Lent: A time for reflection

Lent is the period of fasting leading up to the feast of Easter, recalling Jesus' 40-day fast in the wilderness. Western Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends right before the evening Masses of Holy Thursday, although Lenten penance continues through Holy Saturday

Lent can be a mystery. For some, Lent a period of going on a diet; for others Lent a time when their Catholic friends wear ashes on their foreheads and eat fish on Fridays. Many evangelicals find they are strangely attracted to Lent, but know little about the Lenten season. The purpose of Lent is to be a season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity.

Lent can be viewed as a spiritual spring cleaning: a time for taking spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our corporate and personal relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to him. Thus it is fitting that the season of Lent begins with a symbol of repentance: placing ashes mixed with oil on one's head or forehead.

There are a few basic tasks that traditionally have been associated with Lent. Many of these have a long history. These are fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. In addition, reading the Scriptures and the Church's Writings can help one grow during Lent.

Fasting: The Western Rite of the Catholic Church requires its members age 18 and 59 to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, unless a physical condition prevents otherwise. This means only one full meal is permitted. The Fridays of Lent are days of required abstinence, meaning meat are not permitted. Abstinence is required of those ages 14 and older. Most Protestant churches that celebrate Lent do not have these requirements. However, when we "give something up" for Lent, we are embracing a form of fasting, an excellent spiritual discipline. Eastern Christians have a more rigorous fast, abstaining from meat, wine, oil, dairy products, and even fish. Some people choose to give up sins (gossip, drunkenness, etc) for Lent. In this way, Lent represents a spiritual training time to overcome evil. Pope St. Leo, for example, emphasized that fasting from wrath is required along with food. Some give up things they have an inordinate desire for, e.g. sweets, caffeine, etc. By giving these up, the person fasting learns to control a particular part of his or her life, which leads to greater self-discipline even when Lent is over. As such in Lent we are able to learn, examine, and get under control our material excesses. Lent is about spiritual results, not material ones. So, while losing a few pounds may be a nice side benefit, all fasting should be done for God's glory and spiritual growth.

no alcoholic drink!



no smoking!

Prayer: Lent is a good time to develop or strengthen a discipline of daily prayer. A good goal for Lent would be to read Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer every day. If you already do that, perhaps you could add noon or night prayer. Contemplative prayer, based around the idea of silence or listening for God, is also well suited to Lent. There are also many excellent form prayers that reflect the penitential mood of Lent. We can also find many excellent prayers for Lent from the Scriptures.

Let us speak to Jesus

Praying The Rosary throughout Lent can be rewarding too. Theology and liturgy should always be prayer, so a good discipline for Lent would be to make an effort to attend worship services whenever possible. Daily mass would be very rewarding.

Almsgiving (Charity): While Lent is about giving something up (i.e. fasting), it is also about putting something positive in its place. The best way to remove vice is to cultivate virtue. Lent has been a traditional time of helping the poor and doing acts of charity and mercy. While as Christians this is a year round calling, Lent is a good time to examine ways to get involved and to make resolutions to actually do them. Giving alms can be done in more ways than just giving out money to people on the street. It can be done by helping your family, friends, and neighbours out of tight situations or being more generous to hired help. However, one of the best ways to give alms is to get out of your comfort zone a little bit, maybe by volunteering for a charity or a shelter. There are many lay religious orders, which devote much of their time to charity. Lent is a perfect time to discern a call to these or any other ministry. Some good charity organizations include Society of St. Vincent DePaul.

donate to help the poor.

Scripture Reading: When facing temptation in the desert, Jesus relied on Scripture to counter the wiles of the devil. It is a formidable weapon for us as well. Biblical illiteracy among Christians of all types is rampant and, quite honestly, shameful. Lent is an excellent time to remedy this problem. One way to read Scripture is to use the lectionary of the Liturgy of the Hours. This will get you through most of the Bible in two years. If you are thinking along different lines than the Liturgy of the Hours, it may be helpful to promise to read two chapters a day of a particular book or maybe finish a medium sized book by Easter.

Thus, in this season of Lent, let us recall our journey of faith with our Creator. Reflect our contribution to the church. Be a good follower of Christ.

Pope Benedicts' Lenten Message: A Call to Fasting

"He fasted for forty days and forty nights,and afterwards he was hungry"

(Mt 4,1-2)

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition – prayer, almsgiving, fasting – to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God’s power that, as we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride” (Paschal Præconium).

For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed, Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord’s fasting in the desert, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. We read in the Gospel: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry” (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and Elijah’s fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.

We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful for our bodily sustenance. The Sacred Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the very first pages of Sacred Scripture, the Lord commands man to abstain from partaking of the prohibited fruit: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gn 2, 16-17).

Commenting on the divine injunction, Saint Basil observes that “fasting was ordained in Paradise,” and “the first commandment in this sense was delivered to Adam.” He thus concludes: “ ‘You shall not eat’ is a law of fasting and abstinence” (cf. Sermo de jejunio: PG 31, 163, 98). Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God. Such was the case with Ezra, who, in preparation for the journey from exile back to the Promised Land, calls upon the assembled people to fast so that “we might humble ourselves before our God” (8,21). The Almighty heard their prayer and assured them of His favor and protection. In the same way, the people of Nineveh, responding to Jonah’s call to repentance, proclaimed a fast, as a sign of their sincerity, saying: “Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?” (3,9). In this instance, too, God saw their works and spared them.

In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who “sees in secret, and will reward you” (Mt 6,18). He Himself sets the example, answering Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4,4). The true fast is thus directed to eating the “true food,” which is to do the Father’s will (cf. Jn 4,34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord’s command “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,” the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy.

The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian community (cf. Acts 13,3; 14,22; 27,21; 2 Cor 6,5). The Church Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin, especially the lusts of the “old Adam,” and open in the heart of the believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age. Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself” (Sermo 43: PL 52, 320. 322).

In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body. Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a “therapy” to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God. In the Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini of 1966, the Servant of God Paul VI saw the need to present fasting within the call of every Christian to “no longer live for himself, but for Him who loves him and gave himself for him … he will also have to live for his brethren“ (cf. Ch. I). Lent could be a propitious time to present again the norms contained in the Apostolic Constitution, so that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held practice may be rediscovered, and thus assist us to mortify our egoism and open our heart to love of God and neighbor, the first and greatest Commandment of the new Law and compendium of the entire Gospel (cf. Mt 22, 34-40).

The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. Saint Augustine, who knew all too well his own negative impulses, defining them as “twisted and tangled knottiness” (Confessions, II, 10.18), writes: “I will certainly impose privation, but it is so that he will forgive me, to be pleasing in his eyes, that I may enjoy his delightfulness” (Sermo 400, 3, 3: PL 40, 708). Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.

At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his First Letter, Saint John admonishes: “If anyone has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him – how does the love of God abide in him?” (3,17). Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, 15). By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27), the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast (Didascalia Ap., V, 20,18). This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.

From what I have said thus far, it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: “Utamur ergo parcius, / verbis cibis et potibus, / somno, iocis et arctius / perstemus in custodia – Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses.”

Dear brothers and sisters,

It is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbour. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.” With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

21 February 2009

source: http://www.catholic.org

25 Feb: Ash Wednesday; The begining of Lent.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of the penitential season of Lent, in which ashes are placed on the head or forehead of the faithful. On Ash Wednesday, ashes are blessed, mixed with either holy oil or water, and imposed on the head with the sign of the cross, or sprinkled on the forehead.

our mind seal with the sign of the cross.

the symbol of penitence

The ashes are made from burning palm branches blessed the previous year on Palm Sunday. When the priest imposes the ashes he says either "remember man you are dust, and to dust you will return" (see Genesis 3:19), or "turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel" (Mark 1:15).





Why ashes????


The ashes serve a dual purpose:



1. First, as the above words imply, we are reminded of our mortality and humanity as we begin the Lenten Fast.


2. Second, the ashes are a Biblical symbol of repentance, sorrow, and humility.


In Bible also have the history of the usage of ashes as symbol of penitence. Kindly refer to 2 Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:1-3.



Ash Wednesday is a key for us to reflect our relationship with God. We should review our act and ask forgineness from Him.


Amen.

PROCRASTINATION...PROCRASTINATION...

On 25th and 26th January, Professor Dr. Julia, a lecturer form UIA had share her knowledge about the very effective way to take notes and

 some tips regarding on what we should do and should not do before going to class and afte the class... 

Not to forget she was also emphasize on hot issue that students always did that is PROCRASTINATION....! 

Ok less word...just roll out....See what we were doing during the workshop...

practising to take effective note (n_n)

participants (concentrate huh)

There was no fee for the workshop and open to all CVSF members. On that week, we were also had our recording. It was a very very busy week... All preparations must be set up correctly and we all very tired.. But because of knowledge, we were willing to join it.

Prof. Dr. Julia explained something to the participants...

the effective way to take notes

wow, this girl is really concentrate! 

just like answering the final examination (^_^)

another view of the participants...

There are some tips what we should not do during the lecture....**

sleeping during the lecture... (u_u) zz

playing with your handphone... silent mode please...

And here is the tips what we should do during the lecture....**

jotted down the importants notes 

To the participants, thanks for the commitment that you all show during the workshop... We will look foward to have another session with Prof. Dr. Julia and hope at that time more members will participate the workshop... 

Leave it to God and He will shows us the way...

Shallom!

 

** all pictures are just gimmick... (-_^')  la~la~

Dear Fr Eugene... Thank you so much.

Many was shocked when they red a statement inside the church buletin on Sunday. Rumors past few months became reality. Hot gossip is not a gossip anymore.

Everybody know, Fr. Eugene transfered to other parish. Where???? He had been transfered to Cameron Highland. Still in Pahang. But many were sad. Their loving priest will leave Kuantan.

Father Eugene Benedict had served St. Thomas Church since 2002. During his duty in Kuantan, Fr. Eugene brought lots of changes in the parish especially to the varsity student in Kuantan. Before he came here, the CSS Kuantan chapter not so active. Then, Fr. Eugene came to help us to build new era of CSS. First, he change CSS to CVSF (Catholic Varsity Student Fellowship). He also allowed student to use church van to cater the needs of student transportation.

blessing before examination

He allowed us to use one big room in the community centre for our gathering. Although he was busy with his tight schedule, he always concern about university students.

Fr. Eugene is a good teacher.

Father Eugene also a good dancer. Here, he preform ngajat dance during dinner and dance 2007

Dear Father Eugene, thanks for your leadership and guidance for past 7 years. God bless you.

Sing praise to the Lord.

This year, CVSF has a very big thing to do. And yes, they did it. CVSF core team planned to publish a compilation of songs CD to fund CVSF activities whole year. The CD title will be decide later.

short briefing before practise.

WALTHER JENIS = poginuman chief of staff @ jembalang paya.

Last holiday, several students "berkampung" at gathering room to have their practise for the song. This project was managed by a energetic group of students which they named themselves as POGINUMAN. They practised hard to archive Fr. Eugene's standard.

the seniors voice L-R: Jojon, Lucy, Emma, JLo.

some comments from Fr. Eugene

the time keeper: Si EPPI

We have two guitarist: Nick and Souven

the bass team

Before the recording day, we have warming up presentation during evening mass at the grotto. All parishioners impressed with the voice of the CVSF.




On the big day, 27 Jan 2009, the team headed to Kompleks Teruntum for the studio recording. Some feel nervous but just hide in their heart. For almost 4 hours, they sang, then cut, then sang again. Wat a tiring day they had.






So, to all team members, congrats for your effort. Now we just wait for the CD to be publish. Beli jangan tak beli...