Cleric urges Christians to overcome bad habits

Rev. Fr. Damian Alozie, the Parish Priest, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Odogunyan, Lagos State, has urged Christians to use the Lenten season to overcome their bad habits.

The cleric made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

He said that as Christians abstain from food while observing Lent, they were also expected to do away with bad habits such as excessive alcohol intake, gluttony, cursing, gossiping and other acts of indignity.

He added that as Christians keep away from such acts, they would gradually notice a change in the way they conduct themselves and at the end of the day they would overcome bad habits.

He, however, said “many believers fast because others are doing so or because it is an injunction without purpose for their spiritual lives.

“The whole exercise of Ash Wednesday and the sum total of the 40-day fasting of this Lent is about spiritual rejuvenation and not fanfare or prayer jamboree.”

Alozie urged Christian denominations to go beyond organising prayer sessions alone to holding seminars and road shows to further spread the message of the Lent.

“We need to take evangelism to a new level by adopting new trends in social mobilisation,’’Alozie said.

The popularly known Ash Wednesday, which is symbolic of the commencement of the 2017 Easter season, started with the distribution of ash on foreheads of Christians on March 1.

Ash Wednesday is the first of 40 days of the Lent before the Easter celebration.