J
ust as it was throughout Chris-
tendom, particularly for the
Catholic Church, parishioners
of St. Cyprian’s Catholic Church,
Oko-Oba, Agege, Lagos trooped out
in large numbers, young and old to
receive the ash on Ash Wednesday,
the season of grace and the begin-
ning of lent, 40-day period, when
the Church invites the faithful to
deny self and bear true witness to
the gospel through prayer, fasting
and almsgiving.
Drawing from the readings of the
day taken from Joel 2: 12-18, Corin-
thians 5: 20-6: 2 and the gospel of Mat-
thew 6: -6, 16-18, the homilist, Rev. Fr.
Emmanuel Anyanwu, Assistant Parish
priest of St. Cyprian’s Catholic Church,
Oko-Oba, Agege, enjoined the faithful
to exhibit humility, show love to one
another and help those in need, that is
the way to prove one’s piety, he said.
Fr. Anyanwu reminded the worship-
pers that the ash we receive on our
foreheads today reminds us of our
nothingness. In his words, remember
that we are made of dust and to dust
shall we all return.
The Mass celebrated along side with
the Parish priest and Dean of Agege
Deanery, Very Rev. Fr. Augustine
Nnaemeka witnessed the faithful, the
majority of them decked in black at-
tires as a mark of solidarity for those
kidnapped and killed by insurgents
and to protest the state of insecurity
in the country, receiving ash on the
forehead by the priests ably assisted by
the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus-E.H.J.
Sisters of Oko-Oba Community.
