Many bishops in Spain write pastoral letters to their flocks to explain the meaning of Lent. According to Archbishop Julián Barrio Barrio of Santiago de Compostela, this period of preparation for Easter “must have a real, and not just an exterior, influence on our life”: it must be “a privileged time for the search for meaning” through changes “in lifestyle and in the rhythm of our daily life”. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are, according to the archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, the attitudes we need to adopt to live to the best this change in lifestyle. According to Bishop Antonio Dorado Soto of Malaga, in the current liturgical period of Lent “the actual practice of fasting and abstinence is not so essential as the search for God”. In the period of Lent, explains Bishop Jesús Garcia Burillo of Avila, the Church “offers to each Christian the chance for an interior pilgrimage”, “within our conscience, where we perceive good and evil, selfishness and generosity. There, in our innermost being, we encounter the wellsprings of mercy”. Lent this year, concludes the bishop of Avila, “invites us to embark on an interior pilgrimage and a pilgrimage towards our neighbour”.
