Observing Lent
Lent is not something that is observed in my denomination’s tradition. However, I have always thought that our denomination doesn’t do enough during this season. We observe Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, and maybe you might get a Good Friday service but usually only a mention of the day not a worship time. With my hubby’s position as a minister we have been able to broaden our worship times to include more services/observances and focus on Christ more throughout the entire season.
My friend Renae over at Life Nurturing Education posted a link to a great resource. This resource comes in the form of an E-book my Miiko Gibson. This e-book shares the history and reasons for Lent as well as daily activities that you can incorporate into your family devotion/worship times throughout this season. Even if Lent is not something that you observe, we all need to be examining our hearts and growing more and more in Christ. It is another way to make Resurrection Sunday hold the meaning it should rather than bunnies, eggs, and chocolates.
This E-book is being offered for free! To receive this free gift of E-book and sample calendars visit Our Grace Journey and look for Lenten Tree and Activities Book by Miiko Gibson.
Here are a few excerpts from Miiko Gibson’s book.
Lent is the 40 days, not counting Sundays, before Easter. The first day of Lent is called
Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the
foreheads of the faithful as a sign of repentance. The ashes used are gathered after the
palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned.
Even if our church observes Palm Sunday, the next time the church meets is Easter Sunday. Good Friday is almost glossed over if the family doesn’t make an effort to think about it!
Does your family observe Lent? How do you prepare for Resurrection Sunday before it actually arrives?
Tags: Christianity, church, Family Posted in Christianity, Conviction, Resurrection Sunday
February 25th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Raised Catholic, I’ve always observed Lent by giving something up/doing something more and abstaining from meat on Fridays. As an adult, I’ve been striving to give this actions more thought and reverence.
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February 25th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Hi Kristine,
We’ve been on a “buying fast” since Christmas… only buying necessities, not extras. And, I confess I had not thought of giving up anything else for Lent, but now I’m pondering that…
It’s good to look forward to Easter – to remember what it would be like to wait for a Savior.
Our church observes Maundy Thursday with a potluck dinner and Communion. We have a Tenebrae service Friday night, and a sunrise service (on a hillside at a nearby farm) on Easter morning.
There are some nice family devotion books by Ann Hibbard centered around holidays. We’ve used the Thanksgiving and Christmas ones, but now I’m wishing I had the Easter one, too!
God bless,
Julie
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Twitter: MamaArcher
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February 25th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Julie- We really enjoy the Tenebrae service also! We often participate in the sunrise service as well, hubby is usually preaching that service follwed by a breakfast. Can you believe that the last sunrise service w/ breakfast I was actually told that I should not have come prepared with all of my children and breakfast cassarole in hand because it made others look bad that I was there prepared with such a large family when it was difficult for smaller families to do so…hmmmm
March 1st, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Kristine we added a bit of Lent and Passover last year in an attempt to help our youngest children focus on the awe of the season rather than rush from one chapel service to the next. I wrote some observations (along with lots of links ::snort::) after the year was over…. http://tinyurl.com/d8pol7
Mike’s been out of town the past two weeks, but we’ve started some devotionals, and a service project (Pakistani Action Pack) and I assume we’ll be doing Passover again.
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June 3rd, 2009 at 1:00 am
I??ve learned so much from this blog. Hopefully others can find value in my site as well.