On family traditions this Lent

March 9 marks the first day of Lent for us Catholics. It signifies the beginning of forty days usually reserved for fasting, abstinence, prayer, repentance, good works and almsgiving. Lent is the time that Christians all over the world can once again reflect on the victory won on Easter Sunday.

When I was a kid growing up in Brunei, Lent usually did not mean anything special to me. Back then, all the members of our family were typical Sunday Catholics – we went to church on Sundays, prayed the occasional Rosary together, and often put God in our back pockets until we needed His help on this problem or that situation.

Don’t get me wrong though, my parents did the best they could at that time to teach my three siblings and I about faith. They even sent us to Sunday school at the nearest parish (Brunei has only three parishes by the way), which was a good thirty-minute drive from our home. But despite their efforts, I ended up a teenager with the “sari-sari store Catholic” mentality. I didn’t really live out my faith, even as I pretended to by being active in my parish youth group. I was Ms. Goody-two-shoes on the outside (“obedient” daughter, faithful friend, star pupil, youth leader) but a lost soul on the inside.

All that changed when my parents joined a Catholic renewal community for families. Slowly but surely, God transformed our family as individuals and as a whole, and helped us realize that we needed Him to be truly happy. I am not saying that we are perfect and sinless, but with God’s grace, we have changed for the better (At least I hope so!).

Fast forward to the present. I am now a family person myself – being happily married for five years to my husband Anthony, and mom to two wonderful angels, Tim and Rysse. Hubby and I met while serving in our community’s ministry for the youth, and continue to be active to this day, serving full-time in the media and events departments of our community. We’ve been blessed to go on mission to different countries, and despite being imperfect and selfish at times, God continues to bless and use us.

That’s why I am excited for Lent. This year, our kids are a bit older (on March 10, Tim will be 4 years and 5 months old, and Rysse just turned 1 year and 8 months on March 5) and can better appreciate what Lent stands for. Because of this, we plan to come up with our own family traditions that will hopefully teach our kids the importance of the forty days of preparation for Easter.

First of all, we plan to attend Ash Wednesday mass together. Before going, we will explain to Tim what the imposition of ashes means, in terms that he will be able to understand of course. With Rysse, well, most of the time, she tries to walk around during Mass, so let’s see how it goes. I hope she behaves well though (Pray for us, haha!).

Since we are currently homeschooling preschool, I also plan to do some Lenten crafts with Tim, and will most probably get some cool ideas from Catholic Mom and Catholic Icing. Hopefully, these activities will teach him (and us adults too!) the values of sacrifice, discipline and doing good to others, among other things. I hope the lessons learned will stay not just throughout Lent, but the whole year and beyond as well.

Other Lenten traditions we plan to start as a family are:

• Pray more together as a family – we usually do morning and evening prayers together, but I hope we could offer up prayers for a specific intention this Lent.
• Fast together – aside from giving up meat on Fridays, we would like to do some other sacrifice, giving up coloured drinks maybe? Or would you readers have any other suggestions?
• Try to attend Mass on days other then Sundays – going to Mass is usually a challenge with our toddler Rysse in tow, but I would love to be able to go to weekday mass with the kids as much as possible during this grace-filled season.
• Perform the Stations of the Cross as often as we can, especially on Fridays.
• Make an offering box that we can fill up and offer to a Church charitable group at the end of Lent.
• Go to confession – though this would only apply to hubby and I, it would be wonderful to introduce this healing Sacrament to Tim in terms he would be able to understand.
• Shroud sacred statues and pictures with purple cloth on Passion Sunday, to remind us of the solemnity and sorrow of the last weeks of Lent, with joyful anticipation of what Easter brings.
• Do random acts of kindness – not only during Lent, but hopefully this will turn out to be a daily practice for the family. The world is in need of much kindness and love nowadays.

Having said that, these traditions we hope to start seem like an awful lot. But I am hoping that we will be able to do everything by God’s grace. Also, writing about them here will sort of “force” us to “walk our talk”. Our family is now accountable to all of you dear readers! Let’s see how it goes from here then. Do say a little prayer for us, won’t you?

P.S. Do you have your own ideas or suggestions for Lenten family traditions? Feel free to leave a comment below.