The season of Lent is a privileged time of the year. It offers us the opportunity to stand back from our daily activities and cares, and to ask: `Where are they all leading?', `What is the purpose of them all?' Every year in the Christian Aid/CAFOD Lent Book, six writers invite us to dedicate some time each day to listening to the Lord speaking to us through the readings of the day, so that we might draw closer to God through prayer and contemplation, and through the renewal of our lives.