The beginning of the Lent

   Today the Catholic Church all over the world celebrates the Ash Wednesday – the beginning of the Fasting period. The Lent will last for the next forty days. It is a preparation for the feast of Easter, which will be on the 8th of April. During the liturgy of the Ash Wednesday in the Church of the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception in city of Baku, the priests have put the sign of cross with the ashes on the foreheads of the believers as a symbol of fasting using the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The Church invites the believers not only to fast, but most of all concentrate on the internal spiritual life with repentence, mercy, prayer, reading of the Holy Bible and charity.

Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy. And Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lent fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast. It cannot be otherwise, as it forms part of the great Easter cycle (Thomas Merton).

   When you fast, do not put on a gloomy look, like the hypocrites, for they neglect their personal appearance to let people see that they are fasting. I tell you, that is all the reward they will get. But when you fast, perfume your hair and wash your face, so that no one may see that you are fasting, except your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is secret, will reward you. Do not store up riches on earth, where moths and rust destroy them, and where thieves break in and steal them, but store up your riches in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy them, and where thieves cannot break in and steal them. For wherever your treasure is, your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:16-21).