Family Activity:

Retell your family history, each parent should reflect on the struggles and challenges of their family of origin and share those stories with their children. Highlight the struggles, the perseverance, and the benefits those had for your family of origin.

Now have your kids share their own memories of tough times in your family, help them to see the fruits of those struggles and how those struggles brought your family deeper in your faith and closer to the Lord.

Weekly Virtue:

Fortitude, otherwise known as perseverance. Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life.” –CCC 1808

• Be patient with one another through not becoming impatient with each other and thinking of the other person before yourself
• Fast on Friday and do it without complaining (over age 14)
• Finish tasks that you begin before the end of the day, especially if the task is difficult or requires more work than you initially expected.

Family Reflection

Click the link below to read the scriptures from fifth Sunday of Lent. The model we use in the Lenten exercise is detailed in this article. For the readings today we will be reflecting on transforming our hearts through obedience and suffering.

I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts

Jeremiah 31:33

How many covenants did God establish with humankind in the bible? Five – See article at Catholic Answers

• Noah
• Abraham
• Moses
• David
• The New Covenant

What makes the new Covenant different from the 4 previous covenants?

1. This covenant does away with the legal requirements of commandments and replaces them with a desire of the heart to do the will of God.
2. This covenant is with all humanity.

As we discussed last week, the Ten Commandments were not enough to save Israel, humanity needed a conversion of heart. We need the law to transform our hearts but it is not enough to know the law, it must transform our hearts. Jesus didn’t just tell us how to be faithful to God, He showed us by offering Himself in sacrifice for the sins of the world. He gave us an example to follow and then sent us the Holy Spirit to enable the transformation of our hearts so that the law was no longer just words on a page but written deep within our hearts. Our stony hearts are replaced with new hearts with a passion for God’s love.

A clean heart create in me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me

Psalm 51

Who wrote Psalm 51, and many of the other Psalms? King David

A clean heart. David wrote these words after one of his most profound sins. (Note: Parents use prudential judgement on how much of David’s sins you discuss with your children) He had just committed adultery with a woman, murdered her husband and taken her for his wife. A prophet came to him and confronted him about this great sin and in humility David confessed and asked God to forgive him and transform his heart. This transformation involved much suffering. The child conceived through the adulterous affair would die, and his own son Absalom would lead a revolt against him and eventually be killed by a member of David’s army.

Son though He was, He learned obedience from what he suffered

Hebrews 5:8

No one wants to suffer, but we are called to follow Jesus and the way to perfection is through suffering. What is the source of this suffering? Testifying to the Truth. Obedience is essential in our quest for perfection. But obedience is hard, it seems to go against our human nature. We want to be in control of our lives, make our own decisions, etc. But God’s plan is better, He knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us more perfectly than we love ourselves. He proved that on the cross. Jesus told us to pick up our cross and follow Him to eternal life and perfect union with God. Isn’t that what we should desire?

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

John 12:22

Who is Philip? One of the 12 Apostles of Jesus. Philip, a native of Bethsaida on Lake Genesareth, was a follower of John the Baptist like Andrew and was present when John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God.

Who is Andrew? One of the 12 Apostles of Jesus and the brother of Simon Peter (the selected leader of the Apostles and first Pope).

To be glorified, we must die to ourselves. We must choose God’s ways over own desires. we must trust in God’s promises, He wants what is best for us.

Reminds me of a story. A little boy loved his little stuffed animal and his parents had a new gift for him, but before they would give him the new gift he had to give them his beloved little stuffed animal. The little boy resisted and clung tightly to his little stuffed animal despite the parent assuring him that the new gift would be far better than what he currently had. Eventually the little boy gave his parent the old, ragged stuffed animal and lo and behold the new stuffed animal was beautiful, larger, and made better than the old one. The boy was overjoyed upon receiving it. Don’t we often do the same? We hold on to what we know, we cling to our old self and have difficulty trusting that God has something better for us. God has a great gift for us, all we need to do is trust Him and surrender what we love most to Him.