Preparing for Lent – Repentance and Penance

02-15-2026Weekly ReflectionJen Arnold, M.A.

Later this week, we will celebrate Ash Wednesday and begin our Lenten journey, leading to the most important holiday of our Christian faith – Easter. Lent is a sacred season of the liturgical year, lasting forty days, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday (excluding Sundays), designed to prepare the faithful for the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection at Easter. Its purpose is to foster interior conversion, intensify our prayer lives, and encourage our practice of penance, primarily through fasting and almsgiving. During Lent, we imitate Christ’s forty days of fasting in the desert.

The word the Church uses for interior conversion is metanoia, from the Greek metanoeite, meaning “repent” or “change one’s mind.” Metanoia signifies a profound, radical conversion of heart and a total reorientation from sin toward God. It is an answer to Jesus’ call, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). When we experience this metanoia, we turn away from our sin, finding it abhorrent, and resolve to amend our lives through hope in God’s mercy and grace (cf CCC #1431). In the Christian life, metanoia is not a one-time event, but rather a continuous task that requires a daily examination of conscience.

Due to the human heart being hardened by sin, metanoia, or interior conversion, is impossible by our own power. “Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him” (CCC #1432). It is only after God has done his work in our hearts that we are able to see his love for us and the horror of our sin that keeps us separated from him. From there, our own effort can enter into the process, and the expression of our metanoia is penance.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII wrote an encyclical entitled Paenitentiam Agere: On the Need for the Practice of Interior and Exterior Penance (PA). He issued the document just prior to the opening of the Second Vatican Council, calling the faithful to unite in prayer and penance in preparation for its protection and fruitfulness. While it was issued for a specific intention in time, the bulk of the encyclical is a catechesis on penance, which remains timeless and relevant. We will look at what Pope John has to teach us about penance, so we can apply it this Lent as we pursue our metanoia and turn away from sin.

The pope begins with the scriptural roots of penance. God never reveals himself to man in any “solemn encounter” without first calling him to prayer and penance. “Moses refused to give the Hebrews the tablets of the Law until they had expiated their crime of idolatry and ingratitude” (PA #5). The prophets were continuously exhorting the Israelites, “make their prayers acceptable to God…by offering them in a penitential spirit (PA #6). Pope John says the most impressive of these prophetic calls comes from Joel: “Now therefore, says the Lord, Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning. And rend your hearts and not your garments... Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord’s ministers, shall weep and say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people, and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them” (Joel 2:12-13, 17, PA #7).

Moving on to the New Testament, St. John the Baptist proclaimed, “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt3:2, PA #8). Further, all of Jesus’ teachings required that every soul repent and turn away from their sins. The pope states that Jesus was even more vehement than any of the prophets, that anyone who followed him ought to have a complete change of heart. After Jesus had ascended and the Holy Spirit had descended, the Apostles continued this message. St. Peter said to the multitude, “Do penance and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38, PA #11). So, we can see that this notion of penance was not invented by the Church at a later date, but existed in God’s plan for us from the beginning.

After touching on a few other key points, such as warning that baptism alone is not enough to wash away the stain of sin when one continues to sin, and other times in the prayers of the Church where she has called for penance, Pope John goes on to distinguish between internal repentance and outward acts of penance. Beginning with internal repentance – this must come first before anything else can take place. A person must recognize their sin, detest it, have a desire to make amends, make a good confession, and receive the Eucharist. Without internal repentance, the pope says, “external acts of penance are quite obviously useless unless accompanied by a clear conscience and the detestation of sin” (PA #28). He then uses Christ’s own strong words regarding what will happen if we do not repent, “Unless you repent you will all perish in the same manner” (Lk 13:5, PA #28).

With regard to outward acts of penance, the faithful are to “be encouraged to do outward acts of penance, both to keep their bodies under the strict control of reason and faith, and to make amends for their own and other people’s sins” (PA #29). When we chastise or deny our flesh, we keep our passions under control rather than letting our passions control us. We can also offer up the suffering we experience to make reparation for the damage our sins have caused, as well as the damage others’ sins have caused the entire body of Christ. The pope says one way in particular that we can practice external penance is to accept “from God in a spirit of resignation and trust of all life’s sorrows and hardships and of everything that involves inconvenience and annoyance in the conscientious performance of the obligations of our daily life and work and the practice of Christian virtue” (PA #30). Since daily suffering, hardships, and frustrations are inescapable, we may as well accept them with a disposition of gratitude for the opportunity to offer them as penance and reparation for the sins we have committed that have damaged our relationship with God.

In addition to simply accepting what comes our way, the pope says that we “ought also take the initiative in doing voluntary acts of penance and offering them to God” (PA #31). In doing so, we are actually following in the footsteps of our Lord and Redeemer, who voluntarily picked up his cross and endured extreme suffering for our benefit. Since he did this for us, it is only fitting that we do the same for him with the same intent. Pope John does not offer specific examples of voluntary acts of penance, presumably because each person has his or her own gifts and charisms and is on his or her own spiritual journey. However, he does tell us to “seek example and inspiration from the great saints of the Church” (PA #32). He asks that we contemplate their heroism and be inspired and moved to take on some voluntary suffering of our own.

Pope John XXIII concludes his encyclical by reminding us that through our suffering, we are participating in the work of Christ “for building up the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12, PA #34). We are not only benefiting ourselves, but all our brothers and sisters in Christ, both known and unknown. He says that there are so many people in this world who are unwilling to suffer, choosing earthly pleasures which only cause them spiritual harm. This fact makes it all the more important and necessary that the faithful take penance seriously. Contemplate Pope John’s words on penance, and allow them to inspire you to take on more this Lent, fostering a deeper metanoia and making your Easter all the more fruitful.