LENT IS A TIME OF PRAYER, PENANCE AND FASTING

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 1999 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, Ash Wednesday, the Holy Father presided at the Liturgy of the Word in St. Sabina's Basilica, during the Mass celebrated by Cardinal Jozef Tomko, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

"Lent," said the Holy Father in his homily, "reminds us of the work of salvation, so that people will realize that death, a reality which must always be confronted, is not however a truth which has been since the beginning. In the beginning, this did not exist."

The Pope said that "the death of man has been destroyed by the death of Christ. However, if Lent directs us relive the dramatic events of Golgotha, it always and exclusively does this as a preparation to immerse us afterwards in the fulfillment of the Easter event, that is, in the luminous joy of the resurrection."

"Lent," he recalled "is a time of intense prayer and prolonged praise; it is a time of penance and fasting. ... The Lenten practices of fasting and almsgiving, apart from expressing personal asceticism, have an important value in the community and in society: they recall the need for 'conversion', the model for development in a more just distribution of goods, so that all might live in greater dignity, protecting creation at the same time."

Following the homily and the rite of blessing, the Pope received ashes from the hands of Cardinal Tomko, who is titular of the basilica of St. Sabina, and gave ashes in turn to some of the faithful present.

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