Pope Francis

Lent 2017: “The Word is a gift. Other persons are a gift”.

Lent 2016: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Mt 9:13). The works of mercy on the road of the Jubilee

Lent 2015: Make your hearts firm (James 5,8)

Lent 2014: He became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich (cf. 2 Cor 8:9)

Benedict XVI

Lent 2013: “Believing in charity calls forth charity”

Lent 2012: “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works”

Lent 2011: “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him.”

Lent 2010:  “The justice of God has been manifested  through faith in Jesus Christ”

Lent 2009: “He fasted for forty days and forty nights,  and afterwards he was hungry”

Lent 2008: “Christ made himself poor for you”

Lent 2007: “They shall look on Him  whom they have pierced”

Lent 2006: “Jesus, at the sight of the crowds, was moved with pity”

Saint John Paul II

Lent 2005: “Loving the Lord…means life to you, and length of days…” 

Lent 2004: “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.”

Lent 2003: “It is more blessed to give than to receive”

Lent 2002: “You received without paying, give without pay”. 

Lent 2001: “Love is not resentful”

Lent 2000: “I am with you always, to the close of the age”

Lent 1999: “The Lord will prepare a banquet for all peoples”

Lent 1998: “Come, 0 blessed of my Father, for I was poor, marginalized and you welcomed me!”

Lent 1997: “Come, O blessed of my Father, for I was homeless and you took me in”

Lent 1996: Give them something to eat”

Lent 1995: “The Spirit of the Lord… has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.”

Lent 1994: “The family is at the service of charity, charity is at the service of the family”

Lent 1993: “Give me a drink”

Lent 1992: “Called to share the table of creation”

Lent 1991:  Total identification of our Lord Jesus Christ with the poor.

Lent 1990: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me… I was a stranger and you did not welcome me”

Lent 1989: “Give us this day our daily bread”

Lent 1988: “Is not this the fast that I choose… to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house?”

Lent 1987: “He has filled the hungry with good things, and has sent the rich away empty” 

Lent 1986: “Through love be servants of one another”

Lent 1985: “Let all that you do be done in love… The grace of the Lord Jesus will be with you”

Lent 1984: “When the Son of man comes in his glory…, he will say… ‘Come O blessed of my Father… for I was hungry and you gave me food…’”!

Lent 1983: “And all who believed where together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need”

Lent 1982: “Who is my neighbour?”

Lent 1981: “Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return”

Lent 1980:  “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”.

Lent 1979:  “What has happened to Lent?”

Paul VI

Lent 1978: “Those who believed shared all things in common”

Lent 1977: “it is more blessed to give than to receive”

Lent 1976: “the special period for spiritual reflection”

Lent 1975: “The poor you always have with you”

Lent 1974: “Renewal” and “reconciliation”

Lent 1973: “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: … sharing your bread with the hungry”