Quinquagesima Sunday

And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole.   And immediately he saw and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. 

Lent is pretty well right upon us.  Ash Wednesday starts this Wednesday so I hope everyone's plan of action is ready and in place.  Lent is just such a great time to curb our selfish selves.  Somehow towering the word Lent over my head helps me to keep on-track.   Since we are preparing for Confirmation, that is our main order of family spiritual reading and extra study, until March 19th (Confirmation Day!) when we will switch over to studying and preparing for Holy Week and all the lovely extra Masses that week.  We'll also have a sacrifice jar, so each day there will be some extra sacrifice to do.  We don't eat sweets during Lent.  And there are a few other things, that each one of us needs to work on.  I try to start simple and then add on each week, rather than starting huge and flopping royally... and quitting.  I've decided to read about the Passion from The City of God for my lenten reflection with a secondary reading from Dom Gueranger's Liturgical Year on Lent.  Since I got in all of one walk for Advent I'm going to try to get to that again.  I marvel that getting out for a walk is such a tedious thing to get to... when it is something I love to do.... and definitely need the fresh air and sunshine (when there is some).  Of course it is much easier for me to do when it is light in the evening!  But I probably need the breather at the noon hour more than anything! :)

This is the Dumb Ox Lenten Calendar at a glance which I mentioned in a previous post.

This little crown of thorns doubled with Mrs. Grossman's flower sticker minis is a great little sacrifice chart for younger children. (or older ones! :)  For my littlest 3 they will get a little flower for eating all their food (rather than sneaking into the pantry - which now has a lock bolt on it), behaving during Mass and Rosary.... Marigold will get an extra for pottying on the potty chair (haha).  By Easter hopefully they will have a crown of flowers for Jesus rather than the crown of thorns.