JMJ
JMJ
The Season of Lent
Lent is a time of penance which lasts for forty days before Easter (not including Sundays). This time is intended to imitate the forty days’ fast of Our Lord in the desert when He was tempted by the devil. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday.
The Church wants you to fast and abstain from meat during this period in order that you may raise your mind more freely to God and make satisfaction for your sins.
God has given you many gifts, but nothing you could do could fully repay Him for all He has given you. So you give Him what you can through prayer and sacrifice. You sacrifice, or give up something for the love of God.
You should keep the spirit of Lent by abstaining from pleasures and entertainments, and you should spend more time praying and practicing good works.
It is a good practice to give up something which you particularly like during Lent, either in the way of food or amusement. You could choose a special or different sacrifice for each week, as this calendar suggests.
It is a good idea to confess your sins during Lent and perform the penance the priest gives you with special attention and great sorrow for adding to Our Lord’s suffering on the Cross. As well, if you have made your First Holy Communion, you must receive Our Lord in Holy Communion at least once during the Lenten or Easter Season.
How to Use this Calendar
Suggested Weekly Activities
v Color the picture
v Try to answer the questions. Look up the Gospel passage listed under the picture for the answers.
v Identify the passion symbols – descriptions are found below the calendar squares
v Choose a sacrifice for the week and write it down in the space provided.
v Pray the Stations of the Cross on Fridays (or more often, if you can)
v Read the “Practice” for the week and make the intention to follow it
v Review “My Little Rules” from the week Lent begins
Suggested Daily Activities
v Say the indulgenced prayer often (all give partial indulgences).
v If there is a saint listed, read a little about him or her from the Lives of the Saints book.
v Read the “Practice” and try to do what it says.
v Renew your intentions to give up what you have chosen as your weekly sacrifice.
v If a Daily Use is listed in the middle of a calendar square, do what is says.
v Check to see if the day is a day of abstinence (which means no meat may be eaten).
v Do things pleasing to Jesus.
v Earn a sticker for your sacrifice chart.
A Youngster’s Lent:
What You Can Do
By Fr. Lawrence S. Brey
1. At the table, be more polite, and think more of others.
2. Eat things that are good for you, even if you don’t like them.
3. Eat less of your favorite food.
4. Say your prayers *better* than you’ve been saying them. *Think* of what you are saying.
5. Don’t watch TV: or at least, watch it a lot less, and give up your favorite programs. (One of the *best* Lenten resolutions you can make is to GIVE UP TV COMPLETELY, even for the rest of the year)
6. Spend time alone with Jesus, worship and love Him in your heart and soul, where He is living by grace, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost; spend time with your Crucifix, or a picture of Jesus on the Cross, and whisper prayers of love to Him, and kiss Him.
7. Make the Stations of the Cross or at least make them in your heart by following the stations and prayers in your prayer book.
8. Read holy books and pamphlets, especially the Gospels, and the Life of Christ.
9. Do more good to others, help others out, visit the sick and old people, share your food and things with others.
10. Make sacrifices; do hard things for Jesus, and for the conversion of sinners.
11. Offer up your daily duties, chores, studies, hardships, accidents, sickness, hunger, thirst, tiredness, etc. – offer them to Jesus with love and for your sins and the sins of others.
12. Be more attentive in school; don’t show off and behave as Jesus would.
13. These are a few suggestions. Maybe you can think of others! And of others! And now here is a little prayer you can say during Lent:
Dear Jesus, Who suffered and died for me:
help me to make this the best Lent of my life.
Help me to deny myself, to take up my little Cross. Dear Jesus, I will try to make special sacrifices for You and give up things I like for the love of You and make up for my sins and those of the world. Help me also, this Lent, to become a better child, to be more obedient to my parents and superiors, and to be a better example to everyone. Holy Mary who watched Jesus suffer and die for me, pray for me that I will now live and suffer for Him and one day be with him in Heaven.
Amen.
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