Rosary/Gonzales parish priest Fr Clyde Harvey is urging Catholics not to cut their charitable contributions because of the global financial crisis.

“As we may experience less in life, we need to be careful what we cut first,” he told the large congregation at the Ash Wednesday midday Mass at Rosary Church, Park Street, Port of Spain.

With almsgiving as one of the Lenten mandates, Fr Harvey said while the economic crisis might mean a reduced pay packet or even job loss for some, Catholics should first cut back spending on themselves and not on those who were in greater need.

Touching on another of the Lenten mandates in his brief sermon, Fr Harvey noted that Pope Benedict XVI has called on the Church to focus on fasting in this Lenten period.

Commenting that some types of fasting have become popular in recent years – political fasting (hunger strikes), fasting for health reasons and even pathological fasting (example anorexia), he said Christian fasting was accompanied by prayer – another Lenten mandate – and represented a desire to do God’s will.

“Fasting is not a bribe for God but should lead to the inner transformation we are called to undergo,” he told the worshippers, many of whom had come from the nearby banks and other businesses.

He said fasting helped human beings to become more free and “to become more what God wants us to be, to help us become more attuned to God”.

As he prepared to distribute the ashes, Fr Harvey prayed: “May these next 40 days deepen and open us to your grace, to your love which transforms.”