A Time To Strengthen Our Faith To God

Foster Spiritual Growth During Lent

Early morning rain seeps into thirsty earth, releasing a pleasant aroma that is present only in this season. It is a lovely time of the year. After a long string of dreary, wintry days, it’s a pleasure to look out on your window again to witness days full of meaningful time to pray. Lent or kwaresma in Filipino is the season wherein Filipino people recall Christ's passion, his suffering, death and resurrection. It is during this time that Filipino religiosity is at its high as depicted in various traditions.

Lent is a time for Christians of all denominations to ask themselves and reflect on which actions they did during the previous year were in line with Christ’s and which ones were not. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. On this day, you will see Catholic Filipinos returning from church with ash smudged on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. They said that the ashes symbolize their grief for the things they’ve done wrong and the resulting division of being imperfect to God. Holy Week is the final week of Lent, beginning with Passion/Palm Sunday and concluding with Holy Saturday. It is during these days that the readings focus primarily on the last days and suffering and death of Jesus.

Consequently, the three main things people focus on during Lent are praying, fasting which is abstaining from something to reduce distraction, and giving or charity. For Catholics and other religions, prayers during Lent were really importance because prayers focuses their need on for God’s forgiveness. It’s also a call of repentance and receiving God’s mercy and love. Fasting is a commitment to spend time with God. It’s a means of seeking God’s guidance and evaluating your own life in light.

In essence to all, my family and I may not be joining in celebrating Lent season, but I still give my full respect for those who were commemorating this special occasion. Even if we have different religious beliefs, we should be always remember to do good things in life and we must acknowledge and disclose our sins to God and ask for His forgiveness.

 

Multimedia Reference:

https://newphilly.org/seasonoflent2020/

https://news.americanbible.org/blog/entry/corporate-blog/lent-a-season-for-biblical-meditation

 

 

 

Women Empowerment

Don’t Let Women Left Behind

A woman is entitled to live in dignity and in freedom from want and from fear. She is strong and independent. She has her own identity and trajectory that she follows. But how can a woman show her passion and abilities to the society if gender inequality exists? Even though she had the courage to take a stand against society to prove that men and women should be give equal rights, if she is being treated unfairly, I bet you wouldn’t think she can show her keen desire and how enthusiastic she is.

Every year, the month of March is declared as National Women’s Month. Anchored on this year’s theme “We Make Change Work for Women”, the celebration aims to highlight and reflect the tremendous efforts by women shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the gaps that remain. However, across the world, many women still face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. Women underpins many problems which disproportionately affect them such as domestic and sexual violence, lower pay, lack of access to education, and inadequate healthcare. We can see how women always suffer from such horrible things. But despite those, they still continue to fight for their rights and freedom to be empowered.

An empowered and educated woman is no more like a burden. She became a supporter or helper for her family as well as society. She already had the ability to determine her own choices, and her right to influence social change for herself and others. She also gain more self-confidence and smiles warmly like there is no more tomorrow. So we should learn that the problems and struggles they are facing just to be free from the growing discrimination against them is not a joke. Despite of this such horrible things happening to them, women still show how brave they are like a men. Why? Simply because they can handle the things that are thrown at them. Women overcame every challenges they or they may conquer in their daily life that was meant to destroy her.

After all, I hope we gain some insights and lessons that we should grasp for a lifetime. Don’t underestimate and call women are weak or not strong enough like men because you don't know what they can do. Women are equally important in society as men are. They are the backbone for a progressing nation. We should not just ignore all the issues and concerns about them nor laugh at it because it is the truth. The greatest need of the hour is to change our social attitude to women.

Multimedia Reference:

Women’s Month Banner

https://www.pmgservices.com/content/uploads/2020/03/bigstock-Womens-History-Month-Banner-Wi-348890728.jpg

Women Empowerment

https://hamnaqasim.medium.com/women-empowerment-fb838556ae9c