Lent isn’t about winning. It’s about taking small steps that we hope lead to big ones. If we’re doing this right, Lent will not be easy. But we are trying.

Like the popes and bishops speaking up to protect God’s creation, our Catholic faith calls all of us to bring our values to public life, too. You can join churches and millions of Americans in conserving resources, advocating for change and supporting initiatives to give our children a cleaner, healthier world.

Birth mothers embody this radical, self-sacrificial love by wanting what is best for their children even if that means placing them with another family. Adoptive parents participate in it by loving another’s child as their own.

A more demanding common discipline would require far more exceptions, which could make it difficult for the majority of the Church to observe them together as one spiritual family.

He was a quiet man who sought no attention and knew he was serving a saint. May he rest in peace, reunited with his old master at the Throne of Grace.

Lent begins Feb. 18 this year. During this holy and penitential season, fasting is required of adult Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59. The required days of fasting are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Pope Leo XIV’s first Lenten message is a great gift for those looking for a roadmap to the season.

Everything we love, cherish and enjoy — the best and most meaningful experiences we remember all our lives — require people who are willing to spend their resources, share their talents and work their tails off to make them happen.

Charlie Camosy recently spoke on this topic with Gabriel LeBeau, a second-year neurosurgery resident at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who has had the bioethics of the brain on his mind for a while now with an interest in brain-machine interfaces, neurotechnology and cerebrovascular neurosurgery.

Lent is something we do together, as a community of believers, surrounded by the grace of God. We’re not alone; we accompany one another in our journey of repentance. As the Church’s “growing season,” Lent is rich in God’s graces.