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January 27, 2026Family Corner for February, 2026: Turn off the devices and turn on the connections!
For February, 2026, the Archdiocese invites us to reclaim the gift of Sunday rest by developing the real interactions and relationships that give us joy—while limiting our use of technology.
We all know how dependent we can be on our phones, tablets, and laptops. We use them for everything-- checking recipes to paying bills to chatting with family to checking spelling! If you ever spend time with someone who does not use a smart phone, the contrast becomes clear; I am anxious about letting that screen out of my sight, while my companion is calm and focused.
How can we cultivate more peaceful and prayerful habits for Sundays? How can we use this upcoming Lent to help develop healthier patterns of technology use? The Church offers these suggestions in the Reclaiming Sundays Guide:
SAMPLE ACTIVITIES FOR FEBRUARY:
• Turn off phones during dinner or all day.
• Stow devices or commit to not responding to emails or engage in social media. Try media-free
Sundays.
• If you choose to lessen media, try replacing that time with playing family games or
reading books aloud together.
• Ash Wednesday is February 18, 2026. Incorporate some kind of technology fast in
your family’s Lenten plan. Adults — lead by example!
• Liturgical Living: Attend Stations of the Cross at your parish or pray a
family-friendly version at home. (Start with 14 lit candles and extinguish one after
each station.)
We here in the Family Corner suggest one more idea: prepare. Since we are so dependent on our phones, it may be tempting to pull out the phone to look up a recipe for Jello salad while fixing Sunday dinner. Or use the tablet’s dictionary app to look up a spelling during Scrabble. If we are committed to a low or no-tech Sunday, we can prepare in advance for some of these circumstances and even use the moment to learn and share information with a child or other family member!
• Prepare Sunday’s menus using a paper cookbook or handwritten recipe from the file. Tell the story of that recipe when gathered to eat.
• Keep a paper dictionary in the house and pull it out. Read the full entry to learn about the word and its history and skim nearby words to learn and enjoy.
• Keep a map of Minnesota, your town, or your neighborhood handy. It is even delightful to keep a world atlas and spend some time looking at places you hope to visit!
• Bring your paper Bible to the Sunday dinner or brunch table and reread the gospel together; allow everyone to respond freely as the meal conversation gets underway.
• Pray the Stations of the Cross with a pamphlet or other paper guide!
We do need our technology and we use it for so many areas of life. Still, we need even more our Catholic community connections. Be sure to read the bulletin (on paper or online!), then plan ahead to join in the liturgical and community life of the parish as we enter the Lenten Season.- February 7: Cana Dinner
- Lent 2026 Liturgies and Stations
- Starting after Ash Wednesday: Lenten Small Groups
- February 22: Emmaus Family Night
- March 6 and March 20: Men’s Club Fish Frys