Today begins the forty days of Lent and the preparation for the celebration of Easter, so it also highlights the person we are meant to be, the end for which we were made, and it emphasizes the more excellent way of love by which we are to get there.
As Pope Francis wrote his annual Lenten Message: “Lent is a new beginning, a path leading to the certain goal of Easter, Christ’s victory over death. This season urgently calls us to conversion. Christians are asked to return to God ‘with all their hearts,’ to refuse to settle for mediocrity and to grow in friendship with the Lord.”