3 Ways Into Sunday’s Stories for Children: Lenten Practices

The First Sunday in Lent

During Lent, we will depart from our usual Sunday stories from the lectionary and, instead, offer a different Lenten spiritual practice for your family to try and adopt over the next forty days and nights. We will also provide some resource links to inform and help your children understand more about the season of Lent. The materials that are used with the practices will be demonstrated and provided in our Children’s Time classes — in person! — at 10am on Sundays in Trinity Commons (for vaccinated children, ages 5–11)! The materials have also been sent to those who signed up for mailings. And here, you can discover ways to DIY the Lenten practices with items that you can create or source yourselves or print at home. 

Each week in Children’s Time, we will be reading pages from Lara Alary’s lovely book for children about Lent, Make Room. You can order your own hard copy, or the eBook, which you can view on an e-reader or computer in a cloud reader app.

1. Sing and Dance

Make room in your heart and in your lives for God with this simple song, Sanctuary.

2. Play and Pray

Watch this short video, 40, and imagine what your Lenten “wilderness” can look like. What might you see, hear, feel, learn, give, or discover?

Each day of Lent, pray with this Lenten Prayer calendar. Use scratch off stickers to cover and then reveal a different prayer prompt square each day (except Sundays). Or circle the prayers you use as you go. Children will receive a copy of the calendar and scratch-off stickers in Children’s Time or in the mailing.

3. Create

In before-times, on Mardi Gras our children would decorate and then hide an Alleluia banner, as we refrain from saying it during Lent, which started on Wednesday. Learn more about “Burying the Alleluia” and other Lenten traditions. Color and hide this Alleluia butterfly.

Our first spiritual practice is Listen. Create a set of Holy Listening stones with symbols that can help us identify what we’re feeling so that we can share with trusted friends and family, or in prayer with God. Practice listening to God and one another with an open and loving heart.

Watch this introduction to Lent practices from Wayne and Jenelle: