LENT INVITES US TO INTENSIFY CONCRETE ACTS OF CHARITY

VATICAN CITY, FEB 28, 1999 (VIS) - Prior to reciting the angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Pope spoke of Lent, saying that this season, "beyond prayer, penance and fasting, invites us to intensify concrete acts of charity, which biblical language often refers to as 'alms'. "

"In this regard, Jesus warns of the risk of gratification: charity is not authentic if one seeks the praise of others." he stressed. "In this last year of preparation for the Great Jubilee in which we turn to God the Father, it is important to give prominence to 'the greatest' of the Christian virtues, that is, charity. ... Charity, in its double aspect of love of God and of one's brothers, is the synthesis of the spiritual and moral life of the believer, and finds in God its source and its summit."

Then, citing his 1999 Message for Lent, the Pope recalled: "Still today we see immense areas in which the work of Christians must bring to bear the charity of God. New forms of poverty and the pressing questions which trouble many hearts await a concrete and appropriate response. Those who are lonely, those on the margins of society, the hungry, the victims of violence, those who have no hope must be able to experience, in the Church's loving care, the tenderness of the Heavenly Father who, from the very beginning of the world, has kept every individual in mind in order to fill each one with blessings."

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