Marco Carvalho
Millions of Catholics around the world celebrated on Wednesday the beginning of Lent and Macau was no exception. In the local parishes, thousands of faithful, representing several different linguistic communities, took part in the symbolic ceremony of the imposition of ashes, a ritual that reminds Catholics of their condition as sinners and invites them to penance, reflection and conversion.
For many local Catholics, the Ash Wednesday celebrations were centered on the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady, with the Chinese-language ceremony being presided over by bishop Stephen Lee Bun-sang and the Portuguese-language rite being concelebrated by Father Eduardo Aguero and Father Andrzej Blazkiewicz.
Talking to O Clarim, the Polish priest evoked the deep meaning of the Ash Wednesday ceremony, which he defines as an invitation to share “a path of communion with God”: “We follow the path of conversion, which is a path of communion with God. We are frequently told that we are dust and to dust we shall return. This gives us an idea about what our limitations are, but it is also an incentive, so that we can get rid of everything that deceives us: pride, selfishness, those interactions that destroy our personality and our communion with the others and that offend God,” the Polish priest, a Neocatechumenal Way missionary, claims. “Lent helps us to have a more balanced posture, helps us to understand that everything comes from God and everything must honor God,” Father Blazkiewicz said.
Cathedral parish vicar Father Daniel Ribeiro was in charge of the Ash Wednesday ceremony in Saint Augustine’s Church. The Brazilian priest says that Lent, the forty days period of preparation for the Holy Week, is both an invitation and an opportunity for the local Catholics to reflect on their faith, but also on the fragility of the human condition: “This celebration reminds us that we came from dust and to dust we shall return, that human life is fragile and, being fragile, the human being needs God,” the Dehonian missionary emphasizes. “ Without God, the human being cannot find answers to his most troubling questions and, therefore, he cannot find true happiness. Man came from dust, to dust he will return. His life starts in a simple way and it will end surrounded with simplicity,” Father Ribeiro recalls.
The beginning of Lent is also an invitation to keep an open mind towards others and to pay attention to their needs. Prayer, almsgiving and penance are essential exercises that Catholics are encouraged to practice: “The period of Lent, especially the Ash Wednesday celebrations, is an invitation for us to better understand ourselves, so that we can fully perceive who we are. We are invited to practice three Lenten exercises, which are described in the Gospels: prayer, almsgiving and penance. Prayer helps us to deepen our relationship with God. Prayer – especially silent prayer – is a devout prayer and, therefore, a truthful prayer. Then we have almsgiving. Almsgiving helps us to improve our relationship with the others,” the Brazilian priest underlined. “There is still a third Lenten exercise, which is penance. Penance or fasting – we are invited to fast both on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday – but penance is a tool so that we can achieve self-control, it helps us to have dominion over ourselves and not to live attached to anything other than God,” the Dehonian missionary added.
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