“Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin the Lenten path that lasts forty days and which leads us to the joy of the Lord’s Easter.”  (Benedict XVI, Wednesday Audience 17 Feb. 2010)

In his weekly audience today in St. Peter’s Square, B16 stated that the Church asks us to embark on a journey of conversion during Lent:

[C]onversion means changing the direction of the path of our lives…It is going against the current when the ‘current’ is a superficial, incoherent, and illusory way of life that often drags us down, making us slaves of evil or prisoners of moral mediocrity. Nevertheless, through conversion we tend to the highest measure of Christian life, we trust in the living and personal Gospel who is Jesus Christ. He is the final goal and the profound path of conversion, the path that we are all called to travel in our lives, allowing ourselves to be illuminated with his light and sustained by his strength, which moves our steps. (Benedict XVI, Wednesday Audience 17 Feb. 2010)

The Holy Father also reminds us that we have our origins in God and that we shall one day return to him because of the gift of Jesus Christ:

The human being is dust and to dust it will return, but it is dust that is precious in God’s eyes because He created humanity, destining us to immortality…Jesus the Lord also wanted to freely share in human frailty with each person, above all through his death on the cross. But it was precisely this death, full of his love for the Father and for humanity, that was the way of glorious resurrection, the means by which Christ became the source of grace given to all who believe in Him and participate in the same divine life. (Benedict XVI, Wednesday Audience 17 Feb. 2010)

Therefore, in these days of Lenten journey, let us take some amount of time each day to reflect on the gifts that God has given us. Let us reflect on the times that God was made present to us and we turned away from that presence. We should identify and remove the things in our lives that are having a negative impact on our spirituality and causing us to sin. Give up something for Lent as a sacrifice. However, we should also give something in return for all the things God has given us. Here are some practical suggestions: make an effort to pray the rosary everyday; be friendly and compassionate to those who tend to get on your nerves; show love to someone who has not shown you love in return; or volunteer at a food shelter.

May the Lord bless all of us throughout this Lenten Season and bring us closer to Him through a conversion of heart. Have a blessed Lent.

Photo Source: LIFE