ASIA/CHINA - The "Lent Calendar" of the Catholics of the parish of Hancheng

Friday, 23 February 2024 local churches lent charity penance prayer fasting

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Tangshan (Agenzia Fides) - After the Ash Wednesday liturgy, which marks the beginning of the Lenten season, the parishioners of Hancheng church, in Tangshan, Hebei province, received a calendar card with forty suggestions for daily actions and ecclesiastical practices, one for each day of the Lenten season.
One day you are encouraged to pray for your parents, another day you are encouraged to pray for those who have hurt you. There are also prayers for peace, for the priests and for the mission. On other days, there is a suggestion to read a passage from the Holy Scripture, to participate in the Eucharistic Adoration in the parish, or to abstain from using smartphones for a significant period of time.
"It is like picking a flower every day to form a bouquet of 'spiritual flowers' to offer on the Lord's altar on Easter Day. In this way we rediscover the fruitfulness of fasting, prayer and almsgiving that the Church recommends to everyone during the season of Lent, taking care above all of the 'fasting of the heart.' ", emphasizes the parish priest, Father Jiang Xiaoman. With simplicity and creativity, the faithful people of God in China apply to the concrete everyday life the gestures, precepts and practices that the Church proposes to her children on the path towards the Easter of Resurrection.
On Saturday, February 17, the eve of the first Sunday of Lent, Bishop of the diocese of Handan, Joseph Sun Jigen, consecrated a new church, in the midst of celebrating the Chinese New Year. "We have dedicated a beautiful church to the Lord - said the bishop to the many who came to participate in the celebration - but let us remember that we must dedicate ourselves, body and soul, to the Lord."
The bishop also wanted to remember that the church is the place of worship, and the house of the baptized, "where we receive the blessing of the Lord who makes us witnesses of Him and of His work". (NZ) (Agenzia Fides, 23/2/2024)