Time to move, listen, and reconcile – echoes of Lent. Lent is calling us to make peace with God and others. Lent is an action-oriented season. Let us get this Lenten journey right. It is time to move from thoughts to actions, just like the prodigal son. “He set off and went to his father” (Lk. 15:20). He did not just think about reconciling with his father; he set off and went. As we edge closer to Holy Week, are we preparing for Easter with prayer, alms, and fasting, or are we still planning?
Are you on the move or still stuck? Have you started reconciling with God and others, or are you yet to take that first step? If you have begun, how is the journey going? Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2006 Lenten Message, said, “Lent is 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.”
Time to swap resolutions for actions. The prodigal son did not just promise; he planned and went. Are you doing the same with your Lenten promises – praying, fasting, giving alms? Or are you stuck in the “I will do it later” mode?
Your inner world shapes your outer actions. If your heart is clear on what is important, your actions follow suit. It is like, if you value kindness, you will show kindness. If you value prayer, you will pray. How is your inner clarity shaping your Lenten actions?
Pope Leo XIV, in his Lenten message, said, “Understood in this way, fasting not only permits us to govern our desire, purifying it and making it freer, but also to expand it, so that it is directed towards God and doing good.”
Have you gotten closer to seeing God in your spiritual life? And are your actions showing it, as Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi tells us in the 2026 Lenten Pastoral Letter of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC), that “Lent is therefore not an exercise in religious nostalgia, but a decisive school of conversion, where the Christian learns again how to live. To be reconciled with God is to allow Christ to become the compass of our lives, even when the road of reconciliation is steep, humbling and socially inconvenient.”
Lent is all about getting your values straight. “All things are lawful, but not all are beneficial” (1 Cor 6:12). Clarifying values helps you focus on what is truly important – like living for heaven. What is one value you are focusing on this Lent?
Pope Francis of Blessed Memory, in his 2025 Lenten Message maintained, “A first call to conversion thus comes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life; each of us is invited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact. Am I really on a journey, or am I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness or reluctant to move out of my comfort zone? Am I seeking ways to leave behind the occasions of sin and situations that degrade my dignity?”
Demonstrate the visible signs of Lent like fasting, prayer, almsgiving, listening and kind speech. Pope Leo XIV again, in his 2026 Lent Message, pointed out that “As a visible sign of our inner commitment to turn away from sin and evil with the help of grace, fasting must also include other forms of self-denial aimed at helping us to acquire a more sober lifestyle”.
Do not see Lent as a theological jargon but a pragmatic approach to our spiritual life. Lent is about living differently. It is a call to unity, healing divisions, and caring for the environment. Lent is a sober lifestyle where Christians become a sacrament of unity and restoration.
To conclude, as Lent unfolds, let us shift from promises to action. It is time to reconcile with God and others, embracing prayer, alms, and fasting. The prodigal son’s journey reminds us: decisions turn into steps, and steps lead to transformation. Let us clarify our values, align our lives with God’s compass, and demonstrate visible signs of Lent.
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