation. Always good to see you. One of the challenges of Lent is that we get into ruts doing the same thing over and over. It was good to get some other ideas.
Mark
Mark, thanks…I hope things are going well for you. Have a good Lent.
Thanks, Joe, for the Lent webinar. Viewing the presentation helped me to answer my 7th grade students’ questions as we discussed Lent during our RE session last night.
Here’s a Lenten reflection that our class did last night that I originally found off a link from your blog a few years ago that I have been doing with my students every year since.
I put some medium sized rocks in a small glass bowl and tell the students that the rocks are the symbols of
Thanks, Bernie. I appreciate you sharing your reflection with us…very nicely done and so appropriate for the age group you work with…a good concrete visual image.
Unfortunately I missed the webinar, but I do have several good Lenten ideas that we use with our kids. We have monthly Liturgies and we usually prepare some kind of visual focal point that includes all the kids in our program. This year we are doing a felt board with crosses. At the top of one of the felt boards its says Jesus Remember Me…the second one say Whe You Come Into Your Kingdom… Each of the kids will receive a piece of paper and they will write their Lenten Promise, then the paper will be stapled to the cross, the cross will be place on the felt board and displayed for the congregation during our Lenten Mass.
Another project that we have done in the past was a cactus with flowers. The kids write their good deeds on the flowers and we then attach the flowers to the cactus to make the desert cactus bloom.
Thanks for sharing your ideas Karla! You’ll be able to view a recording of the webinar soon…a link will be posted here on my blog in just a few days.