Schools hold Lenten activities

By JULIE KEANE, Globe staff reporter
March 11, 2004

Educators around the Diocese of Sioux City are organizing various Lenten projects for their students to help them learn about Jesus' death and resurrection.

"Being in a Catholic school, Lent is a very important part of our church year," Karen Conlon, teacher at Sacred Heart in Spencer, said. "I think it is really important to talk about Lent and prepare them for the death and resurrection of Jesus."

Conlon said that the students symbolically witness Jesus' crucifixion daily when they are walking the halls of Sacred Heart.

"Coming into the school we have a big wooden cross with real thorns with the words humility, new life, courage, holiness, self sacrifice and preparation," Conlon stated. "Each week we do a prayer service in the gym with those themes."

Next to the wooden cross, there is a pair of sandals and a throw blanket where the poem "Footsteps" is written. The "Footsteps" poem symbolizes the students walking in Jesus' footprints this Lent. Each week everyone in the school writes on a footprint what they will try to improve this Lent. The footprints are hung on the walls to remind the students that they are walking in Jesus' footsteps.

Along with making footprints, a Lenten family calendar was made for each student to take home to their families. Each calendar day during Lent has a suggested idea to help bring families closer throughout Lent.

"On the Lenten calendar we have implemented some ideas for them to do at home. For Ash Wednesday they were supposed to gather with their children at bedtime and share a story about themselves that shows them they were special," Conlon said.

Conlon added other ideas in the calendar were to have parents tell their children funny things they did and said as children, to tell their children how much they love them and that God loves them even more, to talk, to take a walk and to play a game.

Students from St. Edmond High School and Middle School in Fort Dodge are also growing stronger in their faith and relationship with God this Lenten season.

Mary Ricke, director of religious education, said that the students are joining the overall theme of the parishes - changing hearts of stones to hearts of flesh.

"We are trying to create all of our environment around this theme as well as our activities," Ricke said. "One thing we are doing for third through twelfth graders is reconciliation services. Students will receive a rock when they go into reconciliation and leave with a felt heart."

Teachers will have their students participate in prayer, Stations of the Cross and the rosary throughout Lent. Collections will be taken at all of the student Masses and the money collected will be donated to different charities. Students are also participating in Operation Rice Bowl

Ricke added that it is important to have students participate in these types of Lenten activities because this will help them grow spiritually and help them form life long traditions.

"One of the things that we said here for a long time is that we need to get them into a habit of prayer and introduce them to the traditions of the faith and practice them," Ricke said.

Students from Holy Family School in Sioux City are also being taught the importance of making prayer a habit in their lives. The theme for this year's Lenten season at the two Holy Family Centers is prayer.

Dawn Michelle Harrington said that students have time each day for meditative prayer. The central focus of this Lenten season for the students is pulling their focus to Jesus through prayer.

"It is a special time in the church," Harrington said. "Lent is preparation time for Easter and helps students know this is something Jesus did for us and it is really important that we prepare for that."

Students from Gehlen Catholic in Le Mars are also focusing on prayer during this Lenten season.

Each day is started with prayer, which is led over the intercom by two students. The prayers are taken from ones that were written by Mother Teresa for the Lenten season.

Along with daily prayers, students are focusing on collecting for the Holy Childhood Association. The students are also collecting for five other missions in India, Tanzania, Philippines, Mexico and Honduras. Students from Gehlen will travel to Honduras in April and plan on taking the collected items.

"We are collecting soap, shampoo, toothpaste, vitamins and Tylenol and then those will be sent with our students when they leave April 1 to go to Honduras," Lorie Nussbaum, principal of Gehlen Catholic Grade School, said. "The kids are bringing in all of the supplies. They are doing an awesome job."

The fifth and sixth grade students are having journal reflections. During Lent, students are writing down something that they are going to try to improve on each day. At the end of the day, the students write a reflection stating if they accomplished their goal. Kindergartners are also trying to improve themselves during Lent with a self improvement project. The students have a cross in the room that looks like puzzle pieces and each day the students draw out a slip of paper from a container that tells them something they can do to help improve. Some of the improvement tips were to smile at every teacher and try everything on their lunch plate.

"I think all these activities are important because they make our faith a living experience," Nussbaum said. "They help us reflect on Christ's sacrifice and our obligation as Christian Catholic to follow in his footsteps."