All excited about Lenten devotionals...

...because that's just the sort of thing that I regularly get excited about. I posted not too long ago about requesting free sample copies of Magnificat for myself and Magnifikid! for Henry to see how we liked them. And yay, they arrived!

I used to subscribe to Magnificat a number of years ago (won't think about how many years ago, too depressing...somebody's *birthday* is coming up this weekend) and I really did like it, but I found that eventually I wasn't using it as much, and for $45 per year you really want to use it to its fullest potential. I really liked the saint biographies that were included for each day, and they were usually of more obscrue saints I'd never heard of before. I also loved the artwork and the additional articles and special devotions that appeared in each issue. I did use it for daily Mass (when I was able to attend) and Sunday Mass, for the readings. I didn't really use the included daily prayers, based on the Liturgy of the Hours.

Now, I have a Sunday Missal, so I wouldn't even use the readings, but I'm re-curious (new coined term) about whether or not I'd use the prayers as a daily devotional. I have a full set of the Liturgy of the Hours, but I haven't used them in awhile since it's difficult to find enough uninterrupted time to pray all of the hours, especially evening prayer and the office of readings. I do get the Advent and Lent companions each year that Magnificat puts out, so I thought maybe it was time to reconsider it. So I ordered that sample copy along with Hank's Magnifikid!

Both came the other day. Neither officially starts until March, so we won't get the full test until then. But I did notice that Magnificat now has a 6 month subscription option which I don't remember them having before. Obviously, it's cheaper to subscribe right off the bat for a longer period of time, but that's a nice way to try it for a short duration and see if you use it and like it. It's only $24.95 for the 6 month option.

Hank's Magnifikid is actually a series of little booklets, one for each weekend of Mass. The first one is March 4th. And it includes some relevant mazes and puzzles, as well as a recurring comic scene that looks like he'll find interesting. There's also the readings written in an kid-friendly format, with a cutout explaining the more difficult words. We'll see. I'm hoping that he'll find it to be something that he enjoys looking at in Mass. That only comes with a 1 year subscription option, and it's $34.95 (or 3 years for $79). I'll have him test it out that first weekend in March.

I don't want to rush into any subscription options, but I'm definitely intrigued. Anybody else subscribe to either of these?