Friends today marks the beginning of Great Lent…an invitation to renew our walk with God in a spirit of humbleness, fasting, and prayer. I would like to share something from the Homily of St Basil on Lent.
“There is both a physical and a spiritual fast. In the physical fast the body abstains from food and drink. In the spiritual fast, the faster abstains from evil intentions, words and deeds. One who truly fasts abstains from anger, rage, malice, and vengeance. One who truly fasts abstains from idle and foul talk, empty rhetoric, slander, condemnation, flattery, lying and all manner of spiteful talk. In a word, a real faster is one who withdraws from all evil.
As much as you subtract from the body, so much will you add to the strength of the soul.”
I would like to take this opportunity to ask forgiveness from each and every one of you for every personal shortcoming with which I may have offended or failed you . May we have a blessed Great Lent as we wait in anticipation the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.