Since we’re approaching Forgiveness Sunday this weekend and Great Lent is right around the corner, I’m dusting off and updating this post from the archives to give you ten simple things you can incorporate into your lenten schedule to make it more fruitful.

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 families are 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 Liturgies! If you’re a mother of littles, don’t be discouraged. You don’t need to be there before it begins or make it through the entire service (though kudos to your kiddos if they make it that long), but making the effort to be present, especially if they can receive Holy Communion, is a big deal and trust me, you’ll be grateful you struggled to teach them the importance of attending services when they get older. :)

3. Sit your family down and discuss the sobriety and importance of this fast and how it differs from the Nativity Fast that I swear was like, last week. Agree to cut back on tv time, video games and other electronics and choose some spiritual books to read during those times instead. Two great options for family reading are The Way of a Pilgrim and Pascha Transforms Wolfman Tom.

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.  My youngest 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 when the kids were younger. 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 and if possible, less talkative (this is a hard one for me, sigh). One prayer that should be added to our daily prayer routine 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. Pack and deliver Blessing Bags, or if you don’t have time to pack bags, set aside a budget that works for your family and take them out on Saturday mornings and make an effort to find people you can help. Sadly, you probably won’t have to look far.

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.

And remember, this is a time to slow down and be intentional in our spiritual lives. If you can’t do all the things you want to, that’s ok. Just do the best you can with the things that are most important—services, increased prayer, fasting. Kali Sarakosti and Kali Dynami, friends!