This Wednesday, February 22, the Diocese of the state of Trujillo begins the season of Lent with the imposition of ashes and the preparation to live the mysteries of the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The parish priest of the Nuestra Señora de la Paz cathedral church, priest Gustavo Godoy, recalled that Holy Week is a very important period for Catholic Christians during the liturgical year.
He also explained that Ash Wednesday remembers human frailty and the cross on the forehead or head is a sign of penance and forgiveness.
“The Catholic Church celebrates Ash Wednesday and human frailty is remembered, it is remembered that we are dust and to dust we will return, it is remembered as a day of penance, that is why ashes are placed on our heads as a sign of reconciliation, of forgiveness, of penance, that we are human, that we are fragile, that we are weak, but when we seek God everything changes, when God is in our lives everything is different”, he added.
In this sense, he indicated that this Wednesday the first mass is scheduled for seven in the morning and will be presided over by the diocesan bishop, Monsignor José Trinidad Fernández; then, at 10 in the morning there will be the second mass and finally at five in the afternoon. In all the Eucharists the placement of the ashes will take place.
Father Godoy said that with these solemn Eucharists the path of preparation for Holy Week begins in the Trujillo Cathedral.
time for reflection
He also pointed out that the 40 days of the Lenten itinerary begin on Ash Wednesday and with it the Holy Mother Catholic Church prepares for the Greater Week.
“Lent comes from the number 40, which means those 40 days that Christ spent in the desert meditating, reflecting, contemplating and praying to Father God. Lent is a time of reflection that invites us to conversion, through reconciliation God’s mercy comes into our lives, we receive the forgiveness of sins so that we can be good Christians, children of God, “he asserted.
Father Godoy stressed that in this time of Lent the Catholic Church invites parishioners, believers to do three important things with faith: fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
“At this time the church invites us above all to practice charity, to refrain from eating meat on Fridays and to offer fasting, which is abstinence, a sacrifice, it is a purpose that one makes not only not to eat meat, to not to eat food, but also to renounce negative things, to what separates us from the love of God, in this way we also fast”, he reflected.
In Pampanito they will tour the communities
For his part, the parish priest of the San Juan Bautista church in the Pampanito municipality, priest Douglas Rodríguez, stated that this Ash Wednesday the masses in the church will be at seven in the morning and five in the afternoon.
He added that starting at nine in the morning he will travel to the communities of Palo Negro, Santo Domingo, La Vivienda, La Concepción, among others, to bring the word of God and the imposition of ashes, with the help of the deacon and church servants.
Both priests invited Catholic Christians to come with great faith and devotion to receive this sacramental such as ashes.