… and these Thy gifts …

I missed it when she posted it originally. It’s beautiful, and captures perfectly what this Lenten season is about (at least for me):

Something to Think About This Lent

An excerpt:

FAST from unrelenting pressures; FEAST on unceasing prayer.

FAST from the seeming darkness; FEAST on the realities of light.

FAST from problems that overwhelm; FEAST on prayer that undergirds.

Get to Easter’s blog for the rest!

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… to blog about it. I wish now I had taken pictures. Two bookshelves in the living room done, the buffet done, the china cabinet done. Whew! I was going to do cookbooks today but ran out of time and energy. I took something like 30 books out of the shelf today. TOMORROW IT’S FAREWELL. Please pray that I don’t lose my nerve :D.

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This is something my CFC-FFL sister Cynthia shared with us last Sunday. It’s particularly apt for me as I work on being MORE LOVING this Lent, and less exacting.

It’s a reminder I need for my everyday dealing with family members, with extended family, with friends online and off, and yes, even with strangers. Even the one who cuts me off on the highway.

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O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed…
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved…
From the desire of being extolled …
From the desire of being honored …
From the desire of being praised …
From the desire of being preferred to others…
From the desire of being consulted …
From the desire of being approved …
From the fear of being humiliated …
From the fear of being despised…
From the fear of suffering rebukes …
From the fear of being calumniated …
From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed …
From the fear of being wronged …
From the fear of being suspected …

That others may be loved more than I…
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I …
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease …
That others may be chosen and I set aside …
That others may be praised and I unnoticed …
That others may be preferred to me in everything…
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

- Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X

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’cause it might not be the cross He designed for you…

The past few days’ meditations/readings have been striking me as very similar to this message. I’m Ms. Make-It-More-Complicated-Than-It-Has-To-Be. If I would just pick up the cross *He* has picked for me, instead of trying out every other cross I see that “just might be better” (more intricately carved? glows in the dark? makes a statement?)…. I just might be able to carry it with grace.

Reading: In Conversation with God, True Devotion: 4th Week Meditations, The Book of Numbers, Introduction to the Devout Life, The Well and the Shallows, Emma

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- Whew. Two days. Of not going to my usual killing-time sites. I am still reading Catholic blogs and websites, mostly for Lenten inspiration and meditation, but I’ve been staying away from sites that don’t bring me any closer to Heaven. Praying I’ll be able to persevere for the rest of Lent.
- Baking the last 4 days, daily. Using my 1+ year-old homegrown starter. Dinner was pizza. Funny because many people who observe Lent start eating mostly bread, as a penance…. since bread is so basic and simple. I don’t think it’s very much a sacrifice around here — since the kids are absolutely thrilled I’m allowing them to have so much bread…. as opposed to the rest of the year when we’re mostly wheatless because of Dad. Plus I’m really having fun working with sourdough…. my routine: take 2/3 cup out of the fridge around bedtime — add 1 cup flour + warm water (+ some sweetener like sorghum, or brown sugar if desired), enough to make a thick doughish mixture. Leave overnight, covered. Add 4 cups flour the next day + 2 teaspoons salt, + enough water to make the dough come away from the sides of the bowl, but still tacky. Let rise, covered, a good several hours. Shape, let rise again, slash, bake.
- My penance the past few days has been breaking in my new walking shoes for our trip in March. Sigh…
- The 3 youngest went sledding with Dad today, who came home early from work because of the snow and cold. We missed this morning’s concert and Yena’s ballet. Looks like we’ll be missing tomorrow’s concert as well — too cold.
- I am rereading parts of True Devotion so I can pass it along to Aisa who is making the consecration next month.
- And not being very successful with the yelling. Today I yelled at the kids to stop fighting over some totally insignificant thing. Sigh…. more prayers please.
- Cut down my yahoogroups in half — eliminating almost every food list I was on…. and stayed on mostly Catholic homeschooling ones. though I did find a new one to join: Pinoy Defensor Fidei. Nice.
- Last one I found tonight!!: Introduction to the Devout Life
- and Why We Need Lent

Blessings,
stef:)

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Good friend e-mailed last night and asked what Lent looks like in our home, and I realized I hadn’t gotten around to putting our plans here. And since putting stuff here helps us with accountability….

what we do, or at least try to do, in no particular order:

- purple tablecloth at the dinner table
- grapevine wreath on the cocktail table
- little wreaths for the kids, spiked with toothpicks — the kids (and this year, mom too) take out the toothpicks and replace with flowers — the thorns/toothpicks=our sins; the flowers = reparation, sacrifice, mortification, growth in virtue; so by Easter hopefully puro flowers na
- reading/discussing/small activities/crafts for lenten season saints, like st. valentine
- daily Mass, though we’ve been failing lately esp. with the cold front and me getting sick, we’ll start back again on Monday
- daily Rosary
- stations of the cross every Friday, usually at home, with “homemade” stations (coloring activity from 2004, “housed” in popsicle stick frames) — we also use the prayers from the Fourniers’ book, which we cut out and laminated
- meditative readings for kids and adults (i’m using In Conversation with God, and we’re trying to reread Hidden Power of Kindness, Bong got a booklet of meditations at church last weekend so he’s following that)
- major purging of rooms/closets for donations/getting rid of “stuff”
- trying to practice silence (my major failing) at home, trying to keep peace and harmony at all times (ha! we wish)
- if aisa feels like it this year we might do some pysanky (ukrainian easter eggs) — she took a pysanky class a few years ago and taught us how — i’d love to learn how to make this
- aisa sings at choir, so Holy Week there’s Tenebrae, then the Triduum…. somehow we didn’t have these in BF at our parish — what a loss.
- mostly we follow suggestions in the book by the Fourniers — samples here: Domestic Church + Catholic Culture + Catholic Mom; we don’t try to do EVERYTHING, but try to add one or two things every year.
- I also printed out new rosary and stations of the Cross cards from Kathryn’s website
- and a Lenten calendar from Julie — the pages say “2007″, but they’re downloadable, editable pages, so all you’ll have to do is change dates and the year. An awesome resource!

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