NNA - In his "Message of Lent" to believers, Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, said "Lent is a collective journey...We are all called to fast during Lent, following the example of the Lord Jesus, who fasted forty days and forty nights until he was hungry (Matthew 4:2)."

The collective forty-day journey is based on three factors: fasting, prayer, and charity, which are integrated and interconnected, the Patriarch explained.

"Lent is the 'acceptable season' with its spiritual and human merits, resulting from fasting, prayer, almsgiving, repentance, and reconciliation...It is the 'season of grace' that leads us to 'cross over' with Christ’s Passover into a new life," al-Rahi maintained.

Addressing the believers, the Patriarch considered that through sharing and partnership, we overcome the temptation of selfishness, greed for possession, and the love of money.

"We ask God Almighty, through the intercession of our mother, the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Lebanon, and our father, Saint Maron, to include in His grace all the sons and daughters of our Church, pastors, priests, monks, nuns, and faithful, in Lebanon, the Patriarchal Domain, and the countries of the Diaspora...We seek stability and peace for our homelands, in glorification of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen," concluded al-Rahi.

=========R.Sh.