1.  Attend Daily Mass (or one additional Mass a week.  This Mass may not be at your praish. 2.  Celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation
 3.  Attend an extra Parish Function
 4.  Stations of the Cross:
 5. Memorize a new prayer
 6.  Try journaling.
 7.  Try praying Scriptures
 8.   Explore the Rules of Discernment
 9.  Join a Prayer Group
 10. Chaplet of Divine Mercy

1.  Donate to Catholic Relief Services 2.  Say a kind word to someone
 3.  Perform one or more of the Corporal works of Mercy
 4.  Perform one or more of the Spiritual works of Mercy
 5.  Visit a nursing home
 6.  Donate some of your time to Church
 7.  Send cards of affirmation to people who need a pick me up.
 8. Spend time with a child/grandchild or with parent
 9.  Forgive someone who has hurt you.
 10. Donate to a food pantry.

I always get frustrated during Lent listening to my favorite workday DJs.  Every year they get involved in a deep discussion about whether or not they can eat chocolate on Sundays during Lent.  This frustrates me because I know through their own acknowledgement that they do not take the time to go to Church on Sunday and that a few of them are living lives that are quite opposite of Church teaching.  Lent is not about giving up things for the sake of giving up things.  Lent is about giving up things in order to become a better person and to improve one’s relationship with God.  Here are five things that I would suggest people consider giving up for Lent.  
 1) Arriving late for Mass-let God know that He is more important to you than a job interview. 
 2) Leaving early from Mass-let God know that you have no place better to be. 
 3) Sitting in the same place each week-meet some of your other brothers and sisters in Christ.
 4) Not taking the time to greet the person next to you before Mass begins.
 5) Not singing. 
 
 Here are five things that you could do during Lent
 1) volunteer to be a ministers at Mass
 2) dressing a little better to reinforce the fact that you are a new creation in Christ.
 3) Compliment one of the ministers
 4) pray the Anima Christi or other prayer after receiving Communion &
 5)read the readings for Mass before Mass or  after Mass. 

1. Don’t buy anything that you don’t NEED.  If you can live without it, you don’t need it.  Give it up for Lent.  Put the money that you would have spent into a jar.  You will be surprised at how quickly you build up your savings.  
 
 2- Throw Away 40 things for 40 days Every day, you walk around your house and collect 40 things to donate or throw away… every day, until Lent ends.   (Try donating, because you are helping others).
 
 3- 40 Days of home Organization Go a step further this year. It is a day by day cleaning & decluttering that lasts through Lent.  You can do 40 tasks or just work through Lent.  It’s a way for me to free up the things that hold me back… material things.  Be sure to GIVE to others through donation after your organization.
 
 4- No Gossiping.  Give up gossiping for Lent. That means you cannot do any gossiping.  None!  If someone says something negative about another person, either say something nice or don’t say anything at all.  
 
 5- No eating after dinner This one is hard for me, so it really makes me think about Lent because I can see just a glimpse of how Jesus struggled when he was hungry.  I eat most of my snacks in the evening when I am watching TV.
 
 6- Give up Soda for Lent This one is easy & not really out-of-the-box, but it is my struggle, so I had to include it.  
 
 7. Say 3 nice things to your spouse & kids daily. You may think this is easy, but try to say things that aren’t the normal “Thanks” or “You look nice.” or “Good job.”   Try to do 3 out-of-the-box things during Lent this year “I love how you always help the kids.”  or  “I love how you work hard on your homework, even when it is tough tonight.  You are a hard worker”   Try to say this important word to your kids.  Remember… your words become their inner voice.
 
 8- Don’t eat out for 40 days.   Try to make easy crockpot meals, like this French Dip Sandwich recipe or this Chicken Salsa recipe
 
 9- Replace 30 minutes of TV time with 30 extra minutes of devotion/prayer time.  Read a devotional or bible story with your family and have a discussion about it.  Even young kids can get involved in this.  
 
 10- Do not complain. We often complain and whine about things, but we need to try to have a positive outlook on things. I tried this one year and it was VERY hard.   You don’t realize how much you complain until you give it up…  “Do everything without arguing or complaining…” Philippians 2:14 NIV
 
 11.  (Bonus)- Spend more one-on-one time with your kids! We only have a few years to really be present in their lives.   Let’s spend these years wisely.  

Palm Sunday

The first big day of Holy Week is Palm Sunday, the day that we commemorate Jesus entering into Jerusalem.  There are a few different ways in which a community can celebrate the beginning of Mass on Palm Sunday but they all begin with the blessing of palms.  As Catholics enter the church or gather around the back of the church everyone is given a palm (either before or after the blessing).  As we gather and listen to one of two Gospels that we will hear at Mass that day we are not just remembering what happen almost 2,000 years ago but rather we are bringing the past into the present.  It is a special way of recalling past events with the help of signs, symbols, gestures, and our own imaginations.  Jewish people use this special type of memory every year also as they celebrate Passover.    
 The first Gospel that we have today is an account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  In each account we see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and people spreading the cloaks on the road before Him.  Only Luke does not mention people cutting down branches (palms) and laying them on the road also.  The people heralded Jesus as the Messiah by singing: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!" (Mark 11:10).  But what type of Messiah was Jesus to be?  One thought was that the Messiah would be a political and military leader who would help through off the Roman yoke like Joshua, Gideon, or Samson. Other ideas flourished around the idea that He would reestablish the Davidic line of kings and direct people back to the true worship of Yahweh. 
  
One interesting thought is that Jesus rode in on a donkey because a donkey was considered an animal of peace where a horse was considered an animal of war (i.e. a war horse) and thus Jesus was showing that He came as the Prince of Peace.  It is also interesting to note that in all the Gospels accounts that Jesus does not own the donkey or the upper room but rather that all his needs are met by some sort of divine providence.  We should remember that Jesus promised us that God would take care of all our needs also.  Jesus receiving all that He needs is also a continuation of a theme of Jesus borrowing from others to complete His ministry.  He borrows Peter’s boat for His pulpit, the loaves and fishes from a young boy to feed 5,000 and now a donkey from an unnamed man.  He will eventually borrow even a tomb. 
  
 As if joining in that original procession the priest and all liturgical ministers (and sometimes with the people following process into the Church after the palms are blest.  We proclaim Christ to be our victor and our sovereign.  The procession at Mass should always remind us of the joy that we should have that Christ (Emmanuel: God with Us) has come into our midst) and of a military parade proclaiming Christ’s victory over sin and death. 
  
The other important thing to note is that on Palm Sunday for our second Gospel of the day (think of it as a double main event) we proclaim one of the accounts of the Passion of Christ according to Mathew, Mark, or Luke.  We will proclaim the Passion of Christ according to John on Good Friday.  It is often the tradition to break up the parts of the passion so that there are at least four proclaimers: the Christ figure (normally the priest), the narrator, the voice, and the crowd.  Once again this is done to make us physically present at this historical event.  We are able to listen to each word, witness Judas’s betrayal, hear Peter’s denial, witness the contempt and abuse the chief priests, Herod, Pilate, and the soldiers heap upon Jesus.  Most importantly though.  We are able to yell “Crucify Him” with the crowds and admit that we helped nail Jesus to the Cross because of our sins.  The painter Salvador Dali in one of his paintings of the Crucifixion intentionally left out the nails to declare that it was not the nails that held Jesus to the Cross but rather His love for us and His desire to forgive us.  We as Catholics believe that if only one person needed to be saved that God’s love for that one person would be so strong that He would have endured the cross for that one person.  Have you sinned?  Then you are responsible for Christ’s death on the Cross.  The Good News is that Jesus came to save us and not to condemn us. While the reading of the Passion takes us all the way up to the death of Christ and his burial in the tomb, Holy Week has really just begun.

Traitor Wednesday

As we continue to explore Holy Week, we find ourselves in the midst of a political thriller is this Jesus Christ going to over through the imposter King Herod and rid the country of the evil and merciless Romans?  Will the warrior Christ be able to defeat the evil monster “Death” itself?  What will happen when Jesus is betrayed, denied, and left all alone at the moment of His greatest need?  Will the Son of God revolt against His Heavenly Father’s will?  Is God truly the Good Shepherd who will go into God-forsakenness to find the lost sheep?  Will the dead truly rise?  What will the confrontation be like when Jesus comes face to face with Herod (who had John killed) or with Pilate who had the blood of the some of the Jews mixed with their own sacrifices.  Sometimes, I think that because we have celebrated Holy Week over and over again we can forget how exciting the story really is.
 
 One of my favorite series of books is called The Spanish Bit Saga by Don Coldsmith.  In the first book of the series The Trail of Spanish Bit he describes a Native American Tribe (known as “the people”) first encounter with the horse and how it would revolutionize their culture.  In that book the Medicine Man known as White Buffalo was a minor character and almost never talked about.  Later Don Coldsmith would write “The Changing Winds” and as I read it I discovered that this was a retelling of the “Trail of the Spanish Bit” but from the point of view of White Buffalo.  I was amazed to learn how much of a role White Buffalo had actually played in the tribe’s acceptance of the horse and it gave me a new prospective on the entire story.  I think that it can be very good to take time to re-read each of the Gospel’s passages concerning the events of Holy Week from the point of view of the many different characters.  Maybe one time read it from Peter’s point of view or another Pilate’s or maybe even from the little girl who accused Peter of being a follower of Jesus.  What do you think their emotions were and the reasons behind their actions?  How is God being accepted or rejected by each character?  What do you feel God telling you as you read and imagine yourself in the different roles?
 
 On Wednesday of Holy Week, which is unofficially called “Traitor Wednesday” because the story of Judas betraying Jesus is read as the Gospel, we have the chance to immerse ourselves into the character of Judas.  Why did Judas betray Jesus?  Were his reasons much different from ours?  Why did Judas not seek forgiveness?