Curious Kate: Truthseeker Extraordinare

“As we give, we find that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven!  And in the end, we learn it was no sacrifice at all.” Spencer W. Kimball

Back in the classroom, Kate decides to take Papa’s advice and share her stories of Lenten journeys past. They usually get a chuckle out of her stories and hopefully learn something along the way. She wants to discuss prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in a new light. Let’s see if she succeeds.

CK: My dad died when I was 4 years old. My mom had to work very hard to take care of my brother Henry and I growing up. And believe me, Henry was quite the handful. Kind of reminds me of you JT.

Kids: Chuckle

CK: The point I want to make is that in spite of all the things my mom had on her plate, she always made time for God, and she made sure we did as well. It’s probably the only thing that kept Henry out of jail. Just kidding.  Actually, Henry is a pilot now and he flies all over the world. Who’da thunk it?  😊

I think mom tried to be both mom and dad to us. And I guess in that way, Henry and I respected her wishes, or at least tried to. Although there was this one time when Henry was supposed to be kid-sitting, Sam and I and decided to… ahh… never mind.

Kids: Come on, tell us.

CK: Maybe later, if you are good.

Anyway, one of the things mom always insisted on was that we celebrate Lent as a family, even when she was dead tired from working all day and then taking care of us. I tried to help but I was just a little kid back then. And Henry was, well, Henry was Henry.

Jackson: What do you mean you “celebrated” Lent?

CK: Mom said that Lent was what she called a celebration of sacrificial love. What does John 3:16 say? You have seen it at sporting events? Anyone?

Maya: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

CK: Very good. That is the kind of love my mom had for us kids – a love that always put our needs before her own. She sacrificed things that maybe she wanted or even deserved. That is sacrificial love. It is a celebration of the love God had for his children. Jesus died so we might live. Who of you would want someone close to you to die just to save a bunch of sinners?

JT: Yeah, right.

Molly: My best friend’s uncle died trying to rescue people in the north tower during 9/11. I know it was his job, but still, he sacrificed his life for others – people he didn’t even know. He left behind a wife and two small kids.

CK: That is an excellent example. Thank you for sharing that.

Back to Lent. I remember when I was your age and first got my driver’s license. My friend Sam and I volunteered to take day-old bakery goodsfrom Sam’s mom’s bakery, to the food shelf in the little town down the road from where we lived. I am sure my mom and Sam’s mom knew what our real motives were, but they also knew it would be a good experience for us as well. And it was. The volunteers that worked there were thrilled for home-baked goodies. And actually, Sam and I ended up volunteering there once a month through the rest of high school. It really felt good to help others. Because that is how God created us. It is in our spiritual DNA, like a natural high for loving and serving others.

So, this is going to be your assignment for the rest of class. In this bowl are your names. We will draw names to see who your groupmates are.  Three groups of four kids each.

Kids: “Can we be with friends?”? Blah, blah, blah. Whine, whine…

CK: No, and I will tell you why. Someday you may have to work with people who may see things differently than you do. And you are going to have to learn to cooperate and respect others, no matter those differences. So get over it. 😊 Jackson – Group 1, Maya- Group 2, and Lydia-Group 3, each pick out three names.

The reason we are doing three groups is because we are going to focus on the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Each group is given the assignment of creating a way or plan for observing your pillar during this Lenten season. It can be an individual thing, an event for people your age, or an event that the whole parish can participate in. Group 1 has prayer, Group 2 has fasting, and Group 3 has almsgiving.

You have the rest of this class time to get started, and by next week, you will present your idea. Be prepared to also explain the importance of your sacrificial offering. We will vote and whatever idea gets the most votes will become our class project. There are some handouts about the basics of these sacrifices, or you can also go online to research your subject. So go to it!

One week later:

Prayer – Group 1

Jackson: “Prayer is the foundation of our relationship with God; therefore, it is essential to every Christian. With that in mind, we decided we would like to host a night of meditation and prayer on one of the Wednesday nights of Lent at church, and we would invite our entire parish to it, along with the high school classes that meet on Wednesdays. We would have scripture readings about things like forgiveness, humility, wisdom, fortitude, direction for their lives, a deeper relationship with God, and so on, followed by a question to meditate on with instrumental hymn music in the background for like three minutes. Toward the end of the service, we would also hand out pen and paper for people to write a prayer on, we would collect the prayers in collection baskets and burn them outside of church as people were leaving to symbolize the prayers rising to heaven. We are also open to suggestions. 😊

CK: Great job! Thank you, Jackson and company!

Fasting – Group 2

Maya – “When we read more about fasting, it is much more than giving up sweets as a means of self-control. When we speak of fasting from food, it is to remind us of spiritual and physical purification. When we are hungry, we are to remember to be hungry for God. When we sacrifice, we do it in solidarity with not only those who live without food day after day, but also in solidarity with the suffering of Jesus on the Cross.

There are all kinds of ways of fasting. So we came up with the idea of having a “fastithon.” For one week, we figured that kids spend a minimum of two hours a day on social media, an average of, say, 14 hours a week. And fasting from social media is really a sacrifice for some kids. So for every half hour under that 14-hour limit, we could get pledged for $5 an hour. We selected Heifer International as our charity. It provides many kinds of services for the poor, one of which is buying farm animals for people in third world countries. It is kind of like “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

CK: Another great idea! I am very impressed!  Thank you!

Lydia – Almsgiving is primarily thought about as charitable giving, either donating money or raising money for a cause. But there are things we can give other than money. One of the central lessons of the Cross is compassion, so we decided to hold a “random acts of kindness” challenge. Instead of money, we would give of our time to make someone else’s day better.

Random acts of kindness challenge: One each for the 40 days of Lent. We would challenge our parish members, including our grade school and high school kids. We have a list of 60 to choose from: Some as easy as smiling at the lunch lady at school or volunteering to open the door at church on Sunday.

CK: Awesome! Wow! Thank you, Lydia and company. They could make this into a Hallmark movie!

CK: All of the ideas are so wonderful that I am almost at a loss for words. Imagine that! I am so very proud of all of you. And I wish we could do all of them! I can see that all of these projects are going to take a great amount of teamwork, but I think one per Lenten season is more than enough.

Time to vote for your favorite – 4-4-4 – I am going to have to be the tie-breaker here, and we all will work on that project. I am thinking that almsgiving – that is random acts of kindness – would be the simplest to start out with. Besides coming up with the list, we could advertise, make announcements at church, and maybe even get a spot in the newspaper (I know a guy) and maybe even a TV spot on “What’s Happening?” on Channel 15. And if we wanted, we could make it a community event. You could ask your friends in other churches in town if they were interested in doing it, too. Could you imagine if people all over our town would be doing random acts of kindness?

I am so excited and so proud of all of you.  You have no idea!

Time for a quick prayer:

Thank you God, Father, Son, and Spirit for all this energy and these great ideas. Help these young people see how gifted and called they are to do your work. Let us never forget the sacrifice of your Son. May we always remember to love one another the way You love us. In Our Lord Jesus’ Name, we pray…

All: AMEN!

Points to Ponder: What gifts has God given me to share with others?  Am I willing to share them with others?  Why for why not?

Challenge: What one thing can you sacrifice for the good of others not only now by during the rest of the year as well?

Do not conform yourself to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and pleasing and perfect. Roman’s 12:2