The faithful are reminded of the importance of repentance, reconciliation with God, and almsgiving or other acts of charity as the Catholic Church welcomed the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22.

Faculty of Arts and Letters Regent Fr. George Phe Mang, O.P. celebrated one of the scheduled Ash Wednesday masses at the Santissimo Rosario Parish where he urged Thomasians to "become a sign of God's love for others."

"We can do it simply within our family, with family members [...] our concern, our support, and our understanding for one another at the acts of God's love [...] especially during this Lenten season," the Regent said during the homily.

Phe Mang related the virtue of sacrifice in asking for repentance from the merciful and loving God by emphasizing the importance of fasting and abstinence from pleasurable acts.

"Eventually, God relents from punishing His people because of their repentance. The lesson is: when we repent, God is always merciful and loving," he said.

The Regent also advised that penitential acts during Lent must be sincere and private; they must not be shown-off to others.

"In our Gospel, Jesus identifies 3 signs of a change of heart: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving [...] These penitential acts must not be done pretentiously for a show-off but voluntary acts in private so that only God knows what we are doing," Phe Mang said.

The Kumpisalang Bayan concurrently took place at the Benavides Park. Dominican priests were stationed across the area to administer the sacrament of reconciliation for the faithful to open the Lenten Season.

Ash Wednesday commemorates the start of the Lent, a season of fasting and prayer, which is reminiscent of Jesus' 40 days and nights of fasting in the Judean Desert.