40 Days for Life

40 Days for Life is back again for Lent!

After Mass on Ash Wednesday, we went to pray at the Portland site where Planned Parenthood is constructing a massive new building in a predominantly black neighborhood of the city. In spite of rain threatening, there was a good turnout, and the weather was clear for our vigil.

I was pleasantly surprised that -- even in Portland -- the supportive honks, thumbs-up signs, and waves far outnumbered the negative.

At the kickoff meeting, we also were encouraged to hear that there have now been over 1,000 lives saved because of 40 Days for Life. Praise God! More great stories and video clips here.

Please consider joining a 40 Days for Life vigil if there is one near you. (Check here for the complete list of 130+ locations.) If you are unable to do so, perhaps you could join your prayers and Lenten fasting to the campaign.

Stations of the Cross ideas for Kids

These are both Montessori-inspired ideas from Catholic bloggers:

Lillian writes that she has filled boxes for each of her children with items representing each Station of the Cross. "I can't begin to say what a difference this hands-on way of praying the Stations of the Cross has transformed our Fidays during Lent. My little ones now pray along eagerly and listen intently for the station so they can rummage throught their boxes and find the appropriate symbol," she says. I'm going to make a set for my little one, too!

Meanwhile, UK Bookworm has put together a PDF file that you can use to make Montessori-style "three-part" cards of the Stations. Great for learning which Station is which. She has a similar download for the Mysteries of the Rosary as well.

H/ts: Katie and Meg

Simple Lenten practices for children

Lent begins today, or, in the case of the Eastern Catholic churches, it has already begun on Monday. Here are a couple of simple practices that have in past years helped our children get into the spirit of Lent and prepare for the joy and new life of Easter.

The "crown of thorns" has been a big hit at our house. I've seen directions for making salt-dough crowns, but ours is simpler. I simply purchased at the craft store an 8" wreath made of woven twigs. On Ash Wednesday, we stick toothpicks into it to represent thorns, and place the wreath in the center of our dining table. The children get to remove one thorn for each sacrifice or act of kindness (you can make it as specific or general as you like) and their goal is to remove them all before Easter. Some years, we have cleared them all in plenty of time. In this case, we add little flowers to the wreath instead of removing thorns. The flowery wreath makes a good Easter centerpiece.

We also have done a "lenten cross" for the last several years; concpetually it resembles a Jesse Tree or Advent calendar. The original idea for this came from this article by Catherine Fournier on the Domestic Church website. I cut out two strips of brown paper and lay the short one across the long one to form a cross on the wall. Then, using the information in Fournier's article, you can do this project a couple of different ways. If your children are older, you may wish to have them take turns making an illustration for each day in Lent, while another child reads aloud the Scripture reading for the day. If you have younger children, you may prefer to draw or trace a set of illustrations ahead of time. The children then color one each day and add it to the brown-paper cross, while you read the Scripture. Save the master to use again next year. We were blessed to be given a set of illustrations by a friend when our children were young. (Thank you, Paula!)

A simple set of Stations of the Cross can go up the side of your main stairway (consider how many children will need to fit, though!), or down a hall. We made ours using 3x5 index cards with pictures cut from an illustrated book of the stations, with plastic crosses added.

I'll try to find pictures of these.

For myself, I am pondering a Personal Program for Lent.

A blessed Lenten season to you all!

Quick Review: Unveiled Hope

by Michael Card
CD, Sony, 1997

I heard a single song from this CD several times on our local Catholic radio station and was hooked. I loved the joy and hope, and the promise of God's ultimate victory. It has been particularly helpful and uplifting to me during difficult times.

Based on the book of Revelation, this CD is suprisingly "Catholic" in its content. The "Holy, Holy, Holy" track reminded me of the connection between the Mass and the heavenly liturgy. Each member of my family has a different favorite among these songs, which feature a variety of musical styles.

This is my favorite Michael Card CD.

Brilliant design!

Give those Honda engineers a gold star! We just had to replace the bulb in the high-mount brake light of our 1999 Odyssey minivan. Here's what we found.

First, we had to pry off a little, tightly-wedged window at the right edge of the brake light's cover. Not as easy as it sounds. Eventually, we did get it off, but it broke neatly in two, along the central narrowest part.


Next, we unscrewed the hidden screw and pulled out the housing. An amazing amount of dirt had collected in there. Still, we thought we were home free at this point.

Not so! The worst was yet to come.
We unscrewed the bulb housing to discover that the bulb was simply too large to be removed in one piece though the opening. Apparently, they had inserted the bulb from the other side of the opening and then glued the red cover into place. We had to shatter the bulb (with pliers) and shake out the broken pieces before inserting the aftermarket replacement bulb.

Which all led me to wonder whether the folks at Honda had actually tried out their own instructions to replace the bulb.

I'm just thankful the (aftermarket) replacement bulb was actually small enough to fit.

Green Comet Approaches Earth

Comet Lulin is now approaching earth. This beautiful comet is unusual in a couple of different respects. For one thing, its color is greenish due to the cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C₂) it contains. And for another, it is approaching the sun "backwards" and is expected to leave the solar system once it swings around the sun. The comet has never yet been close to the sun, so that it retains many of its original gases.

There's also a neat story behind its discovery by a Chinese teen. See here for more.

Cross-posted with Unity of Truth.

It's a shame!

Perfectly good old books are being destroyed by many resale stores in fear of the new CSPIA regulations purportedly designed to prevent lead poisoning in children. Do books even contain lead? It's a crying shame! Read more here, and see here for endangered books.