Our Lenten Journey

Each days the boys and I are focusing on one habit or virtue we can practice that day. Although each morning we will learn about a new virtue the "trick" will be to continue to practice all the preceding ones throughout these forty days!!

We started on Ash Wednesday with controlling our temper.I always remember Msg. Aitchen saying at the beginning of Lent that it was not what went into the mouth that God was so concerned with as what came out of it...and how one of the most difficult but world changing practices we could take on in Lent was "not complaining".

To relate temper control to the "nitty gritty" for two siblings who share a room we talked about the negative effect of bickering versus the positive result of silence.I had printed out a little meditation for the boys to pin above their bed and to think on throughout Lent.

Here it is below:

Why is it important to learn to control our temper?

Do you sometimes have trouble controlling yours?

St Francis de Sales had a terrible temper ask him

to pray to God for help for you to control your

temper. Today keep “your tempers” calm,

kind and gentle .

St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is an inspiring example of someone who overcame his anger. Renowned particularly for his gentleness and endless patience, he confided that he actually had a terrible temper. He gives a very good answer to those who cite the anger of Christ as justification for their own. “Jesus,” says Francis, “was God, and always in perfect control of his actions. I'm neither. Once I let my anger go, I lose control. It is like a small fire which becomes a conflagration. Once started, there is no stopping it. Hatred of sin soon turns into hatred of the sinner; righteous indignation quickly loses its mask, revealing the self love lurking beneath. So even if notionally legitimate, anger in my case is sure to do more harm than good. Francis' personal decision and invariable advice was: never, under any circumstances, to give way to anger. Jesus on the cross should be our model. There, he was meek and forgiving: yet precisely there he defeated the devil, and destroyed his enemies, sin, and death.”