First Sunday of Lent

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”  Psalm 51:10

A family activity:  Just as at Advent time, we’d light candles on the Advent wreath, in my family, we used a Lenten wreath as well.  To make the wreath itself, we would use a grapevine wreath because its scraggly, somewhat thorny looking appearance reminded us of the crown of thorns.  I then would put 6 taper candles into the wreath – sometimes the wreath would hold them just perfectly as is, at others I would hot glue something like wooden or metal candle cups into it for them.  The 6 candles (purple) were for each Sunday of Lent other than Easter Sunday. 

We then had a large pillar candle (white) in the center of the wreath.  We would decorate it by first poking small holes into the candle forming the shape of a cross.  For safety reasons, I’d poke the holes and then my daughter would stick a whole clove into each one.  The cloves represented the scent of the burial spices Jesus was anointed with, the appearance of them reminded us of the nails put into His body, and of course, the meaning of putting them into a cross shape is obvious.  On Good Friday and Holy Saturday, we’d light only the center candle and none of the others as special focus on the solemnity of Jesus’ death and the vigil kept by His tomb.  On Easter Sunday, for the center candle, we’d remove the cloves and replace them with small flowers  and we’d light all of the candles in celebration of His Resurrection.