Pope Leo XIV opens Lent at Santa Sabina with call to conversion: February 18, 2026

“The voice of the Prophet Joel speaks to us, bringing each of us out of our isolation and showing us the urgent need for conversion, which is always both personal and public: ‘Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast’ (Joel 2:16),” the Pope said.

Pope Leo XIV opens Lent at Santa Sabina with call to conversion

ROME — The penitential journey of Lent for the Church in Rome began on Ash Wednesday with the traditional procession from the Benedictine abbey of Sant’Anselmo to the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, where Pope Leo XIV celebrated Holy Mass, blessed and imposed ashes, and delivered his homily for the opening of the holy season.

Faithful from Rome and beyond joined dozens of Dominican friars, sisters, and members of the laity for the ancient stational liturgy. For centuries, this basilica, entrusted to the Order of Preachers, has welcomed the Bishop of Rome at the threshold of Lent as the first station church of the season.

In his homily, Pope Leo XIV highlighted Lent as a privileged time to rediscover the grace of being Church: “a community gathered to listen to the word of God.” Drawing on the prophet Joel, the Holy Father emphasized that conversion is always both personal and communal.

“The voice of the Prophet Joel speaks to us, bringing each of us out of our isolation and showing us the urgent need for conversion, which is always both personal and public: ‘Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast’ (Joel 2:16),” the Pope said.

The Holy Father noted that Joel deliberately names those whose absence would be easy to justify — the elderly, children, spouses, and even priests — in order to underline that no one is excluded from the call to repentance. “Even today, Lent remains a powerful time for community: ‘Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation,’” he added.

Acknowledging the difficulty of forming genuine communion in a fragmented world, Pope Leo XIV observed that Lent shapes a people capable of recognizing their own sins. “These sins are evils that have not come from supposed enemies, but afflict our hearts, and exist within us,” he said, urging believers to courageously accept responsibility.

The Pope stressed that sin is always personal, yet often takes shape within real “economic, cultural, political and even religious ‘structures of sin.’” Confronting this reality, he said, is countercultural, but “constitutes an authentic, honest and attractive option,” especially at a time when many feel powerless in the face of global crises.

“The voice of the Prophet Joel speaks to us, bringing each of us out of our isolation and showing us the urgent need for conversion, which is always both personal and public: ‘Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast’ (Joel 2:16),” the Pope said.

Reflecting on the meaning of ashes, Pope Leo XIV recalled Saint Paul VI’s decision, sixty years after the Second Vatican Council, to celebrate the Rite of Ashes publicly so that its penitential character would be visible to all. Paul VI described the rite as a “severe and striking penitential ceremony” that offers “an accurate perception of our existence and our destiny.”

Today, Pope Leo XIV said, ashes speak with renewed force. They carry “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war,” as well as “the ashes of international law and justice among peoples, the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples, the ashes of critical thinking and ancient local wisdom, [and] the ashes of that sense of the sacred that dwells in every creature.”

Yet acknowledging these ashes is not a surrender to despair. Rather, the Holy Father said, it is a confession of hope.

“We recognize our sins so that we can be converted; this is itself a sign and testimony of Resurrection,” he said. “Indeed, it means that we will not remain among the ashes, but will rise up and rebuild.”

The Pope also pointed to the growing openness of many young people to the invitation of Ash Wednesday, even in secularized contexts, as a sign of spiritual hunger and a desire for accountability in both Church and society. Young people, he said, understand that it is possible to live a just life and that wrongdoings must be named and addressed.

Concluding his homily, the Holy Father connected the beginning of Lent at Santa Sabina with the ancient Roman tradition of the Lenten stationes, which unite movement as pilgrims with stopping in prayer at the tombs and memories of the martyrs.

These witnesses, ancient and contemporary, he said, shine as guides on the journey toward Easter, reminding the Church that countless seeds, once buried, now bear abundant fruit.

As the faithful received ashes beneath the ancient columns of Santa Sabina, Pope Leo XIV invited all to “redirect, with sobriety and joy, our entire lives and hearts towards God.”

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