Pope’s message for Lent

( Feb.03,2009):Prayer, almsgiving and fasting are the three penitential practices that help to prepare us better to celebrate Easter, Pope Benedict XVI says in his Lenten message for this year. Referring to the words of Jesus to Satan: - “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”, the Pope reflects on the value and meaning of fasting in his message that was released at a Press Conference on Tuesday by Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes. President of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”.
The Pope says fasting is also an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which, so many of our brothers and sisters live. He notes that the practice of fasting was present in the first Christian Community and is recommended by the saints of every age. Unfortunately in our own day, says the Pope’s Lenten message, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning and taken on a culture characterized by the search for material well being - a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body. But Lent could be a propitious time, to mortify our egoism, and open our hearts to the love God and neighbour. Moreover, the practice of fasting, continues the message, helps to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord, as denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by his saving word.
The Papal lenten message encourages every family and Christian community to use well this time of Lent, in order to cast aside all - that distracts the spirit, and grow in whatever nourishes the sou.It encourages them to practice the custom of private and communal fasts and almsgiving. It also calls for a greater commitment to prayer, to the Sacrament of reconciliation, active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass.