Preparing for Lent as Homemakers

Holy Mother Church has given us many, many joyful feasts to celebrate throughout the Liturgical Year. And before every major feast, she gives us a time of preparation before the big day. The biggest feast in the whole Church is the feast of Easter, the resurrection of Christ. Lent is the time of preparation before Easter given to us by Holy Mother Church to prepare for this great feast.

Since Lent is a long period of time full of sacrificing and fasting, just like a good mother, the Church gives us a few weeks to get ourselves ready for the intensity of Lent. These weeks begin with Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima.

Today is Septuagesima, so it is time to start preparing for Lent.

Septuagesima

Septuagesima Sunday begins the time for us to look ahead a little to the Lenten season. The word Septuagesima is Latin for 70, so Septuagesima Sunday is 70 days before Easter.

We must take this time to carefully prepare ourselves for this sacrificial time so that we are able to make the most of it.

Most people are going to immediately start thinking about fasting and abstaining. That seems to be what Lent is known for. We all have a little dread of thought at not being able to eat like we want.

Lent is also thought of as the time of “don’t do’s” that we, and especially our children, dread.

I know when I was a child, I couldn’t stand the thought of Lent coming up and I thought that Easter took way too long in coming.

Now that I’m grown, I have this passion of living the Liturgical Year the way Holy Mother Church wants us to live it. I’m especially passionate about it as a homemaker and as a mother. My family is trying to celebrate the feasts and truly prepare ourselves for the feasts. Prepare physically, yes, but more importantly, spiritually.

This includes Lent. Living the season of Lent in the way it’s intended to be lived, joyfully and full of anticipation. Yes, I said joyfully. As Catholics, we are supposed to do everything joyfully. That includes making sacrifices and Lent is the season of continual sacrifices.

Preparing for Lent

From now till Ash Wednesday, we need to decide what it is that we’re going to do in order to have a holy and beneficial Lent full of spiritual growth.

As mothers, we also need to help our families prepare and take this time to explain the joys of Lent to our children so that they never look with dread at this season.

Also as homemakers, we need to prepare our homes for the Lenten season.

In order to properly prepare we need to decide on five things: sacrifices, prayers, spiritual reading, meals and home decor.

The main focus of Lent is sacrifices. Sacrifices can be avoiding doing anything that we want to do or doing something when we actually really don’t want to do it.

Sacrifices are done for love of God and to make reparation for our sins and the sins of the world.

So, what are you going to give up this Lent and what might you do instead with the time that you’ll now have?

Whenever we give something up for Lent, we have to make sure and replace it with something else. What can we do with the time we will now have from not doing this one thing?

For example, maybe you’re going to give up watching TV. With the time you’ll now have from not watching TV maybe you can pray an extra Rosary or play a game with the kids or go ahead and wash that batch of dishes instead of waiting to do it later.

Start writing down the ideas that come to your mind. As you come up with ideas, you can figure out what would be most realistic for you this Lent.

Prayer

We must also set aside some time daily for prayer. I’m talking about extra prayer. What time are you going to spend with God aside from your morning and night prayers and your daily Rosary?

Maybe this is the time to start that devotion you’ve been wanting to or maybe you want to say an extra two rosaries so that you pray all 15 mysteries in one day. Or maybe it’s a simple prayer to our Lady every day.

It does not have to be complicated, we just need to do a little, simple something.

So whatever it is, now is the time to decide what it’s going to be.

At the moment, I’m planning on praying an extra Rosary every time I go for a walk.

As a family, we are planning on praying the Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent.

Write down the prayer or prayers that will best fit you and your family this Lent. Remember, now is the time to come up with all the ideas. Next week, we’ll make our final decisions.

Spiritual Reading

The third way we need to prepare for Lent is by picking out some spiritual reading.

As Catholics, we have a duty to always be learning about our Faith. That does mean any area of our Faith.

So spiritual reading can be anything from the simple lives of the saints to the more complex theological works.

It depends on your interests and what you want to focus on this Lent.

This can also be a really good time to start reading from your stack of “to read” if there are appropriate books for Lent in it.

I like to pick a book to help me meditate on the life of our Lord and Blessed Mother during the rosary. The book “The Life of Mary” is my favorite for this, and I will be using it this year.

I also like to pick out a second book. One that’s focused on my vocation whether it be for marriage or for motherhood.

Some ideal books might be: “Dressing with Dignity” or “The Wife Desired.”

Picking an additional book to read aloud with your kids would be a great idea too! It’s something that can be done as a family and it’s our favorite way to read the lives of the saints.

Preparing our Home for Lent

Menu

Now as homemakers there are two things for the home that we have to prepare in order to be ready for Lent. The menu is the big one.

While our kids are able to continue eating three full meals, we and our husbands now have to fast. Of course, if you are pregnant and/or nursing, then no fast is required, but the abstinence still is.

So, we have to have a good list of meals to get us through each day without having to turn to some meat. We also need to have a good list of snacks to make that will help our husbands make it through their workday. We also need those snacks for ourselves.

I’m currently working on writing out all my meal and snack ideas so that there’s always a handy list nearby for me to reference whenever I need. I find it to be a great help during Lent.

I like to bake a lot of breads and muffins during this time. My family finds that these make great additions to meals, especially meatless meals, and to snacks.

Maple pecan overnight oats would be great to use during this time as well and we will definitely be having these.

Home Decor

The fifth and final Lenten preparation as homemakers is the home decor.

I feel like many people don’t think about their decor while in Lent. I know I never had until more recently. It can feel like it doesn’t matter what our home looks like during this time, but we have to remember that as homemakers we set the tone of the home.

The home decor can greatly impact the attitude of our family members.

Knowing this, I believe it very important to pay close attention to the Liturgical seasons so that our homes can match the spirit of Holy Mother Church.

That being said, how can we decorate our homes to match the season of Lent?

I’m planning to do this in two ways.

The first way is by keeping the decorations to a minimum and the second way is by using the color purple.

Both of these ways will mimic the atmosphere at Mass. The Church is more bare and the vestments are purple this season.

Maybe put some of the yearly decor away to make for minimal decorations.

And as for the purple, this could be a table runner or a table cloth. Maybe some purple cloth napkins. Really anything that’s purple would work for Lent.

I also hope to purchase a crown of thorns to use as the centerpiece on our dinner table.

The hope in handling the home decor this way is to help the family keep the spirit of Lent.

Start Writing

So start writing down all of your Lenten goals. Whatever you would like to be doing this Lent, write it down. Nothing is official yet, so take this week of Septuagesima to put your thoughts on paper.

Take this time to truly think about what would be best for your home this year.

Have a family discussion about what everyone would like to work on this Lent.

However you do it, it’s just important to put the time into preparing for Lent. To prepare for Lent as homemakers.

Next week we can start making final decisions based off our lists and what we’re feeling we’ll be capable of this Lent.

Don’t stress about this. This is really intended to be a simple process to prepare us for this simple time.