“Lent, then, is a season of grace when we can rebuild our relationship with God and with others, opening our hearts in the silence of prayer and emerging from the fortress of our self-sufficiency… At the end of the journey, we will encounter with greater joy the Lord of life, who alone can raise us up from our ashes.”

Pope Francis reflects on the meaning of receiving ashes on our foreheads at the beginning of Lent, and during the Ash Wednesday Mass in Vatican on February 22, 2023 invites us to “set out on the path of charity, prayer, and fasting.”