WE HAVE BEEN TAKEN TO THE DESERT

WE HAVE BEEN TAKEN TO THE DESERT

We are once again in the season of Lent. Again, we begin the 40-day journey; and together with the Lenten practices of fasting- abstinence, prayer and almsgiving, all with a marked sense of penitence, we will take our steps through a desert that must be crossed to arrive well prepared at the time of Easter.

These practices of Lent seek to offer the Christian who practices them an intense spiritual exercise, since they are practices that rise to a level of greater sacrifice, commitment and consciousness; thanks to them, the Christian can exercise his spirit and mature his experience of faith, which directly connects with other virtues such as charity and hope.

During Lent we are all invited to evaluate ourselves personally in terms of our faith, customs, our human relationships, our habits and our relationship with God. Lent is the time in which believers, together as one Church, strive with greatest effort to correct itself and be at the end of these 40 days a Church more in line with the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Just as the gospel presents it to us today (Mc 1, 12-15), let us let the Spirit of God take us to the desert, to that place of solitude and silence in which we can discover ourselves as we are, and where the God's voice can be heard with attention. Although the desert is also the place where we are vulnerable, and we can give in to temptations that come our way, it is there where we must learn once again to abandon ourselves in the hands of God, let ourselves be guided by his Spirit to overcome our weaknesses and grow as human beings and as Christians.

Once again, let us not be afraid, the Lord is with us; let us begin our walk through the desert to which we have been taken by God. Amen.

Fr. Carlos Flores, OSA