Ave Maria Meditations
Lent is a propitious time in which the Church invites Christians to be more intensely aware of Christ’s redeeming work and to live our Baptism more profoundly. The Lenten season is an invitation to relive with Jesus the 40 days He spent in the desert, praying and fasting, before undertaking His public mission.
This is the authentic and central program of the Lenten season: to listen to the word of truth, to live, speak, and do the truth, to reject lies that poison humanity and are the door to all evils. It is urgent, therefore, during these 40 days to listen again to the gospel, the Lord’s word, word of truth, so that in every Christian the awareness be reinforced of the truth that has been given, that He has given us to live it and be His witnesses.
Lent stimulates us to let the word of God penetrate our life, and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life. Thus, the Lenten season offers us an aesthetic and liturgical journey that, helping us to open our eyes in face of our weakness, makes us open our hearts to the merciful love of Christ.
+Pope Benedict XVI from “Benedictus”
