CCI: Journey Through Lent

For Christians Lent is a time of preparation. It is the period immediately before the main Christian festival of Easter. Christians remember how Jesus went into the wilderness to pray and fast for forty days and forty nights and what happened. (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13)

Matthew 6:1-18 reminds us of some of the key teachings of Jesus regarding charity / giving, prayer and fasting. These are all themes that will be developed through this unit of work.

Key Stage 1...

The theme of Lent and its background needs to be introduced simply to children at Key Stage 1, the principles behind it are not easy to see for the very young. A clear outline of traditions and reasons, like the one above will be developed by further exploration arising from the other areas looked at in this unit of work.

After listening to the story of Jesus being tested by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11) make a list of some of the things that you think God does not want you to do. Think about why God is sad when you do these things.

Key Stage 2...

For Key Stage 2 try to focus on the idea that fasting is much more than a test of will power; it is a time of learning about yourself and a time when Christians seek to get a clearer understanding of what it means to have God in their lives. You might use the illustration of someone training to do something, e.g. an athlete, and how they learnt what they were capable of doing as a result.

Research the life of a person you admire who did something especially good. What did they do to prepare themselves - for example an athlete in training, a musician learning to play an instrument or sing.

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Key Stage 3...

For Key Stage 3 students a possible illustration is to look at the lives of some of the early mystics and see how their extremely disciplined life led them to a closer awareness of God. Pupils may like to research one of the most famous examples - Simeon Stylites.

Lent is a time when you can go without something you like and learn something about yourself. In the past some Christians have done some very unusual things learning about themselves, Simeon Stylites is an example. You might look at the following:

St. Simeon Stylites the Elder from the Catholic Encyclopedia, or the entry from Saint Patrick's Church: Saints of January 5 (scroll down the page).

Think about the person you are - and the parts of you which might be changed without going to the lengths of Simon!

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Some Background Links...

The Season of Lent - a useful introduction
Lent - background from BBC Religion & Ethics
Wikipedia - Great Lent - Lent in Eastern Christianity
Art Images - The Temptation of Jesus