Q’s from the Pews: How do we “repent” during Lent?

Scripture calls us again and again to repentance, and Lent is the season when this call becomes especially urgent. Many of us say “I’m sorry” for our sins throughout the year, so what makes Lent different? Are we meant to feel more sorry, as if our earlier contrition was not enough? The key lies in the word we translate as “repentance”: the Greek word metanoia.

Metanoia carries a far deeper meaning than the English word suggests. It includes recognizing our sins and feeling true contrition, but it goes further. Metanoia is the desire—and the deliberate effort—to change our hearts so that we do not fall into the same sins again. It is the interior transformation that makes sin less and less an option. The prophets echo this call: “Rend your hearts, not your garments” (Joel 2:13), for “a humble and contrite heart you will not spurn” (Ps 51). Repentance, at its core, is a matter of the heart.

This Lent, make metanoia your goal. When you hear the words “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15), hear this invitation: Change your heart. Let the Gospel shape how you feel, how you act, and how you live each day.