Call to repentance

Observance of Lent in Eastern and Western Churches

Both the eastern and western churches observe Lent but they count the 40 days differently. The western church excludes Sundays (which is celebrated as the day of Christ's resurrection) whereas the eastern church includes them.

The churches also start Lent on different days. Western churches start Lent on the 7th Wednesday before Easter Day (called Ash Wednesday). Eastern churches start Lent on the Monday of the 7th week before Easter and end it on the Friday 9 days before Easter. Eastern churches call this period of nine days the 'Great Lent'.

The colour purple during Lenten season Purple is the symbolic colour used in some churches throughout Lent, for vestments, and altar frontals. Purple is used for two reasons: firstly because it is associated with mourning and so anticipates the pain and suffering of the crucifixion, and secondly because purple is the colour associated with royalty, and so it points to Christ's resurrection.

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For reflection

From the liturgical readings of the day:

"If you take away from the midst of you the yoke,

the pointing of the finger,

and speaking of wickedness,

if you pour yourself out for the hungry

and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noonday." (Isaiah 58: 9b-10)

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"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

(Luke 5: 32)

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vmalpan@gmail.com

To let the oppressed go free

Displaced peoples...

They have no where to lay their heads!

We are in the season of Lent...

Real fasting

is

"To let the oppressed go free..."

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Let me prayerfully read:

Isaiah 58: 1-9

"Cry aloud, spare not,

lift up your voice like a trumpet;

declare to my people their transgression,

to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that did righteousness

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments,

they delight to draw near to God.

'Why have thou fasted, and thou seest it not?

Why have humbled ourselves,

and thou takest no knowledge of it?'

behold, in the day of your fast you

seek your own pleasure,

and oppress all your workers.

Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to to hit with wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day

will not make your voice to be heard on high.

Is such the fast that I choose,

a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a rush,

and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast,

and a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread

with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then shall your light break forth

like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you,

the glory of the Lord shall be your guard.

Then you shall call,

and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry, and he will say Here I am..."

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Where am I with regard to the fast that Lord expects of me? Pause... Reflect... Rspond... Amen! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" vamalpan@gmail.com