"Lent is a time for remembering. It is the time to reflect and ask ourselves what we would be if God had closed his doors to us. What would we be without his mercy that never tires of forgiving us and always gives us the chance to begin anew? Lent is the time to ask ourselves where we would be without the help of so many people who in a thousand quiet ways have stretched out their hands and in very concrete ways given us hope and enabled us to make a new beginning?" (Pope Francis) God gives us new beginnings each time we turn back to him. Our past sinful deeds are forgiven and forgotten by God. He desires to do something new in us, to restore us to our true identity as his sons and daughters. This will take place to the extent we cooperate with his grace, to the extent we put our past behind us, to the extent we live as his sons and daughters. Lent is a time of renewed joy in the midst of doing penance.