Pope Benedict XVI Blog

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General Audience

Lent a time of conversion, not ‘self-realization,’ Pope says
'We have a higher destiny,' Benedict tells mankind

Vatican City, Feb 21, 2007 / 10:17 am (CNA).- Over 10,000 people crowded the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall today to meet with Pope Benedict XVI for his weekly general audience. On this, the day when Catholics around the world celebrate Ash Wednesday, the Holy Father dedicated his catechesis to the subject of Lent.

"Today, Ash Wednesday," said the Pope, "we begin the Lenten journey, characterized by listening to the Word of God, by prayer and penance. Forty days during which the liturgy will help us to relive the principal moments of the Mystery of salvation."

For the baptized, Lent is a "new 'catechumenate' in which we return to our Baptism in order to rediscover it and experience it more profoundly. It is an occasion to go back to being Christian via a constant process of interior transformation, and of progress in the knowledge and love of Christ."

"Conversion," the Holy Father explained, is not something that happens once and for all, it is a process, a journey, that cannot be limited to a specific period but must embrace all existence."

"In this light," he went on, "Lent is an appropriate spiritual moment to train ourselves more earnestly to seek God, opening our hearts to Christ. Conversion means seeking God. It is not an effort of self-realization. Self-realization is a contradiction, and it is too little for us. We have a higher destiny. Conversion consists precisely in not thinking that one is the 'creator' of oneself, and thus discovering the truth."
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From EWTN comes a guide and calendar of reflections for "The Holy Season of Lent" and the Pope's message for Lent 2007, "They shall look on Him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37)".

As we begin Lent today with the imposition of ashes as a sign of our penance, we pray that these days of Lenten observance renew us in our faith and bring us into a deeper conversion as the following article from Catholic Culture also exhorts us:

The time has now come in the Church year for the solemn observance of the great central act of history, the redemption of the human race by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the Roman Rite, the beginning of the forty days of penance is marked with the austere symbol of ashes which are used in today's liturgy. The use of ashes is a survival from an ancient rite according to which converted sinners submitted themselves to canonical penance. The Alleluia and the Gloria are suppressed until Easter.

Abstinence from eating meat is to be observed on all Fridays during Lent. This applies to all persons 14 and older. The law of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday applies to all persons 18 or older and younger than 59.
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God bless you all!

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 10:31 AM