Lent the Season for Change: A Season of Grace & New Life
New Delhi, March 12: We begin the Lenten Season on 9th of March 2011 with Ash Wednesday. May this season of Lent be for all a time of renewal to become more and more like our Saviour Jesus Christ. Let it be a time for us to die with Him for those things that block our growth into the image and likeness of God and rise with Him to a beautiful life through, with, in Him.
Why the season of Lent?
· It is a period of 40 days to prepare for the greatest feast of the Christian life and faith – Easter i.e the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
· It predisposes us to receive more of the graces Christ has earned through His passion, death and Resurrection.
· It is a time to recall or prepare for Baptism.
· It is time of renewal and conversion. A period to become more like Christ.
Why Forty Days?
Holy Mother the Church gives us forty days because:
1. God’s people spent 40 years in the desert.
2. Moses remained 40 days on Mount Sinai.
3. For 40 days Goliath threatened Israel until David killed Him.
4. Elijah was nourished with only a baked cake on hot stones and a jar of water.
5. He took 40 days to travel to Mount Horeb.
6. Jonah spent 40 days preaching in Nineveh.
7. Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days and 4o nights.
Therefore, 40 in biblical meaning stands for Renewal, Change, Period of Grace and Strength.
What does Holy Mother the Church say about Fasting and Abstinence?
It is a traditional doctrine of Christian spirituality that a constituent part of repentance, of turning away from sin and back to God, includes some form of penance, without which the Christian is unlikely to remain on the narrow path and be saved (Jeremiah 18,11; 25,5; Ezekial 18,30; 33,11-15; Joel 2,12; Matthew 3,2; 4,17; Acts 2,38). Christ Himself said that His disciples would fast once He had departed (Luke 5,35). The general law of penance, therefore, is part of the law of God for man.
Why do we fast and abstain? As a discipline for learning self-control, to free our minds from the chase after material things, to tell ourselves 'no' and make it stick; to identify with Christ's sufferings, and remember what the true pleasures are for followers of Christ; as an act of sorrow over our wrongdoings and our state of sin.
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2011
“You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him.” (cf. Col 2: 12)
in which you were also raised with him.” (cf. Col 2: 12)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Lenten period, which leads us to the celebration of Holy Easter, is for the Church a most valuable and important liturgical time, in view of which I am pleased to offer a specific word in order that it may be lived with due diligence. As she awaits the definitive encounter with her Spouse in the eternal Easter, the Church community, assiduous in prayer and charitable works, intensifies her journey in purifying the spirit, so as to draw more abundantly from the Mystery of Redemption the new life in Christ the Lord (cf. Preface I of Lent)....
................................................................................................................................
Dear Brothers and Sisters, through the personal encounter with our Redeemer and through fasting, almsgiving and prayer, the journey of conversion towards Easter leads us to rediscover our Baptism. This Lent, let us renew our acceptance of the Grace that God bestowed upon us at that moment, so that it may illuminate and guide all of our actions. What the Sacrament signifies and realizes, we are called to experience every day by following Christ in an ever more generous and authentic manner. In this our itinerary, let us entrust ourselves to the Virgin Mary, who generated the Word of God in faith and in the flesh, so that we may immerse ourselves – just as she did – in the death and resurrection of her Son Jesus, and possess eternal life.
From the Vatican, 4 November, 2010
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
No comments:
Post a Comment