By: MARGARET BROWN
Margaret Brown is one of The Resident’s longest standing contributors and has lived in the Algarve for more than 20 years. As well as Point of View, she also writes Country Matters twice a month.
As we prepare to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ through 40 days of Lent, like millions of other practicing Christians we will be reviewing how we have behaved during the last 12 months.
Basically it is a time to examine our consciences and for spiritual renewal through the knowledge and practice of the word of God.
This is sometimes accompanied by periods of fasting and self-denial as a means of growing closer to God.
During the thousand years in which the Old Testament was written, there were many prophecies that a Jewish Messiah would be born to the tribe of Judah, bringing peace and reconciliation at a time of great turmoil: also that he would be a ‘light to the gentiles’.
The Greek translation of this collection of books was completed about 200 BC.
Because in its text the milestones in the life of Christ were so accurately predicted, to infer that the recorded life of the Messiah in the New Testament is a work of fiction seems risible.
On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a Church service is held during which the Priest makes a sign of the cross in ashes on the foreheads of those present.
It is a mark of penitence and unworthiness: a reminder that, according to Genesis chapter 3 verse 19, “From dust we came and to dust we shall return”.
The escalating tempo of 21st Century life leaves little room for contemplation of our moral or spiritual health and it takes real determination to go somewhere quiet and think of such matters.
There is a need in people to have a source of strength and sense of purpose over and above the daily rat race, and for many it is to be found within the Christian faith.
