As the penitential season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, Fr. Leo Patalinghug appeared on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" to explain how the Christian call to repentance is a time for "intentional living."
On Wednesday, Christians around the world enter into this prayerful 40-day period before Easter by attending church services and marking their foreheads with crosses smudged from ash as a reminder of their mortality.
"The ashes are actually coming from the palms that are burned from last year, and it's actually representative of the time when Jesus entered Jerusalem with palm branches waving his victory because palms are a sign of victory, and the ashes themselves from these palms are actually a sign of penance," Patalinghug said. "When we look at Psalm 102, it talks about how we are so sorrowful that our drink, our tears, and our bread are ashes, and so it's a time for Catholics and Christians alike to enter into a period of interior reflection, sorrow, but also a joy, knowing that our sins are nothing compared to the love and the mercy of Jesus Christ."
The pillars of Lent are prayer, almsgiving and fasting, Patalinghug said, and help Christians master their desires and become more "mindful" generally. During this time, the faithful are called to engage in "more intentional praying," as well as almsgiving, which is "paying attention to the poor."
Patalinghug said almsgiving helps people "understand compassion" and being able "to suffer with others." He said that during Lent, Christians fast, or limit their food intake, on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
"Throughout Lent, and especially on Fridays, we do something called abstinence," Patalinghug said. "We try to go without. A lot of people think that it's all about giving up coffee, giving up pizza, all those wonderful things, and yeah, we encourage people to do it so that, number one, they show they're not addicted to it, and two, that they have mastery over their bodies and their desires. It just helps us to not only be in control, it helps us to be more mindful. That's kind of like the buzzword. Catholics have always had it. We just call it more intentional living."
He also commented on Pope Francis' battle with double pneumonia that has kept the pontiff hospitalized since Feb. 14.
"I think a lot of people live without passion these days because they're afraid of suffering," Patalinghug said. "What this Holy Father is going through is just showing us that if it's worth doing, it's worth suffering for. And loving God, loving God's people, fulfilling a mission and following God's will, it's worth suffering for.
"So, it's actually, ironically, but perhaps providentially, a unique time for him to join his sufferings with those around the world and to show how if you are going to follow Christ, you kind of got to pick up your cross and follow him. That's what Jesus said."
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