Happy Friday!!  It’s also the 27th day of Lent.  Today I wanted to be open and honest and share some things with you, I hope you read along.

This past fall I started the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) process at our Catholic parish.  So at the conclusion of Lent, on Holy Saturday, I will officially be Catholic!  It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile to help unify our family.

My husband grew up Catholic, and we’re raising our kids Catholic, but I was always the missing piece.  The whole thing really came to a head one Sunday at Mass when my daughter decided to go with my husband to receive Eucharist. She started crying walking down the aisle because Mommy couldn’t go with her.  Obviously, I could have walked to the front and just not received it, but I stayed in the pew and waited for them to come back while my heart was breaking.

That’s when I knew it was time to start the process.  I’ll be honest and say that it hasn’t been easy, but it’s also been really great at the same time.  There have been logistical issues with kids, other priorities and reasons I’ve had to miss classes.  It’s been a steep learning curve and a challenge of faith.  But every week I leave my classes feeling more complete, more loved, and with more assurance that this is what I’m supposed to be doing.

Lent Almsgiving Ideas for the Home Entertainer

All of that back story to tell you what I’m doing for Lent this year.  I’ve participated in the whole “giving things up for Lent” since high school, and most of the time my sacrifices have been fairly superficial.  Some times I’ve given up chocolate or dessert, and there was one year I gave up reality TV.  That one was actually kind of hard.

The past few years however, I’ve decided to start doing something instead of giving something up.  So this year, I decided I wanted to host a different family for dinner every week.  Here’s the really honest part, we’re four weeks into Lent and I’ve only hosted two families.  Yikes! Either way, I’m still glad to keep trying to coordinate with people and feed them!

I referred back to the parable of the talents (Matthew 25: 14-30) and realized that my talent is opening up my house and sharing time with others.  Something I try to encourage you all to do.

But, I’m not just opening my house and having a meal with others, I’m putting my party planning and decorating spin (aka talent) on things.  Shocker!

The first time we hosted was a Friday, which meant no meat for the day.  So I planned a fun fish taco night with signature drinks and themed tablescape. I’ll definitely break down all the details in another post soon, but wanted to share a couple photos from our meal.

The next dinner party we hosted was more of a spring themed dinner party.  I made a delicious beef ragu and absolutely loved the spring tablescape.

I have plans for at least a couple more dinner parties, but really need to squeeze them in before April 1st!

Although it’s been fun for me to menu plan, set up a pretty tablescape and cook a delicious meal, it’s actually been the fellowship that I’ve loved the most.  It’s been great talking with other families about life, kids, dreams, challenges, and faith.  It’s the whole reason I decided to do this for Lent.

One of my RCIA teachers explained the idea of fasting, praying, and almsgiving of Lent as a way to love ourselves, love God, and love others. I thought that was a great way to explain the golden rule.  He described it as to love our selves we must fast and deny ourselves things that aren’t good for us.  To love God we need to pray.  And to love others we need to give.  I love being able to give others a good meal and a nice place to eat it.

I hope this Lenten season has been good for you, and if you are just now getting into the swing of things, there is plenty of time to fast, pray, and do almsgiving.

Thank you for letting me be open and honest about my faith journey.  I hope you all have a great weekend and are encouraged to fast, pray, and give.  Or even just invite someone over for dinner!