Lent challenges believers to live their faith daily – RC priest

Worshippers attending the Ash Wednesday midday service at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral on Bay Street were reminded that the Lenten season is rooted in God’s love, renewal, and a call to spiritual discipline.

 

Delivering the homily, Father Charles Dominique said Lent challenges believers to remain faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

 

“The gospel message challenges us to remain faithful to the teaching of Jesus Christ, who invites us to accept forgiveness and healing. and mostly to accept His love and in Scripture our Lord prescribes a threefold…. It says pray; He says fast; He says give alms.”

 

He encouraged parishioners to see prayer not as an added burden, but as something woven into daily life.

 

 

“Make your work your prayer. When you begin your work, offer them to God so that in your mind as you are working, as you are giving up your best or whatever it is you’re doing, you’re recognising it’s not just simply work. This is my intention, I’m offering this to God and then to say thank you Lord for helping me to focus, for helping me to perhaps not to be upset or angry with somebody.”

 

Father Dominique explained that prayer, fasting and almsgiving are spiritual exercises that restore spiritual health through the saving power of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

 

“So it is these which the church particularly recommends for us during Lent. We also do works of charity. By prayer, we turn back to God from whom we have turned away. By fasting… we learn self-control so that we can learn to love ourselves in a healthy and balanced way; and by giving to the poor, we turn to our neighbor whom we must love… remedies such as these… by which Jesus continues to bring us this healing.”

 

 

He reminded the congregation that Ash Wednesday also calls Christians to reflect on human frailty and God’s enduring faithfulness.

 

“We are called to remember that God does not forget us. We are also called to remember the faithfulness of God and His commitment to bringing us back to Himself.

 

“Even in our frailties and our finiteness, knowing that we are made of dust and we will return one day to dust, the ashes recall for us the need for God, so that the dust and ashes of our lives may not consume us, but in fact make us stronger.”

 

Father Dominique closed with a warning against empty ritual, urging sincerity in Lenten observances.

 

“If you’re not praying sincerely or earnestly, the fasting, the alms giving… will be meaningless if they’re done without any real intent of seeking conversion. So, do not be fooled by simply going through the motions… look at how we treat others… because that’s the real reflection of our soul.”

(LG)