Usually, we are well into Lent by now, but to be honest, I haven’t minded the extra few weeks to prepare. This season was transformative to me last year, which has made me feel some pressure to “make sure” it is this year too. I’m trying to remember that all I can really do is approach Lent with open hands and an open heart for whatever God desires for me. I’m hopeful that with faithfulness to my Lenten devotions and trying to make lots of little sacrifices along the way (things like trading podcasts in the car for the rosary, spending time in Scripture instead of on Instagram, and turning down things like a second cup of coffee or a dessert on a regular basis), my heart will be ever more refined as we celebrate Easter in 40ish days. Along with the beginning of Lent in a few days, I’m excited about the following feast days we’ve chosen to celebrate!

March 6: Ash Wednesday
Our Ash Wednesday is pretty traditional. We’ll attend Mass, fast (we usually do grilled cheese for dinner as our one small meal), and begin our Lenten sacrifices and devotions. I’m going to be fasting from all unnecessary spending and praying through the Blessed Is She Lent Journal (which is still available here, both in hard copy and digital download) daily.

March 7: Sts. Perpetua and Felicity
This might be the feast I’m most excited about because it’s one I’m new to celebrating! I heard an incredible homily on Sts. Perpetua and Felicity last year when I randomly attended daily Mass on their feast day, and have been intrigued by them ever since…so much so, that I wrote a blog post about them for Blessed Is She that will go up on March 7! Stay tuned for the link to my post on “What Modern Catholic Women Can Learn from Two Third-Century Martyrs.” As far as activities, I’m using two ideas from The Catholic All Year Compendium–we’ll have burgers for dinner (these saints were mauled by a savage cow in the games before their executions, so Kendra Tierney suggests burgers for dinner as a “revenge”–ha!), and I’m going to spend some extra time doing my hair in the morning. I’ll link my post here when it goes up so you can read about why! :)

March 17: St. Patrick
Not much is really known about St. Patrick, but considering Dave is Irish and St. Patrick is a favorite of Charlie’s (thanks to this video, available on Formed), we can’t pass up celebrating this day liturgically! We’ll watch the aforementioned video with Charlie for the zillionth time and pray the beautiful Lorica of St. Patrick.

March 19: St. Joseph
I’m going to keep up with the tradition I started last year of praying the St. Joseph novena for Dave leading up to St. Joseph’s feast day. As my (lazy ;)) alternative to making zeppole, the traditional Solemnity of St. Joseph treat, I’m going to pick up some “hot mini” doughnuts from Sola Coffee for dessert!

March 25: The Annunciation
I love bringing out all things blue for Marian feast days! Not hard in my family’s house/closets :) We’ll make sure to pray the Angelus at noon and the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary (the Annunciation is the first mystery), and we’ll have waffles for dinner, which is one of my favorite food-related liturgical traditions. Waffles are traditionally eaten on the Feast of the Annunciation because in Swedish, “Vårfrudagen” (Our Lady’s Day) sounds a lot like “Våffeldagen” (waffle day). At some point, the miscommunication was just embraced, and I am all for it!

I’d love to hear which March feast days are on your list below!