Pope Benedict XVI characterized Lent as “a long spiritual retreat that lasts 40 days” during his general audience on Feb. 6, which took place on Ash Wednesday. In addition to prayer and fasting, the Church invites us to practice almsgiving as an expression of our desire to imitate Christ’s own self-giving as well as his concern for others.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today, like every year on Ash Wednesday, we undertake once again our Lenten journey, enkindled by a more intense spirit of prayer and reflection and of penance and fasting.

We are entering into a very “intense” season in the liturgy that invites us — or rather encourages us — to make every effort to move forward in our Christian life as we prepare to celebrate Easter, the heart and the core of the liturgical year and of our entire existence.

Since commitments, worries and concerns cause us to fall repeatedly in the same routine, thereby putting us at risk of forgetting just how extraordinary is this adventure into which Christ has drawn us, we need to venture forth anew each day on the challenging path of living the Gospel by retreating within ourselves and taking time to refresh ourselves spiritually.

Through the ancient ritual of the giving of ashes, the Church presents Lent to us as a long spiritual retreat that lasts forty days.

We are entering into the Lenten season, a season that helps us rediscover the gift of faith that we received through baptism and encourages us to approach the sacrament of reconciliation, thereby placing our commitment to conversion under the protection of God’s mercy.

Originally, in the early Church, Lent was a special time to prepare catechumens for the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, which were celebrated during the Easter Vigil. Lent was considered a time during which people became Christians, which did not happen in a single instant but which required a long journey of conversion and renewal. Those who had already been baptized joined with them in this preparation, remembering once again the sacrament they had received and preparing themselves for renewing their communion with Christ in the joyous celebration of Easter.

Thus, Easter had and still retains today the feeling of a baptismal journey in the sense that it helps keep alive within us an awareness that being a Christian always occurs through becoming a Christian anew.

It is never a finished story that we have left behind, but a journey that constantly requires renewed effort.

When the celebrant places ashes on our head, he either says, “Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return” (see Genesis 3:19) or repeats Jesus’ exhortation, “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel” (see Mark 1:15). Both of these formulas remind us about the truth of our human existence: We are limited creatures, sinners in constant need of penance and conversion.

How important it is in this day and age to listen to and to accept this call! When modern man proclaims his complete independence from God, he becomes his own slave and often finds himself tormented and alone.

The call to conversion is, therefore, an encouragement to return to the arms of God, the tender and merciful Father, to trust in him and to entrust ourselves to him as his adopted children, regenerated by his love. The Church reiterates in the wisdom of its teaching that conversion is above all grace, a gift that opens our hearts to God’s infinite goodness.

Through his grace he foresees our desire for conversion and supports our efforts to adhere fully to his saving will. To convert means to let Jesus conquer our hearts (see Philippians 3:12) and “to return” with him to the Father.

Therefore, conversion entails humbly submitting ourselves to Jesus’ teachings and obediently following in his footsteps.

The words that he himself uses to explain how to truly be his disciples are enlightening. After telling us that “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it,” he adds: “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (see Mark 8:35-36).

Do the achievement of success, the desire for prestige and the pursuit of comfort truly lead to happiness if they completely absorb a person’s life to the point of excluding God? Can real happiness exist without God?

Experience shows that satisfying material needs and expectations does not lead to happiness. The truth is that the only joy that satisfies the human heart is the joy that comes from God. In reality, we need an infinite joy. Neither daily concerns nor the difficulties of life are able to extinguish the joy that comes from our friendship with God. At first, Jesus’ invitation to take up our cross and follow him can seem harsh and contrary to everything we desire and as something that quashes our desire for personal fulfillment. But if we look closer, we discover that this is not the case.

The testimony of the saints shows us how in the cross of Christ — in love that is given as a gift and in renouncing any possession we claim over ourselves — we find a profound peacefulness that is a fount of generous devotion to our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and the needy. This gift also gives us joy.

The Lenten journey to conversion, which we undertake today with the entire Church, becomes, therefore, an auspicious occasion — “an acceptable time” (see 2 Corinthians 6:2) — to offer ourselves once again as sons and daughters into God’s hands and to put into practice what Jesus says to us over and over again: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (see Mark 8:34).

In this way, we set forth on the path of love and true happiness.

During the Lenten season, the Church, in keeping with the Gospel, proposes a number of specific duties to assist the faithful on their journey of interior renewal: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

This year, in my Message for Lent that was published a few days ago, it was my desire to focus on “the practice of almsgiving, which represents a specific way to assist those in need and, at the same time, an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly goods” (see Message for Lent, 1).

Unfortunately, we are aware of how deeply the desire for material riches pervades modern society.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called not to make idols of earthly goods but to use them as a means to live and to help others who are in need. By pointing out the practice of almsgiving to us, the Church teaches us to meet the needs of our neighbor and to imitate Christ, who, as St. Paul noted, became poor so that by his poverty we might become rich (see 2 Corinthians 8:9).

I discuss this in greater detail in the message for Lent: “In his school, we can learn to make of our lives a total gift; imitating him, we are able to make ourselves available, not so much in giving a part of what we possess, but our very selves.” I then go on to say: “Cannot the entire Gospel be summarized perhaps in the one commandment of love? The Lenten practice of almsgiving thus becomes a means to deepen our Christian vocation. In gratuitously offering himself, the Christian bears witness that it is love and not material richness that dictates the laws of his existence (see Message for Lent, 5).

Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, to accompany us on our Lenten journey so that it may be a journey of true conversion.

Let us allow her to lead us so that we will arrive — interiorly renewed — at the celebration of that great mystery of Easter and of Christ, the supreme revelation of God’s merciful love.

A blessed Lent to all of you!

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