Lent begins this week on Ash Wednesday, 1st March. Ash Wednesday is a day of Fast and Abstinence. Mass times for Wednesday, Eadestown 9.30 am, Kilteel 7.30 pm . Blessed Ashes will be distributed during mass and in the school.
During Lent we try to renew our lives through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These three strands of Lenten observance are as ancient as Christianity itself. There is no substitute for them. “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the life blood of fasting. If we have not all three together we have nothing,” says St. Peter Chrysologus.
Christian fasting began as a voluntary practice as a support to prayer, as penance for sin, as a way to save something for the poor and as a way to prepare for a feast. It is a suitable practice to prepare for the celebration of Easter.
The need for fasting is still there.
Forms of Friday Penance as suggested in 2010 by the Bishops of Ireland.
– Abstaining from meat or some other food.
– Abstaining from alcoholic drink or smoking.
– Making a special effort at involvement in family prayer.
– Making a special effort to participate in Mass on Fridays.
– Visiting the Blessed Sacrament.
– Making the Stations of the Cross.
– Fasting from all food for a longer period than usual and perhaps giving what is saved to the needy.
– Helping the poor, sick, old or lonely.
