Above: Pope Leo XIV prays during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sept. 24, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
As the Church prepares to enter Lent, Pope Leo XIV is calling Catholics worldwide to rediscover conversion through attentive listening, meaningful fasting and renewed communal life.
The Vatican released the pope’s Lenten message Feb. 13, titled “Listening and Fasting: Lent as a Time of Conversion.” In it, the Holy Father urges the faithful to place God at the center of daily life while cultivating greater attentiveness to the suffering of others.
“Lent is a time in which the Church, guided by a sense of maternal care, invites us to place the mystery of God back in the center of our lives, in order to find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life,” the pope writes.
The full message is available through the Vatican in English and Spanish.
Listening to God and to the cry of the poor
The pope structures his reflection around three themes: Listening, Fasting and Together. He begins by emphasizing that Christian conversion starts with listening — first to God’s word, and then to the voices of those who suffer.
Every day, he writes, God “shares with us what is in his heart,” and Sacred Scripture helps believers “recognize and respond to the cry of those who are anguished and suffering.”
The Holy Father insists that authentic listening must shape both personal spirituality and social responsibility, noting that “the condition of the poor is a cry that, throughout human history, constantly challenges our lives, societies, political and economic systems, and, not least, the Church.”
Fasting that transforms speech and action
Pope Leo XIV presents fasting as more than a dietary practice, describing it as “a concrete way to prepare ourselves to receive the word of God” and a discipline that orders human desires toward justice and responsibility for one’s neighbor.
In one of the message’s most practical appeals, he invites Catholics to adopt a form of abstinence that touches daily relationships: restraint in speech.
“I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor,” he writes. “Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgment, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves.”
He calls believers to cultivate respectful speech “in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities,” so that “words of hatred will give way to words of hope and peace.”
Fasting, he adds, must be lived in humility and rooted in communion with God. As a visible sign of conversion, it should also foster a sober lifestyle that strengthens Christian witness.
A communal journey of conversion
The message concludes by emphasizing that Lent is never a purely private exercise. Rather, it is a shared pilgrimage of the People of God.
“Our parishes, families, ecclesial groups and religious communities are called to undertake a shared journey during Lent,” the pope writes, where listening to the word of God and to “the cry of the poor and of the earth” becomes integral to community life.
Conversion, he explains, involves not only the individual conscience but also the quality of relationships and dialogue, challenging believers to respond to humanity’s longing for justice and reconciliation.
A Lent oriented toward hope
In his concluding appeal, Pope Leo XIV invites Catholics to seek a renewal marked by attentiveness, humility and charity:
“Dear friends, let us ask for the grace of a Lent that leads us to greater attentiveness to God and to the least among us. Let us ask for the strength that comes from the type of fasting that also extends to our use of language, so that hurtful words may diminish and give way to a greater space for the voice of others. Let us strive to make our communities places where the cry of those who suffer finds welcome, and listening opens paths towards liberation, making us ready and eager to contribute to building a civilization of love.”
As Lent begins, the pope’s message frames the season not simply as a time of penance, but as a communal path toward renewal — one marked by listening hearts, disciplined speech and a Church attentive to those most in need.