Lent, A Call for Change

Lent, A Call for Change
by Francine Caram

For many Christians the Lenten season can be a mystery. For some, lent is a period of going on a diet, for others lent is a time when their Catholic friends wear ashes on their foreheads and eat fish on Fridays, but in a larger sense, lent is the period of fasting leading up the feast of Easter, recalling Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness.

The forty days represent the time Jesus spent in the desert, where according to th Bible he endured temptation by Satan.

The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer, through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We usually spend the Lenten season with our families. Some of our parents see this as a time for the members of the family to be one in prayer.

If we look at it clearly, Lent also serves as the time for change. As the time for us to realize how much we owe God for making all things possible, for keeping us in tract when the rode leads nowhere. It’s such ashame to see that after the forty days of bringing yourself closer to God, you’re still the same person you were the very first time you walked down the aisle and the priest put that ash cross on your forehead till the time Easter comes to an end.

Perhaps this is our wake up call, our chance to be better children of God. For once the priest puts that ash cross on your forehead and says, “Of dust you are made and of dust you shall return.” It is only rightful that we reminisce all He has dedicated to us. My dear brothers and sisters, let us seek for guidance in darkness, for we are His children, and together we believe in Him even if He does not speak.