The Significance Of The Season Of Lent

"You are dust and to dust you shall return…” chants the priest as he smears ashes on the foreheads of Catholics who begin their day in churches all over Goa on Ash Wednesday.

- Pantaleao Fernandes

So begins the Season of Lent, a period of forty days where the people can mend their ways, seek forgiveness for ones sins, be puri ed and return to God. It is much like the Ramadan month of the Muslims or the Shravan month of the Hindus, months of fasting, alms-giving and prayer.

The season of Lent is a period of preparation for the greatest event in Christianity…the resurrection of Lord Jesus - that is Easter. If there was no Easter, there would be no Christianity.

During Lent in order to help the faithful to turn away from sinful ways, the church focuses their attention on the suffering of Jesus, caused by the sins of mankind. This is done by conducting the Way of the Cross, every Wednesday and Friday in all churches. The Way of the Cross is marked by fourteen stations, each punctuated by a picture of the passion of Jesus. As the altar boys move from one station to the next, the stations are read out along with a short relevant reflections.

These stations depict the following scenes:

1. Jesus is condemned to death

2. Jesus carries the Cross

3. Jesus falls the first time

4. Jesus meets his mother

5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his cross

6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

7. Jesus falls the second time

8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

9. Jesus falls the third time

10. Jesus is stripped of his clothes

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross

12. Jesus dies on the cross

13. The body of Jesus is taken down from the cross

14. Jesus is laid in the tomb