As we approach Holy Week, a couple of activities can help families hold fast to their Lenten resolutions, writes Jason Osborne
The end of Lent is rapidly approaching, and it would be all too easy to let our guard down now. In particular, children who are just beginning to grow into the liturgical life of the Church may be getting a little fed-up with all of the sacrifices they’re being asked to make. It’s important to be understanding at this present time, as their Lenten sacrifices are compounded by all of the extenuating circumstances we’re currently experiencing.
Viktor Frankl, author of the famous Holocaust book, Man’s Search for Meaning, spoke about how man can live with any ‘how’ if he has a ‘why’. A conclusion to draw from this is that it’s a lot easier for a person to endure something if they know why they’re doing it, and the same is true of children and Lent.
This year, as Lent draws to a close and Holy Week looms, it’s worth mixing in some solid catechetical activities with some good, old fashioned fun in order to keep your children’s attention. You might even learn something or come to view Lent differently yourself.
Sacrifice beads
Flicking through St Therese of Lisieux’s spiritual masterwork recently, The Story of a Soul, I was struck by her use of ‘sacrifice beads’. Quoting a letter her mother wrote in 1876, she wrote:
“Even Thérèse wants to start making sacrifices now. Marie (St Thérèse’s sister) has given each of the little ones a chaplet on which they can keep count of their good deeds…But the most charming thing of all is to see Thérèse slip her hand into her pocket time and again and move a bead along as she makes some sacrifice.”
St Thérèse was characterised by her ability to refer all things back to God, and this device is particularly apt for Lent. It allows your child, or you, a simple, concrete way to keep track of times throughout the day you’ve offered something to God, as is the idea of Lent.
Keeping track of both sacrifices and failures is a powerful practice to hand on to a child and is directly related to the daily examen of Ignatian spirituality. By helping your child to get into a habit of interior reflection, it makes it easier for them going forward to see where they’re doing well and where they could do better throughout their day.
As for the sacrifice beads themselves, these can be easily acquired online or wherever sells devotional items (whenever they’re next open). If you’re of a more industrious bent, they can be made quite simply using three feet of silk cord, a St Thérèse medal (or any keyring), pony beads, and a crucifix. Once these are gathered, the rest is simple enough:
– Find the middle of the string and pull it through the end of the St Thérèse medal or keyring. This should make a little loop with the middle of the string, through which you should pass the two ends of your string.
– Pull the two ends of the string tight, and it will secure the string to the St Thérèse medal or keychain, leaving the two strings dangling down.
– Lay out 10 pony beads (and these can be any colour or lack thereof), deciding which order you want to string them in.
– Take your first bead and put one string through one side of the bead and put the other string through the other side of the bead.
– Pull both ends of the string and the bead will slide up the strings towards the medal.
– Keep pulling the two strings in opposite directions until your bead goes all the way to the top.
– Do the same to the rest of the beads – one string going in one side and the other going in the other side.
– Once you have all ten beads on the string, then leave a space and tie a knot by wrapping the string around your fingers and putting the ends of the string through the hole you’ve formed. This knot needs to be big enough to hold the last bead in place, so double knot it if you have to.
– Place the 11th bead after this knot and tie another knot right under that bead to hold it in place.
– Now to attach the crucifix. Lace one string through the crucifix and then secure it with a knot. Trim the edges, but not too close to the knot, leaving a little extra to prevent it from becoming untied.
– To make sure it stays in place either; paint the knot with clear fingernail polish; burn the ends of the string with a lighter; put a dab of glue on each side of the knot.
And before you know it, you have your very own set of sacrifice beads with which to offer things up to God throughout the day. A good activity and good practice to get into.
Planting seeds
Another worthwhile activity to get into with what’s left of Lent, and ideally suited to springtime, is that of seed-sowing. It’s an easy way to focus young minds on God’s teaching as it’s a physical manifestation of the dying-and-rising pattern. It’s a lot easier to understand how something must be subdued and buried if you have a physical depiction of it playing out in a flowerpot or in your garden.
He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life”
Picking out easy plants in a garden centre is something a child can be involved in at any age – sunflowers are particularly pleasing as their sunny faces are likely to lift the spirits of any family they find a home with.
As they’re planted and nourished, help your children to reflect on Christ’s words:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Help them to draw the link between the springtime of nature and the spiritual, and eventually physical, resurrection we’ll undergo. Help them to see that if something is to grow properly, both us and the lowliest plant, it involves attention, time and dying to yourself – symbolised by the burial of the seed in the soil.
Decorating eggs
A final suggestion is to decorate eggs with symbols of the Resurrection and images from the biblical stories. Hand-decorated eggs can be left around the house in an attempt to draw the mind to God – children are more likely to be fascinated by a painted egg than by the great religious works of art, up to a certain age.
To do this, you need eggs, a pin or safety pin, a cocktail stick, two large bowls, washing up liquid, and (unusually) a baby aspirator (which should be available in pharmacies or on Amazon). This will help you to remove the yolk from the egg without shattering it.
As mentioned, images of the resurrection or biblical figures are good ideas for the Lenten period”
Carefully pierce the egg with the pin at either end. Try to make the hole at the base (the wider end) of the egg large enough to fit a cocktail stick through. Push the cocktail stick into the egg to break the yolk, twist it around a couple of times, then remove it.
Then hold the egg over a bowl with the larger hole pointing downwards and press the aspirator over the smaller hole at the top and use it to pump air into the egg. The air will push the egg yolk and white out of the shell into the bowl below. Cover this and put it in the fridge to use in cooking or baking, if you like. Once the egg feels empty, pop it into the second bowl and fill it with warm water and washing up liquid. Use the aspirator again to pump soapy water through the eggshell.
Leave it to drain on a kitchen towel. Once it’s completely dry, you’re ready to decorate it. As mentioned, images of the Resurrection or biblical figures are good ideas for the Lenten period.