''Dear children, In this time of grace, anew, I am calling you to offer your lives to God that He may lead you towards the resurrection through your personal conversion. Little children, God is near to you and heeds your prayers, but you are lulled to sleep, and that is why He sent me to you to awaken you, and that you may shine holiness like a spring flower. Thank you for having responded to my call.'' (With ecclesiastical approval)

Dear children, In this time of grace, anew, I am calling you to offer your lives to God that He may lead you towards the resurrection through your personal conversion.

On February 18, Ash Wednesday, we began the season of Lent by receiving ashes on our heads. To begin this sacred season—during which we meditate more deeply than ever on Jesus’ Passion and Death on the Cross for us, and prepare for His Resurrection—by receiving ashes is profoundly meaningful. Ashes symbolize both the frailty of our human existence, which comes from dust and returns to dust, and the call to repentance.

We are always called to repent, but during Lent we are invited to a deeper conversion. By receiving ashes from the hands of the priest on Ash Wednesday, we outwardly expressed our inner resolve to repent more sincerely than ever before.

The motto of Kkottongnae in Eumseong, Chungbuk, South Korea says, “Even having the strength to beg for food is a grace.” I would add this: “Even having the heart to repent is a grace.”

For repentance is directly connected to our salvation. Indeed, without repentance there can be no salvation. It depends entirely on us. Unless our hearts decide to turn back to God and to His commandments, repentance will not take place. And without repentance, we cannot share in salvation.

It is certainly important for us to eat and live in order to sustain our bodies. But repentance is even more important. Repentance determines whether our souls will experience true happiness and peace in this life, and whether in the next life we will dwell in hell, purgatory, or heaven.

In this month’s message, Our Lady calls us to offer our lives to God so that, through each of our personal conversions, He may lead us to the Resurrection. God desires to lead us to the Resurrection—that is, to new and eternal life. This is the constant will of God our Father.

And that will was decisively fulfilled through the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus offered Himself completely to God the Father on the Cross, the way to the Resurrection was opened.

God the Father desires that we participate in the Resurrection accomplished by Jesus. Therefore, through Our Lady, He teaches us first to repent. Repentance is something no one else can do on our behalf. It is entirely personal, something each of us must do for ourselves.

How, then, should our repentance be lived? It begins with acknowledging that we are sinners. The next step is to seek the confessional. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we confess our sins to the priest and, through the prayer of absolution, receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. Then we must avoid sin, amend our lives, and begin anew in obedience to God’s commandments.

Furthermore, following the example of Jesus, we are called to embrace the will of God the Father, to sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of others, and to carry the cross of love. This is not a one-time act. Repentance is a journey that must continue every day until the moment of our death.

Some say that because God is merciful, we do not need to feel a sense of sin. But this is a serious error. To experience a sense of sin means that our conscience is alive and that we acknowledge we are sinners.

If we were not sinners, how could we experience God’s mercy? Like the younger son in the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, and like the tax collector in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18, only those who recognize their sins, admit them, and confess them can truly experience the mercy of God.

Little children, God is near to you and heeds your prayers, but you are lulled to sleep, and that is why He sent me to you to awaken you, and that you may shine holiness like a spring flower. Thank you for having responded to my call.

When we love someone or feel close to them, we desire to be with that person and, if possible, to remain near them. We listen attentively to what they say and try to understand and empathize with them. The same is true in our relationship with God.

Because God loves us, He remains close to us and listens to our prayers—the words we address to Him. God is always perfectly ready.

But what about us? The Blessed Mother describes our present state in a striking way: “You are lulled to sleep.” When someone is in a deep sleep, he is unaware of who is beside him, what state that person is in, or what that person may be doing for him.

Our Lady tells us that we are in a deep spiritual sleep, unable even to recognize that God is near us and attentively listening to our prayers. One can almost sense the sorrow in her heart as she looks upon us in this condition.

Yet God does not simply stand by and watch. Because He loves us, He does not leave us as we are. If we were left alone, we would never awaken from that deep sleep on our own. Therefore, God sends the Blessed Mother to awaken us.

He calls us out of our deep sleep so that we may become newly awake within a time of prayer and conversion. He desires that we become holy and reflect that light to others, so that they too may awaken from their spiritual slumber and walk together on the path of holiness.

For this reason, the Lord says: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. … I have made you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth”(Isaiah 60:1; 49:6).