Lent 2026: A Time For 'Circumcision of the Heart.'

Years ago, I described Lent as a “desert experience” drawing directly from the biblical narrative that gives definition to this season: Christ was led by the Spirit into the desert where he prayed and fasted for forty days and nights. (Mtt.4:1-2) and from experience in the seminary where we spent a day experiencing the desert as it were. We all need a framework to understand reality. And the reality of Lent comes home with the image of the desert. One framework to understand Lent 2026 is that of what St Paul refers to as a time for the “circumcision of the heart.” While this has a specific contextual meaning in the conversion of the Greeks and the challenged posed by the Jews, Paul astutely describes their conversion and Baptism as a “circumcision of the heart. In a similar analogical or even metaphorical sense, one could describe the conversion the season of Lent brings as a circumcision of the heart. 

I chose to journey through Lent guided by this framework given my recent reading of Pope Francis’ last encyclical letter, “Dilexit Nos” - On the human and Divine Love of the human heart of Jesus. He invites us all “to rediscover the importance of the heart” (n.2) and “to return to the heart.” (n.9). The Holy Father devoted the first chapter explaining the significance of the heart and notes that “It could be said, then, that I am my heart, for my heart is what sets me apart, shapes my spiritual identity and puts me in communion with other people.” (n.14). During this Holy season of Lent then one must attend to the heart. 

The first Reading for Ash Wednesday drawn from the prophet Joel underscores this when he says: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart…rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.” Over these forty days of Lent then, we must seek to re-turn to the Lord with our whole heart by rending it. In Pauline lingo, we must circumcise our heart. It is about the heart. Lent is like our annual health check up. 

This point is further amplified by the verse before the Gospel where the Psalmist urges us that “If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart.” (Psalm 95:8). Listening to God in prayer helps us then to “soften” our hearts. This must become the defining mark of all we do during this season of Lent.

But it is not so much about us “doing” something as God working in and through us. Sr Miriam James Heidland of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) states this so beautifully when she states: “Lent is so much more than just giving up chocolate or Instagram or whatever else that is for you. It is actually an invitation to a complete and total transformation of the heart. For our hearts to be seen and encountered by the one who loves us and the one who has the power to change our hearts.“ Lent then should be a time we open our hearts to the Lord so that His Grace can transform us. We become transparent before the Lord who helps us to plumb the depths of our hearts, shows us where we need help and affords us the grace to grow and be transformed. Together with the Psalmist in today's Responsorial Psalm we pray: “A clean heart create for me O God and a steadfast spirit renew within me.” A clean heart and renewed spirit are God’s creation. Yet, we must open ourselves to this experience. 

Pope Leo XIV in his first Lenten message echoes this point by inviting “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.”

Our goal this Lent then is contained in this prayer: Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine. One devotion then to rediscover this Lent is the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.