March 3, 2014Lent 2014: Fasting. Praying. Almsgiving.

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Author: Josée Bergeron

The Lenten season begins on March 5th, Ash Wednesday, and it goes on for forty-six days, ending with Easter. Lent is meant to be a time of fasting, praying and almsgiving to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Easter. As a family we try to mindfully incorporate these three elements into our Lenten activities while striving to keep things simple.

Fasting
Fasting means abstaining from something. During Lent we fast from eating meat on Fridays and generally eat fewer sweets. My husband and I also choose something specific to give up. This can range from beer to Korean dramas (aigoo! I don’t think I could handle 40 days without kdramas!). For the last seven years I’ve been somewhat exempt from participating in a strict food fast because I’ve been pregnant or breastfeeding but this year I think I’ll ease myself into fasting in this way again, at least for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and maybe a few other times too.

Praying

This year we will be doing the Jesus Tree together. The Jesus Tree (like the Advent Jesse Tree) journeys through Lent using Bible readings about Jesus and symbols to mark each day. Realistically speaking, we probably won’t do every day and that’s fine. For more information on the Jesus Tree check out my post: Jesus Tree: Symbols, Bible Readings and Colouring Pages.

I will also be participating in the 2014 Instagram Lenten Photo-a-Day Journey.
Almsgiving 
Throughout Lent we also make an effort to donate to various organizations that work towards alleviating hunger and poverty in Canada and abroad. There are so may different organizations that do this but a few that we have donated to in the past include CNEWA and Development and Peace.

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