Lent: Fasting from Hurtful Words and Walking Together in Hope
As Catholics begin another season of Lent, a strong theme is emerging across Christian media: this is not only a season of giving things up — but a season of a total conversion of heart, speech, and relationships.
This year’s Lenten calling emphasizes a turn toward having an interior renewal (a true spiritual conversion), deeper commitment to community, as well as a renewed understanding of the Lenten fast and meritorious graces attributed to it.
If this is something you are interested in, join us this Lent: Fasting from Hurtful Words and Walking Together in Hope!
A New Emphasis: Fasting from Hurtful Words
One of the most widely discussed themes for Lent this year invites Christian’s to “fast from hurtful words.” While traditional practices like abstaining from meat or giving up sweets remain non-negotiable, the faithful are being called to an even deeper discipline: examining how we speak to and about one another.
In a culture shaped by rapid communication and social media, words can wound quickly and publicly. To fast from harsh judgment, gossip, sarcasm, and impatience is to enter into another form of spiritual poverty — a deliberate choice to let charity (love) govern our speech. This discipline does not discard traditional Lenten sacrifices of course, but it will deepen the Lenten experience. Fasting from food trains the body while fasting from hurtful speech transforms the heart.
Lent as a Communal Journey
Another strong Lenten theme emerging this year is that Lent is not a solo spiritual challenge but a shared pilgrimage.
We often hear Lent described as a time when the Church “walks together” — in parishes, families, and communities — toward Easter Sunday. The practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are not isolated acts of private devotion but also a way of strengthening the Body of Christ as a whole.
Prayer, whether private or communal, connects us with God; fasting reorders our desires; and almsgiving restores our relationships with our neighbor, especially the poor and vulnerable.
Seen in this light, Lent becomes a season of not only penance and sacrifice, but one of healing — a healing that happens vertically between God and self, and horizontally with neighbor.
Rediscovering the Meaning of Fasting
So, why do Catholics fast during Lent?
Fasting is not merely about self-denial for its own sake, but rather a spiritual discipline which exposes our attachments to worldly things. It reveals areas in our lives we’re seeking comfort apart from God or where we’re spiritually weakened. This spiritual clarity creates a much needed space for acknowledgment and subsequent grace to return.
When we willingly accept forms of discomfort such as hunger in fasting, watching our tongue in casual conversation, increased prayer and almsgiving for the poor etc., we unite ourselves more closely to Christ’s sacrifice and His virtues.
Sacrifice for Christ through spiritual disciplines (such as fasting) leads ultimately to a greater love. Moreover, the hunger we experience during Lent will also increase our compassion for those who hunger daily. In this way, sacrifice for Christ in any form can be viewed as avenues toward a much greater and more meritorious love for God and for neighbor.
Parish Life During Lent
While Lent is certainly about one’s own personal journey through the desert with Christ, Christians should remember that it’s also a shared communal experience with Lent being deeply liturgical and ecclesial.
The Stations of the Cross, parish missions, communal penance services, and increased opportunities for confession all remind Catholics that repentance is not abstract. It is lived out in communities, parishes, and amongst real people who are all striving toward the same salvific end.
Make it a point then to engage in parish life as often as you are able to this Lent. Spend time in a holy hour of adoration, pray the Rosary with friends from the parish, engage in Bible and Catechism studies, attend daily Mass when your schedule allows, etc. This is the time when our individual and communal prayer lives with Christ merge and are strengthened.
Joy: The Often-Forgotten Lenten Virtue
One more aspect of Lent should be contemplated. Though Lent is indeed penitential, it is not meant to be gloomy. In fact we, as Catholics, can say that joy is not necessarily suspended during Lent but rather purified. True Christian joy is not dependent on indulgence or comfort. Far from it! Rather, our true joy arises from reconciliation, clarity of conscience, and renewed hope through penance. The sacrifices of Lent clear away spiritual debris so that Easter joy is able to take deeper root in our lives.
Entering Lent with Intentionality
So, let us not only think about what we’re giving up for Lent this year. Let us also think about who we are becoming both individually and communally during these 40 days of sacrifice and penance.
We’re not only being invited to fast from food, but also from cruelty in speech; to not only pray in private, but become more engaged members of the one true Church as a pilgrim people; to not merely give from surplus, but from our hearts; to prepare not only for Easter Sunday with gloom, but for lasting and life-long conversion with joy.
As the Church journeys towards Resurrection day, Lent remains what it has always been: forty days with Christ and His Church through the desert as He leads our soul toward grace, mercy, and transformation. This is an annual opportunity to return to Him and journey with Him with our whole heart. To experience once again the great wonder of the Lenten season — the most meritorious season of the entire year.
God bless you as you enter once more into the desert with Our Lord.
Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us!
Mother Mary, pray for us!
St. Joseph, pray for us!
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