Can you believe it is time for Great Lent already?  We just celebrated the Sunday of The Prodigal Son, which is the second Sunday of the Triodion! I swear Christmas was just last week!Soon we'll be celebrating my favorite Vespers service of the year on Forgiveness Sunday, the day before Lent is officially underway.  No matter how many times I experience Forgiveness Sunday vespers, it always feels so new and amazing.  What better way to begin our journey toward Pascha than with forgiveness and repentance?  Such liberation from the bondage of sin!  The thing I love most about this service is how at the end, everyone in the church does a prostration to each other and asks their forgiveness.  It is such a humbling and beautiful act.  You leave feeling a hundred times lighter and with a firm resolve to take on the challenge that lies before us for the next 40 days until Holy Week.  And oh, Holy Week!  What a magnificent and powerful time of year as we actively participate in all the events leading up to Christ's Crucifixion and glorious Resurrection.How can we anticipate something so much and not physically do something?  We need to take advantage of the things the Church provides for us.  This is the perfect time to make sure our family is prepared spiritually for this journey.  Here are 10 ways we can help ourselves and our families prepare for our lenten journey.1.  Make confession appointments for our entire family.  Be sure to check out the fantastic Guide to Confession for children from St. Spyridon's Church in Colorado.  They have two guides, one for children ages 6-10 and the other for ages 11 & up.  Click here to view all their lenten materials.2.  Check the schedule of services and plan on attending as many as possible.  Don't forget Pre-sanctified Liturgy's!3.  Sit your family down and discuss the sobriety and importance of this fast.  Agree to cut back on tv time, video games and other electronics and choose some spiritual books to read during those times instead.  We'll be reading The Way of a Pilgrim and Pascha Transforms Wolfman Tom this year.4.  On Saturday evenings, read the Gospel for the following day and discuss each Sunday in Lent.  (Sundays in Lent are Sunday of Orthodoxy, St. Gregory Palamas, Veneration of the Holy Cross, St. John Climacus of the Ladder, St. Mary of Egypt, and of course, Palm Sunday.)5.  Pick one or two fun activities for the kids to do.  We will be doing our Pascha Passports again this year (Click the link to see how awesome they are!)  and our lenten coloring books from Potamitis Publishing.  We also had *a ton of fun* with our Special Agents of Christ project last year but we have a lot going on this year and unfortunately don't think we'll have time for both the training and the passports.You can find all the details for this project here.6.  We need to be especially mindful of our fasting (both what goes into our mouths and comes out) by keeping our PMS (Potty Mouth Syndrome) in check.8.  Become more prayerful.  One prayer that should be added to our daily prayer rules is the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian.

O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, curiosity, ambition and idle talk, give me not. (prostration)But a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love, bestow upon me, Thy servant. (prostration)Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own failings and not to condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.  (prostration)Then we do our cross and make twelve bows, after which we repeat the concluding verse of the prayer:Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own failings and not to condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.  (prostration)

9.  Stretch out our hands to those in need more often. Our almsgiving should definitely increase during fasting periods.  I hope to knit several scarves and prayer shawls for the boys to pass out to people we see on the streets this time of year and doing several other outreach activities.10.  Lastly, be conscious of all of our actions.  Struggle daily to think and act as a true Orthodox Christian.  Be more mindful of the way you speak, dress, behave and even think.Offend less, forgive more.  Speak less, listen more.  Humble yourself and let the love and light of Christ shine through you.Side note:  I have really been burning the midnight oil trying to prepare a Pascha Study Guide for you all!  Please keep me in your prayers!  I always have so many temptations when trying to do these sort of things...kids get sick, house almost gets broken into, power cord to my laptop suddenly stops working, the list of things that get in the way of these projects goes on and on, lol.  But God-willing it will be ready next week!  I will be selling it here on the blog the same way I sold the Advent Study.  It will be a 7-week study that includes daily scripture readings and questions for personal reflection on them, themed devotionals, lenten recipes and activities and several things that I hope will help you with your fast this year (and for years to come!).  Check back next week for all the details...