The season of Lent is a time of grace given by God, in order to live in a more deliberate and conscious manner that element of Christian life which we call change of heart.  It is a time of special effort, of preparation for the celebration of the great feast of Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord.  The grace which we shall receive on that day is related to the kind of preparation we make to celebrate it.

In the readings of Scripture during Lent, emphasis is put on the return to God.  This is an emphasis of what must always be part of our Christian life, which is a constant change of heart-away from the things that separate us from God, towards those things which unite us to him.

In this period of concentration which we call Lent, part of our resolution must be to increase our life of prayer, to make certain that there is, in accordance with the circumstances of our lives, an increase in the time which we spend in prayer.  If we do this, then we can be certain that God will speak to us, and guide us, and make increasingly clear what it may be in our lives which prevents our having a union with him, which is what he wants, and what, deep down, we want.