The Christian lent began on Wednesday with the traditional Ash Wednesday. The day marked the beginning of the forty-day fast observed among members of the Catholic Church,Anglican Communion and other denominations that make up the Orthodox Christian Family. Fasting during the Lenten season holds Monday to Saturday excluding Sunday which makes it forty days before Easter.
Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos West, Right Reverend James Odedeji who made this known on his Twitter handle said the period would be used for intensive prayers and Bible study to deepen intimacy with God.
In an interview with our correspondent, a Christian cleric, the Venerable Olugbenga Aboderin explained that Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting, which practice includes the wearing of ashes on the forehead that symbolizes the return of man to dust from which God made him.
The Venerable Aboderin stressed that the ashes are sign of repentance to God. He reminded Christian faithful that if abstinence from food and other pleasures is not replaced with commitment to spending more time in reading God’s Word, and to prayer, then it is meaningless.
