Catholics across the world trooped out to their individual Chruch parishes expected to partake in the sharing of ashes to mark the lenten season, a period of fast, almsgiving and abstinence from sex.
Christened ‘Ash Wednesday’, it takes place 46 days before Easter Sunday and is mainly observed by Catholics, though many other Christians partake in it too.
In his call to the faithful on Monday, Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of the Catholic Diocese of Oyo has urged Christians to use the 2022 lenten practices such as self-examination, fasting, prayer, almsgiving and reconciliation to make the world more peaceful, charitable and harmonious.
Badejo disclosed this to NAN in his lenten message that he gave ahead of the Christian lenten period in Lagos.
According to Badejo, lent is a period of renewal, retreat and spiritual rehabilitation which everybody needs.
This period, he said, is always helpful to cleanse the human soul and the spirit of the permanent pleasure and fun that had corroded it as the new year begins .
“It is also a period of reconciliation since, wherever we live and relate with others, we are bound to offend or hurt each other.
“Nigerians need so much of that today in order to reduce wickedness, injustice, anger, conflict and bloodshed in our nation.
“We must take better care of the poor and needy, repent and change our ways for the better and so be made ready for our salvation because that is the purpose of the period of lent,” Badejo said.
Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting, a practice that includes administering ashes on the head.
The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person’s forehead, he speaks the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Alternatively, the priest may speak the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
