Lenten Planning/Resources: Duc in Altum!

Today's Mass readings are some of my favorites in Scripture. These are stories of hope in the mercy of God who called sinful, frail men to do great things for the kingdom.  I will never be an Isaiah, Paul and Peter in holiness but I definitely resemble them in their least impressive moments of sinfulness and doubt. "Put out into the deep" (duc in altum), the Lord tells Peter, that verse is foremost in my mind today. What an appropriate theme to ponder upon as we enter into this holy season of Lent.

Here are some of our plans/resources for the this year with a few tweaks a long the way, I'm sure:

Prayer : 

• 33- day consecration preparation for the middle child/renewal for me (begins on Feb. 20th)
• Friday Stations of the Cross - new to us this year is this candle votive stations
• Divine Mercy chaplet - we love this devotion so we hope to pray it everyday at 3pm
• Daily Rosary - I particularly love praying this in Latin with Pope John Paul
• Sacrament of Reconciliation 

Fasting:  

• Corporal - those prescribed by the Church on appointed days, no praise music, computer games and *limited screen time.  
• Spiritual - fast from vice and work on a particular virtue 
•  Fasting from Facebook for me.

Almsgiving: not quite 40 bags in 40 days but something similar and we've also decided who to give alms to (year round not just during Lent).

Scripture Study:

• Old Testament for me
• Lenten Cross reading for the kids - this is new to us, we've used Shower of Roses' Jesus Tree readings in the past

Pilgrimage: following the Filipino tradition of Visita Iglesia , we are finalizing the seven churches we plan to visit.

Screen time: - with reduced screen time (both tv and computer) we have a short list of what movies we like to watch.  I highly recommend the documentary Into Great Silence, it's not unusual for me to watch it a few times during Lent.  The kids highly recommend The Miracle Maker.

These are very simple plans having learned my lesson from many years of trying to do too much then beating myself for not sticking it out for 40 days.

Happy Lent planning!

ps - I am not getting compensation for any of these product links.