"In Christ’s Cross, in the love that gives itself, that gives up on the possession of itself, one can find that deep peacefulness that is the source of one’s generous devotion to one’s brothers, especially the poor and the needy, and this also gives joy to ourselves". In the catechesis for today’s general audience, Ash Wednesday, the Pope lingered on the Lenten walk as a "walk of conversion", which becomes "the right time" to "renew our filial surrender into the hands of God and to basically allow what Jesus keeps repeating us: ‘If someone wants to follow me, let him recant himself, take his cross and follow me’". "And so he goes on the way to love and true happiness", he added, off the cuff. Then, with reference to the Lenten rite of the imposition of the Ashes, Benedict XVI recalled that its two wordings "make reference to the truth of human life: we are limited creatures, sinners who always need repentance and conversion". This is because, explained the Holy Father, "being Christians is always accomplished by becoming Christians anew, again and again: it is never an ending story which we can put behind our back, but a walk that always demands ever-new exercise".
