Powerful reflections from saints on Lent: fasting, penance, and conversion

Image of St. John Paul II. / Credit: Adrian Tusar/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Lent is not only a time of self denial but also of transformation. Six saints and blesseds have offered the following profound reflections on how to live this time authentically through fasting and conversion of heart.

St. Augustine

“It is true that Moses, Elijah, and Our Lord himself fasted for 40 days; but in Moses, Elijah, and Christ we are meant to see the law, the prophets, and the Gospel, and to learn from them not to cling to this present world or imitate its ways but to nail our unregenerate selves to the cross. Christians must always live in this way, without any wish to come down from their cross, otherwise they will sink beneath the world’s mire. But if we have to do so all our lives, we must make an even greater effort during these days of Lent. It is not a simple matter of living through 40 days; Lent is the epitome of our whole life.” 

St. John Paul II

“Renunciation of sensations, stimuli, pleasures, and even food or drink is not an end in itself. It must only, so to speak, prepare the way for deeper contents by which the interior man ‘is nourished’” (General audience, Wednesday, March 21, 1979).

St. John XXIII

“Lent, O Lord: Do not allow us to resort to broken cisterns (Jer 2:13), nor to imitate the unfaithful servant, the foolish virgin; do not allow the enjoyment of earthly goods to make our hearts insensitive to the lament of the poor, the sick, orphaned children, and the countless brothers and sisters of ours who still today lack the minimum necessary to eat, to cover their bare limbs, to gather the family under one roof” (Radio message of the Holy Father John XXIII on the occasion of the beginning of Lent, Feb. 27, 1963).

Blessed Alvaro del Portillo

“Lent is an urgent call to guard against the snares of the evil one, taking up the weapons of prayer and penance. In the words of our Father, I have often reminded you that ‘the devil does not take vacations,’ that he never ceases in his efforts to draw souls away from God,” (Text of Feb. 2, 1985, published in “Journey with Jesus through the Liturgical Year,” Scepter, 2014).

St. Josemaría Escrivá

“We cannot consider this Lent as just another time, a cyclical repetition of the liturgical season. This moment is unique; it is a divine aid that must be welcomed. Jesus passes by our side and awaits from us — today, now — a great change” (from “Furrow,” a book written by the saint).

“I advise you to try sometimes to return… to the beginning of your ‘first conversion,’ which, if not becoming like children, is very similar to it: In the spiritual life, one must let oneself be led with complete trust, without fear or duplicity; one must speak with absolute clarity about what is on one’s mind and soul,” (from “Christ Is Passing By,” a book by the saint).

Blessed Carlo Acutis

“Our soul is like a hot-air balloon. If by chance there is a mortal sin, the soul falls to the ground. Confession is like the fire underneath the balloon enabling the soul to rise again. … It is important to go to confession often” (National Catholic Register).

“Conversion is nothing more than moving the gaze from below to above; a simple movement of the eyes is enough” (National Catholic Register).