3 Essential Practices for the Lenten Season

What are the three essential practices that all Catholics are called to embrace during the Lenten Season? What does the desert have to do with these practices?

This Lenten season, let's commit wholeheartedly to the three disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. By doing so, we go into the desert of our hearts to encounter our Lord and hear his spirit prompting, challenging, and encouraging us.