Near the beginning of his pontificate, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI called Lent “a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Him Who is the fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty, sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter.”

These two brief sentences capture in a very profound way the essence of every lenten season. First, Benedict reminds us that Lent is a pilgrimage, a journey. It is not simply the passage of time from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Rather it is the conscious movement of every soul toward a renewed and intense union with Our Lord. It is a movement of love that seeks an ever more intimate relationship with the One Who is Love.

Second, the pope tells us that we never make this journey alone. In fact, we could not make it alone. It is Jesus who is the goal, but it is also Jesus who moves us toward Himself. It is said that every person in some way is searching for God insofar as every person seeks answers to the most fundamental questions about the meaning of life. But this search is not a one-way effort. Even more than we search for God, God searches for us. Just as the Magi were led by a star to find and worship the Savior of the world, so each of us is beckoned by God to find Him and to love Him.  

Our pilgrimage is one that takes us to the fount of mercy. It is the mercy of God that confirms that we are sinners. And this is the starting point for any fruitful lenten observance. It is in the recognition of our sinfulness, our emptiness before God, that we can be converted. Conversion of life is the perennial theme of Lent. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls conversion “a radical reorientation of the whole life away from sin and evil, and toward God.” This is no small task, nor is conversion accomplished in an instant. It is the work of God in us for an entire lifetime. For this reason each and every Lent is a new opportunity for conversion and growth in holiness.

Conversion is accompanied by interior penance. For this reason Lent is a time of penance — penance which opens us to conversion and which is, at the same time, an expression of conversion. The traditional forms of penance are fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Fasting expresses conversion in relation to oneself; prayer expresses conversion in relation to God; and almsgiving expresses conversion in relation to others. Often these works of penance can take the form of simply and only “outward” works. Unless our penances help to move us to conversion of heart — real interior conversion — they remain, in the words of the Catechism “sterile and false.”

As we look to Lent, which begins this year on Feb. 22, I would like to offer some suggestions as to how we might express interior penance in ways that will lead to conversion of heart.

Fasting as a form of self-denial has always been one of our indispensable lenten practices. Fasting, together with abstinence from meat, trains us to deny ourselves in little things so that we will be strengthened to turn from temptations to sin. This is exactly what Jesus did at the beginning of his public ministry when he spent 40 days in the desert. In addition to the minimum obligations of fast and abstinence, may I suggest that we choose other expressions of self-denial that might be even more significant for each person.

Prayer should become more intense and more fervent during the days of Lent. Participation in daily Mass as well as Sunday Mass, together with other forms of personal prayer, leads to conversion. Again, as the Catechism teaches us, “daily conversion and penance find their source and nourishment in the Eucharist, for in it is made present the sacrifice of Christ which has reconciled us with God.”

Almsgiving and acts of charity toward our neighbor are expressions of the right relationship we ought to have with others.  In his encyclical God is Love, Pope Benedict reminds us that the exercise of charity, “love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential to [the Church] as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel” (#22).  

In his lenten letter for this year, the pope once again takes up the theme of charity, which he calls “the very heart of Christian life.” Acts of charity must fill the life of every believer. Lent reinforces this teaching. Among the many opportunities to practice charity during Lent is the annual Operation Rice Bowl which will be made available in all of our parishes.

Finally, it is important to remember that genuine conversion cannot be effectively achieved without the Sacrament of Penance. All our interior acts of penance must find their sacramental expression in our confession of sins to a priest and his absolution. Turning once again to the Catechism we read: “Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the Sacrament of Reconciliation.” I have asked all our pastors to provide some extra times for confessions during Lent.  Don’t fail to seek God’s forgiveness in this beautiful sacrament.

I pray that these 40 days of prayer, penance and almsgiving will be the occasion for each of us to grow in the love of God and of one other.