Africa-Press – South-Sudan. By Emelda siama John
Christians celebrated lent season this week, Lent is a 40 day season of prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. Christians received ashes on their forehead, it’s the journey of reflection, forgiveness, and it’s a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter.
Lent in the Christian church, a period of penitential preparation for Easter, it begins on Ash Wednesday; six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides for a 40-day fast (Sundays are excluded), in imitation of Jesus Christ’s fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. “Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a journey of true reflections, time of reconciliation with one another,” speaking to the congregation during mass in Holy Rosary Parish on Wednesday.
The Parish Priest of Holy Rosary Emmanuel Omollo said that people should know the tradition of abstaining from meat and chocolate on Fridays during Lent, but we are also called to practice self-discipline and fast in other ways throughout the season, Contemplate the meaning and origins of the Lenten fasting tradition in this reflection, and the giving of alms is one way to share God’s gifts—not only through the distribution of money but through the sharing of your time and talents.
He further noted that During Lent, people seek the Lord in prayer by reading Sacred Scripture; they serve by giving alms; and we practice self-control through fasting, they are called not only to abstain from luxuries during Lent, but to a true inner conversion of heart, as they seek to follow Christ’s will more faithfully, they recall the waters of baptism in which they were also baptized into Christ’s death, died to sin and evil, and began a new life in Christ.
“In the community of last time, people who committed sinned will tire their clothes and stayed in the bush for the confession and fasting, and then they will come to ask for the forgiveness from the community,” he said.
“Lent is meant to be a time of repentance. A humble understanding of knowing that we are all born with the curse of sin and that there is repentance required. The purpose of Lent is to fully recognize our brokenness as humans and the need for a Savior. The time period of Lent allows for us to reflect and open our hearts to Jesus,”
“The main observation of Lent, fasting, is done so in order to clear distractions and focus on Christ. The act of giving up something and replacing it with prayer and worship gives way to a deeper relationship with God,”
According to the book Joel 2:12-13 saying that “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments,” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
A period of preparation and fasting likely has been observed before the Easter festival since apostolic times, It was a time of preparation of candidates for baptism and a time of penance for grievous sinners who were excluded from Communion and were preparing for their restoration, As a sign of their penitence, they wore sackcloth and were sprinkled with ashes.
According to the early centuries, fasting rules were strict, as they still are in Eastern churches. One meal a day was allowed in the evening, and meat, fish, eggs, and butter were forbidden. The Eastern Church also restricts the use of wine, oil, and dairy products. In the West these fasting rules have gradually been relaxed.
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