Pope warns of asphyxia ‘that smothers the spirit’
As Catholics mark the first Sunday of Lent today, Pope Francis asks the faithful “to make room in our life for all the good we are able to do.”
“It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us, and paralyzes us,” the Pontiff said in his Lenten message.
“Lent is the time to start breathing again. It is the time to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity,” he added.
“In this season of grace, we once again turn our eyes to His mercy. Lent is a path: It leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God’s children,” Pope Francis explained.
The Holy Father highlighted the breath of life that God provides in order to save man.
“God wants to keep giving us that breath of life that saves us from every other type of breath: The stifling asphyxia brought on by our selfishness, the stifling asphyxia generated by petty ambition and silent indifference – an asphyxia that smothers the spirit, narrows our horizons and slows the beating of our hearts. The breath of God’s life saves us from this asphyxia that dampens our faith, cools our charity and strangles every hope,” he continued.
Longer confessions “Lent is the road leading from slavery to freedom, from suffering to joy, from death to life. Lent is a time for remembering. It is the time to reflect and ask ourselves what we would be if God had closed His doors to us. What would we be without his mercy that never tires of forgiving us and always gives us the chance to begin anew? Lent is the time to ask ourselves where we would be without the help of so many people who in a thousand quiet ways have stretched out their hands and in very concrete ways given us hope and enabled us to make a new beginning,” the Holy Father reminded.
Meanwhile, the confessional in all churches will be available for longer hours during Lent to give churchgoers more opportunity to avail of the Sacrament of Penance. In line with the local Church’s observance of the Year of the Parish, the faithful are encouraged to engage in more charity and missionary work in their local parishes, to receive Holy Communion often, and to support the Church’s Fast2Feed program, which encourages the faithful to donate the money that was saved from fasting to their parish to help feed malnourished children.
Also known as Quadragesima Sunday, which means 40th in Latin, the first Sunday of Lent signifies that there are exactly 40 days from today until Good Friday, which will be observed on April 14 this year. On all Sundays of Lent, it has become customary to dispense from fasting and abstinence as Sundays are considered a day of rejoicing, being the day when the Lord resurrected. Sundays are also not counted among the 40 days of Lent.