“Lent is the time that the Church dedicates to a profound revision of life”, and given that the family is considered a “small domestic church’, this time should be experienced as “renewal of family life”: that is the suggestion made by Father Domingos Paulo Costa Oliveira, of the department of family pastoral care of the archdiocese of Braga, who also announced the availability of aids to help families to celebrate and experience this period in the best way. First, it is proposed that families participate in a penitential liturgy in the community, in preparation for the sacrament of reconciliation. But families are also urged to find moments of prayer at home. In fact, explains Father Costa Oliveira, “in Lent the acceptance of the Father’s love takes place through the exercise of forgiveness, gratuitous service to others, and renunciation experienced as self-transcendence”.
