Lent Must Mean Something

Saint John Paul II leads the Stations of the Cross at Rome's
Colosseum on Good Friday 2002 (CNS photo/L'Ossevatore Romano)

Lent begins this Wednesday. Are you ready to invite the Lord into your life and make this Lent mean something?

Saint John Paul II challenged the Church to go deeper than simple fasting during this penitential liturgical season. In his first Message for Lent as Pope, he said:

Lent must mean something: it must show the world that the whole People of God, because it is made up of sinners, is preparing in Penance to re-live liturgically Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. This public collective witness derives from the spirit of Penance of each individual, and it also leads us to deepen this inward attitude and to strengthen our motivation for it.

Going without things does not consist only of giving away what we do not need; sometimes it also consists of giving away what we do need, like the widow in the Gospel who knew that what she was giving away was already a gift to her from God. Going without things is to free oneself from the slaveries of a civilization that is always urging people on to greater comfort and consumption, without a thought even for the preservation of our environment, which is the common heritage of humanity.

During this season of prayer, almsgiving and fasting, let us move forward as workers in God’s vineyard, in the spirit of penance and charity.

Saint John Paul II, Pray for Us!