Church services were held to herald the 40-day season which commenced with Ash Wednesday, where the foreheads of faithful were marked with ashes.
In his homily at the Holy Cross Catholic Church, Gwarinpa, Abuja, Rev, Fr. Kenneth Amadi, said that the Lenten season which fell within the elections period is a divine opportunity for Nigerians to fervently seek the face of God.
He said that Christians were supposed to be mindful of their sins at all times, adding that the forty-day Lenten season provided an opportunity for people to reflect on their lives and repent from their sins.
According to him, acts of prayers, fasting and abstinence and almsgiving, which observed during this period, should not be abandoned at Easter, advising they should be sustained. The priest noted that the ashes distributed to mark the commencement of the season, was to remind faithful that “they are dust and to dust they shall return.”
A worshipper, Njoku Chima, said though he has been assisting the poor, the season prompts him to do more and hopes to extend help to the less privileged, Christians and non- Christians alike.