Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Wishing you all a blessed Ash Wednesday!

Hello friends, and I hope that everyone is having a blessed start to Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season! I'm writing to you earlier than usual this week, but Ash Wednesday just seemed like an ideal time to check in with each other about the start of Lent. How is it going for you?

🤗

For my part, I'm all worried about several things behind the scenes right now (one of which was the intention for the Our Lady Undoer of Knots novena I just finished praying), and have been working on cultivating faith and peace within myself. We're getting there! I think this is going to be my theme for Lent this year.

I dropped Henry off at school, and immediately pulled out a new rosary that I bought specifically for Lent:

St. Thomas Aquinas rosary, made by: Rosaries by Allison
I just love these smooth Czech glass beads, I picked them out based upon another rosary Allison made for me that is one of my very favorites. It brought me a lot of peace as I drove in to work this morning. I prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries, and I have this little rosary booklet that advises the mystery distribution this way, which I have to say that I have always loved:

Pray the Rosary, available on Amazon for just 99 cents!
In the past, I have kept to this schedule, which means that Lent is exclusively the Sorrowful Mysteries, and I love how set apart it makes this special season feel. Come Easter season, the other mysteries feel so decadent! I will probably veer a bit and still pray the Glorious Mysteries on Sundays during Lent, because those are always Solemnities.

I also pulled out my main Lenten devotional and am all excited:

33 Days to Greater Glory, available from ShopMercy.com

I started the Introduction this morning (should have read that yesterday, d'oh!), and plan to get all the way through Day 1 today. So far I am LOVING IT! Fr. Gaitley has such a natural and relatable style to his writing, and I'm becoming quite absorbed in it.

Also yesterday, I saw an ad for the Magnificat Lenten Companion 2020, and those hold a special place in my heart. I've ordered the print versions many a year, and have also tried out the Kindle version on occasion. The print copies sell out well in advance of Lent, plus I was pretty low on time, so this year I decided to try out the app version:

Linky to Kindle, Android and ios versions
I have Android, and it looks absolutely beautiful on my phone. I read the Morning Prayer selection this morning, and am in love. This isn't the full Liturgy of the Hours, but I think this is a lovely, shortened option for those who do not have the full set of books, and/or do not have the timeslots to fit all of the official Hours in. Their Morning Prayer includes a hymn, a Psalm, a scripture reading, Canticle, intercessions, and a closing prayer. Also included are the daily Mass readings, a Lenten meditation, and Evening and Night prayer (same structure as I mentioned above: not the official Liturgy of the Hours, but something modeled after it). This is absolutely LOVELY. I'm curious as to whether I'll keep it up for all of Lent, and whether this will tempt me to get a digital subscription to Magnificat. I have a print subscription to Living with Christ that I use as my missal and aid to meditation on Sundays, but if I find myself using this app regularly during the week, it may be worth it to pursue as an additional aid to prayer.

I'm leaving work a tad early today so that I can attend the 4 pm Scripture Service and Distribution of Ashes at my parish, and I'm all excited, especially since I attended the Worship Committee meeting a few weeks back to discuss all of the decor and liturgical options that we will observe. 😀 We are making cheese ravioli at home later as our meatless dinner for this special day. No desserts or snacks after dinner for anybody!

So! I'm contemplating posts here for Lent. I'm still not entirely decided on how I'll structure them, but expect lots of specifically Catholic content during this season. I'm thinking of maybe some saint features, or Lenten themes each week? Also, is there interest in a weekly link to meatless Friday dinner options? I'd love to hear from you what you would like to see! And let me know how your Ash Wednesday is going. :-)

6 comments:

  1. I started reading the introduction to my Lenten devotional this morning as well. I didn't make it to the Ash Wednesday section this morning so I'm planing to read it this afternoon, thankfully Wednesday is my short work day. I found out that my devotional includes prompts for a daily examen. I'm debating if I want to do this at night or if I'll do it in the morning for the previous day. Doing it in the morning is not the traditional way to do it but might work better for me.

    I'm also going to pray the noon Angelus because I want to work prayer into my day more often. I've set a reminder on my phone with a link to the prayer so I'll see if that works the way I'm hoping later today.

    Meatless dinner links would be wonderful. My biggest problem with dinner is figuring out what to make so ideas would be welcome.

    Would you pray for a special intention for me? Thanks. Hope you have a blessed Lent.

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    1. Hi Melanie! oooo, lots of good stuff in here! Yes, I go through the same thing with devotionals. Morning is a better time for me (sometimes!) when it may be better to do them in the evening the night before. Well, we do our best, at any rate! LOVE your Angelus idea, that is such a beautiful prayer. My little Magnificat app is giving me notifications to remind me to do Morning, Evening and Night prayer, and so far I'm *loving it*! The reminders really are key!

      Meatless dinners, check. I'm feeling this idea too, it'll start up next week!

      Special intention, I'm on it, girl!

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  2. Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent is going pretty so far within my household. My husband and I went to our parish to attend Mass and received the distribution of Ashes.

    When I read your sentence about décor and liturgical option it made me remember I wanted to go to the nearest craft store to find purple fabric that I can make coverings for all the statues and crucifixes in my home during Holy Week.

    I like the idea of Lenten themes for your upcoming posts during Lent.

    Tonight since I cannot eat fish or seafood I am getting creative. I am making Tofu fried rice. My husband will be making himself a small bowl of clam chowder and a tuna melt. This coming Friday will be consisting of a fish fry (which has an option of eating toasties aka grilled cheese) for dinner and my husband is making breakfast for lunch (no meat). Next week probably be making Knephla Soup.

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    1. Hi Nikita! oh my goodness, what an AMAZING idea about covering your home statutes during Lent! I never would have thought about that, but it is a wonderful way to remind ourselves that we are in a special season of fasting and penance.

      I'm feeling the Lenten themes too, will just have to flesh this out more before next week. And meatless recipe options will be coming, horray!

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  3. Thank You Tiffany, for this informative post. We did the Rosary and read the scriptures for today. We also read a book for Lent. Later we will do the Stations of The Cross. Tonight we are having Macaroni and Cheese. Joan will have ketchup on her macaroni because she does not like the cheese. Have a Blessed Lent.
    Joan,Marion and Marilyn

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    1. Hi ladies! It sounds like you have a lovely plan for Lent, and having companionship in the journey is so beautiful! I love how we're sharing meatless dish options together. Look for posts on this topic regularly this Lent! :-0

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