Lent 2026
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For our mission to continue, we need it to become yours.
As Bishop Erik Varden preaches this year’s Lenten retreat to Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Curia, he has turned repeatedly to the searching wisdom of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Across several meditations — on idealism, freedom, truth, and even ecclesial failure — one thread stands out: conversion is concrete. It reshapes how we think, choose, and live. Here are five insights ordinary Catholics can carry into their own Lent.
1. Idealism needs humility
St. Bernard “made a splash” when he entered Cîteaux with 30 companions at age 23. Brilliant, forceful, and driven, he helped shape the Cistercian reform — yet he also had to learn, through wounds and setbacks, that zeal is not the same as holiness.
Bishop Varden does not present Bernard as flawless. He shows him as a man whose strong convictions sometimes hardened into partisanship — and who had to confront his own self-righteousness.
The takeaway? Idealism is a gift, but it must be purified. In parish life, family debates, or online arguments, the question is not only “Am I right?” but “Am I docile to grace?” Lent invites us to let experience humble us without extinguishing our fire.
2. Freedom is not doing whatever we want
In a culture where “freedom” dominates political rhetoric, Bernard’s definition cuts against the grain. What feels natural to fallen humanity — getting our own way, satisfying desire, curating our image — is, he argues, a kind of captivity.
True freedom flows from Christ’s “Yes” to the Father. It is not seizing control, but loving with crucified generosity.
This has practical consequences. Christian freedom may mean absorbing misunderstanding rather than escalating conflict. It may mean accepting limits — illness, responsibility, aging — as places where love can deepen.
The Cross is the Church’s emblem of freedom.
3. Temptation can strengthen us
“No one lives on earth without temptation,” Bernard warns. Rather than panic at our struggles, we can see them as training.
Resisting falsehood strengthens our attachment to truth. Each small refusal — to exaggerate, to indulge envy, to nurse resentment — builds moral muscle.
Lent’s disciplines matter here. Fasting, confession, and examen are not pious extras; they sharpen our perception. They train us to distinguish between what shines and what truly saves.
4. Ambition corrodes the soul
Bernard’s language about ambition is striking: a “secret virus,” a “mother of hypocrisy.” Ambition is not simply wanting to do well. It is the quiet desire to be seen, applauded, indispensable.
Bishop Varden’s application is bracing, especially in Church contexts. Spiritual leadership is tested in ordinary habits — how one handles praise, how one behaves at table, what one consumes online.
For lay Catholics, the question is similar: Does my service seek God’s glory, or my own? Lent offers a chance to do hidden good — to give, pray, or serve without broadcasting it.
5. Holiness is the Church’s real credibility
Perhaps the most sobering meditation concerned corruption within the Church. The gravest wounds, Bishop Varden noted, have often come from within. No simplification — no easy division into monsters and victims — can replace sober responsibility and tears.
Yet he resists despair. The answer to scandal is not branding or strategy, but sanctity.
Echoing the great call of the Second Vatican Council, he points to holiness as the Church’s most persuasive witness. People may doubt arguments, but they still kneel before genuine goodness.
This Lent, then, the retreat’s message is clear: become free, become true, become whole. The reform the Church needs begins in the conversion of each heart.
