Listening and Fasting. Lent as a Time of Conversion
Message for Lent 2026 of Pope Leo XIV
With his Message for Lent 2026, entitled "Listening and Fasting. Lent as a Time of Conversion," the Holy Father Pope Leo XIV offers the Church a clear and incisive spiritual orientation for living the season that leads to Easter as an authentic journey of personal and communal renewal.
A favourable time to return to the Lord
The Pope first recalls the profound meaning of Lent: a time of grace in which believers are invited to place God once again at the centre of their lives. In a context marked by fragmentation, noise and inner dispersion, listening becomes the first form of conversion.
To listen means to pause before the Word, to allow oneself to be questioned by the Gospel, to recognise the voice of the Lord in one's conscience and in the events of history. It is an attitude that requires silence, openness and humility: only those who truly listen can begin a path of authentic change.
The fast that transforms the heart
Alongside listening, the Holy Father proposes fasting as a concrete path of conversion. This is not merely an external or dietary practice, but a spiritual exercise that involves the heart and relationships.
In the perspective offered by the Message, fasting becomes a school of inner freedom: renouncing what weighs us down, moderating desires and habits, watching over words and attitudes that can wound or divide. It is an invitation to disarm our language, to purify our gaze, to safeguard charity in daily relationships.
In this way, fasting does not impoverish, but restores what is essential; it does not close in, but opens to solidarity; it does not isolate, but makes us more attentive to the cry of the poor and of those living in situations of suffering.
Personal conversion and communal responsibility
The Message strongly underlines that Lent is not an individualistic journey. Personal conversion is always rooted in the life of the People of God.
Christian communities are called to rediscover the communal dimension of listening and fasting: shared moments of prayer, penitential celebrations, concrete gestures of charity and service. Conversion, in fact, is also expressed in the quality of relationships, in the capacity to forgive, and in renewed commitment to justice and peace.
For consecrated life, this season takes on a particular value: listening to the Word renews fidelity to the call received, while fasting—lived in sobriety and fraternity—becomes a prophetic sign in a world often marked by excess and indifference.
Towards the joy of Easter
The Lenten journey indicated by Pope Leo XIV leads to Easter as the fulfilment of a process of inner transformation. Listening and fasting are not ends in themselves, but instruments for opening the heart to grace, for receiving with greater awareness the gift of salvation, and for witnessing to the Gospel with renewed credibility.
Lent 2026 thus presents itself as a favourable time to rediscover what is essential, to return to the Lord with a sincere heart, and to walk together, as Church, towards the light of the Resurrection.
The full text of the Message is available on the official Vatican website