The season of Lent, as we know, is a favorable season for conversion. This is what Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to do -- convert our hearts to Him.

At the beginning of His public ministry, He called for conversion with the words “repent, and believe in the Gospel!” (Mk 1:15). This same call for conversion echoes through the centuries, and we hear it especially during Lent. Conversion means to turn our hearts and minds to God and to change the direction of our lives toward the path that Jesus has traced for us: this encounter with Christ is necessary for conversion. No one can turn his/her heart and mind toward God if an encounter with Christ has not happened. Only through a personal relationship with Jesus can we truly change our ways.

How can we have this encounter with Christ? We can encounter Our Lord in the Bible. If we want to know who Jesus truly is, we need to read the Sacred Scriptures. St. Jerome said, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” It is through the Bible that we can learn about Jesus, what He wants for us and what He expects from us. But we need to ask for guidance of the Holy Spirit so we may be able to read them always in the same Spirit of the Church.

We encounter Christ in the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. Christ is present among His faithful: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).

We encounter Christ in the Sacraments, especially in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus truly is present in the Eucharist: body, blood, divinity and humanity. He has stayed with us in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist so we can have life in us. Jesus is always waiting for us in the Tabernacle. During this time of Lent, in which we are called to conversion, it is very important to visit the Blessed Sacrament and ask Jesus for the grace of conversion.

Only He can transform our lives because conversion is not merely a human effort, something that we can accomplish by our own strength. No, it is grace from God. That is why, with humility, we ask for it. Our external efforts are a reflection of our interior desire to return to the Lord. That is why we do penance: to express in a visible way the desire of our hearts to live as children of God.

Let us take advantage of these remaining days of Lent and ask for the grace of conversion and so prepare ourselves for the joy of Easter.