Priest calls for fasting and penance

WORSHIPPERS filled Our Lady of Perpetual Help RC Church on Harris Promenade, San Fernando, at noon yesterday for the Ash Wednesday Mass.

In his sermon, officiating priest, Fr Seamus Maguire, urged the congregation to “be penitent” and “feel the fast”. He explained that the Lenten season was about “going into the desert” and “there has to be some difference in your lives in order to get closer to God”. According to Fr Maguire, one can do so by extra prayers and fasting. The American priest said to fast “you must have motives and love God” He said it was necessary to “realise how much you have not thanked God enough”. Fr Maguire explained that the ashes were used as a sign of penance in the days before Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. He reiterated that “prayer and penance are important to strengthen our willpower”. For Christians, Ash Wednesday is the first day of 40 days of fasting, prayer and penance. It culminates with the solemn celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter.