Lenten Letter to Parents

Gesimatide, 2022

Dear Parents,

 The season of Lent is at our doorstep. As you know, Lent is a crucial time in the life of the Church. It is a season of repentance and conversion, but it is also a time of renewal and growth. Being raised in the Anglican Tradition, I remember Lent and Holy Week as some of the most impactful moments in my spiritual life, even as a small child. Very often, children are able to pick up on the meaning and purpose of the liturgy and our Lenten devotions more quickly than adults. That is because children are naturally sacramental… naturally inclined to see God’s hand behind the “outward forms” of the material world. During Lent, these things are on full display.

It is no news to you that we live in a society and culture which is increasingly hostile to Christianity. In the past, parents might have enjoyed a “cultural Christianity” in which it was assumed children would grow up to share their values and beliefs. This is no longer true, if it ever was. Nonetheless, it is an important reminder to all of us raising children that WE are the primary catechizers of our kids. WE are responsible to ensure that they are being taught the fullness of the faith, with all of its mercy, goodness, truth, and beauty.

During this season of Lent, consider some of the ways you might help form your children at home:

  • Begin (or end) each day with a few simple prayers a family. Say the Our Father and Hail Mary together, then ask each child what they are thankful for today.

  • Take on a Lenten fast together – abstain from meat, sweets, caffeine, or some other item and explain how abstinence can help us grow closer to Jesus.

  • Set up a “home altar” in a central place in your home. Place items like candles, a cross, an icon, a statue, a Bible, and a Book of Common Prayer on a small table. Gather there to pray daily.

  • Decorate your dinner table with items that remind you it is Lent.

  • Do a daily devotional together.

  • Print off questions from the Anglican Catechism and work through them, one question a day. The catechism is available for free online at https://anglicanchurch.net/catechism/

  • Memorize one verse from the Bible each week as a family.

  • Take a up a charitable work together: help out an elderly person in your neighborhood, make cookies for someone going through a hard time, or gather donations for the Life Shelter.

  • Take your kids to Confession (and you go as well!)

Be assured of my prayers as we together raise our families in Christ’s Church.

In Christ,
Fr Joseph Francis SSC
Rector