Why is Lent important?

Lent is the season of prayer and penance to prepare for Easter, and to dispose the faithful for a more fruitful reception of the graces that Christ merited by His passion and death. According to Pope Paul VI, who issued the revised laws on fast and abstinence "the days of penitence to be observed under obligation throughout the church are all Fridays and Ash Wednesday, that is to say the first days of Great Lent, according to the diversity of rites. Their substantial observance binds gravely" (Paenitemini,III, norm II).

Besides fast and abstinence on specified days, the whole Lenten season is to be penitential, with stress on prayer, reception of the sacraments, almsgiving, and the practice of charity.

extracted from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980