Happy Lent!

This year, even though it's early, I'm ready for Lent.

Not ready like, "I have my ducks in a row," unfortunately, more ready like, "I need some serious spiritual growth!"

 This year it's the Year of Mercy, so, we are focusing on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

I love it when we have a theme!

We had been working on the virtues, so we made matching posters for the works of Mercy.

As with the virtues, the Works of Mercy are drawn in pencil  and are colored in when we discuss (and hopefully practice) them.

Extra bonus: we are talking about which virtues help us with which acts!

 Choclo and Oob helped create a little altar in a corner of the dining room.

We have a cross, a candle, the sacrifice bean jar (you put in a bean each time you do something special for God), and a fountain (Jesus is the Living Water).

We also have a basket of stones with different titles of Jesus carved on them, and we are planning on switching the one on top of the fountain every so often.  The one there now says, "The Good Shepherd."

 Also on the altar (but not in the picture!) is a Bible and a bowl of paper grapes and leaves for our "Vine and Branches."

Also not in this picture, each branch has a name on it, and the vine is labelled Jesus. 

Unlike the sacrifice beans, the point here is to watch for others bearing fruit during this season.  When you see someone doing something kind, for example, you tape a cluster of grapes or a leaf to their branch.

And many thanks to Zorg and Leena for this years vine and branches!

In case you are interested in "Walking With Jesus" with us, here is the printable version I gave my Religious Ed kids to color.

You can use it as a template, or just print and color it yourself!

The idea is to color in a footprint each day, starting at the lower left cross. 

Some years we also drew flowers around the footprints to represent the acts of love we had done that day.

Please note, the cross itself is the symbol for Ash Wednesday (the first footprint is Thursday), and each Sunday is a picture relating to that Gospel (no footprints on Sundays).

Lastly, because it is now a Tradition in my house: