Preparing for Lent

Much like a new year, we can be inspired by the beginning of Great Lent to finally fast perfectly, attend all the services, and complete creative crafts with our kids. But, in my experience that’s not really possible. I’ve come to believe, it doesn’t need to be. Let’s take a look at how to approach Lent simply and mindfully.

Why We Need to Plan 

It is good to think about and plan through Lent because there is so much to think about! Fasting, services, and making space to be present and notice the lessons the Church is trying to teach us. Honestly, it can be overwhelming.

When my older two children were younger, I created a whole curriculum for Lent, but as I had more children and life marched on, I found myself asking:

• How important is it to do extras?
• How can I make Lent more a part of our family culture and less about activities?

So I began instead to focus on attending services and adding the themes to our every day conversations. And that’s when how I planned for Lent changed.

An Overview of Lent

Today I want to give you an overview of the Lenten season’s themes, just a few resources, and some questions to help you plan your Lent.

The church starts preparing us in advance for what’s to come with the Triodian. The triodian is a set of Sundays with a different Gospel theme intended to prepare our minds and hearts for Lent.

1^st – Publican and the Pharisee

2^nd – Prodigal Son

3^rd – Meatfare Sunday (Last Judgement)

4^th – Cheesefare Sunday (fasting) / Forgiveness Sunday

And Lent starts the day after Cheesefare.

All the Sundays in Lent have themes as well

1^st – Sunday of Orthodoxy (This is when you bring icons to church!)

2^nd – St. Gregory of Palamas

3^rd – Veneration of the Holy Cross

4^th – St. John Climacus

5^th– St. Mary of Egypt

6^th – Palm Sunday

Holy Week begins on Monday!

I give you this overview so that you can be mindful of what’s happening. Mention it to your kids and pay attention to it during church. Ask them questions about it. 

Questions to Help you Plan

I want to give you some questions to think through in order to plan ahead for a focused, mindful Lent. 

1. How do we as a family want to fast? Once you have guidelines determined for your family, take some time to gather your recipes, find other recipes, and make menu plan for all of Lent. It may just be repeating the same recipes week after week, or a two week rotation. Whatever you do, keep it simple. Vegan recipes can sometimes be more complex, and the point is to free our minds from thinking about food so much. So keep it simple. (For more about this listen to THIS podcast episode or read the transcript.)
2. What services do we want to go to? Find out what services your church will be having, and decide as a family which you want to go to. Put them on your calendar. Think through what challenges may come up as a result of going (such as a later bedtime), and think of ways to adjust or just be mentally prepared for them. Re-evaulate as Lent goes on. One thing I’ve done to help with late bedtime – pajamas. I try to be aware of how the myself and the family is handling going to the services. My personal take is that if it is causing strife, disharmony, and loss of peace, it’s just better to stay home for that service. That’s not always the case, but I try to be decerning. 
3. What can we do to incorporate the spirit of Lent into our daily lives? Some ideas are extra prayers, Scripture readings, devotionals, akathists, or psalms. Choose a time to talk about the different themes and services such as a dinner.
4. What can we take out of our lives right now to make room for extra services and prayer? What media could you give up for Lent? What extra activities could be put on pause for a time?
5. What ways can we practice almsgiving? As a start, see what things your church is doing such as a food or clothing drive. Another idea is to ask your kids what kind of service they’d like to do.

Two Resources and Two Suggestions

The first resource is The Lenten Spring by Fr. Thomas Hopko. I’ve read through this a handful of Lents and will continue to. 

The second is Tending the Garden of Our Hearts: daily Lenten mediations for families by Elissa B and Kristina Wenger. Each year we read this as consistently as possible. (You Can find the activity book on Etsy.)

One suggestion is to try memorizing some verses or psalms with your children. Memory work is a part of our homeschool and a few years ago, we worked on memorizing some of the shorter psalms that are commonly read during the Pre-sanctified Liturgies. It was so rewarding to see my children’s eyes light up when they recognized the psalms during the service as the same ones we had been working on. Maybe just pick one for the whole season of Lent and read it once a day or a few times a week during a meal together. You’ll be amazed at how quickly kids memorize things. 

The second suggestion is to use a countdown calendar. We have a 40 day felt chart that we use for Lent and Advent. But you could easily use a piece of paper or poster board to make a 40 day (or 47 if you want to include Holy Week) countdown. A paper chain is another idea!

Let’s Show Up

Over the years I’ve done more or less for Lent, depending on the year. Overall, I’ve learned that the best way is to just go to the services as much as possible. All you need is already in them, and even if your children are young, the Holy Spirit is still there and it will impact them in ways we may never know or see, but there will be an impact. 

One Lent during confession, I was talking about how tired I was, what a struggle it was with the kids, how I felt I couldn’t focus on the service, and I wasn’t comprehending what it was all about. My father confessor told me, “It’s enough to just show up.” 

We may at some point end up having circumstances that keep us from physically showing up, but we can be aware, we can fast, we can pray. In those ways, and if we’re able to physically be at church, let’s show up.

Let’s walk with Christ down the path toward His Passion, and let’s show up with the Myrrh Bearers at the tomb, and let’s rejoice with them and the apostles. We don’t need fancy lessons plans, we don’t need to be perfect.

Let’s just show up with our hearts and eyes open.