A newly ordained Catholic Priest, Rev Fr. Andrew Musa, has urged Christians to be merciful and peaceful during this Lenten season and always to make the country a better place. Musa, a resident priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish Gwarimpa, Abuja, gave the advice in an interview on Thursday in Abuja. He said that Lenten season was a period of fasting, repentance, moderation, self-denial, spiritual discipline and love as well as forgiveness. “The call for Christians and Nigerians during this season is for us to be people of peace, forgiveness, love, kindness and mercy, especially in this world now that peace is lacking, forgiveness is lacking. “We are no longer merciful, everyone wants to pay back, you do for me, I must revenge; rich people want to judge others, judge without pity. “It is actually a call for us to look inward so that we can be able to establish that peace.’’He explained that Ash Wednesday began another season in liturgical calendar of the church – a season of lent. According to him, two things are very important on Ash Wednesday that conveys the symbolism of the Ash. Musa said that Ash was a symbol of repentance that reminds Christians of mortality, adding that it should be a time of assessment of the Christian journey. He said it should be a period for people to show kindness to one another and a time to build their relationship with God. “The season of lent is a call for reconciliation, it is a call for mercy, a call for forgiveness; it is a call for more love, care for the sick, care for the poor. “Respond to the people around you because what will it profit you when you have everything at your disposal, you have all the wealth, earthly possessions, while those around you are languishing in poverty, hunger and disease. “Of what use is your abundance? So, the call during lent is a call for self-denial, mortification, a time to let go and allow God take absolute charge of our lives.’’ Lent is a 40-day period of fasting, moderation, and self-denial traditionally observed by Catholics and some Orthodox churches

It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sunday.

naijachurchnews