1st Sunday of Lent

           Our liturgical season of Lent comes almost exclusively from our Gospel passage today.  Jesus, led by the Spirit, goes into the desert for forty days of prayer and fasting.  So, too, do we spend forty days to be with Jesus in our own prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  Again, Jesus didn’t go into the desert willy-nilly, looking for a vacation and a tan.  During this period he underwent a period of preparation for two important tasks: his mission and his confrontation with the devil.

            Lent is the time for us to be purified and focus on what is truly important in our lives.  It is a time to rededicate ourselves to coming to Mass each Sunday and Confession regularly.  As I’ve told you before, my dream is that all of our parishioners at St. John’s and St. Joe’s would come to Mass and Confession often.  In fact, if you told me, “Fr. Ben, you can make a choice—you can have one million dollars, or the assurance that the people you serve will be faithful in experiencing the graces of Mass and Confession.”  Now I have a deer rifle to buy, a truck to payoff and loans to chip away at.  But I wouldn’t hesitate choosing door number two.  Seeing your sparkling clean souls is worth infinitely more than any amount of money.

            As we start this Lenten season, I would like to challenge you to do three things.  First, I encourage you to pray for ten minutes every day.  You deserve ten minutes to step out of the noise and busyness of our culture to be with the Lord.  And so does He.  Ten minutes—that’s one third of one evening sitcom.  Actually, that’s the amount of time the commercials take in that sitcom.  Spend ten minutes in quiet prayer, reading the Scriptures, journaling or simply resting in peace with the Lord every day.

            Second, please pray for Pope Benedict.  He made the most difficult decision of his life by stepping down from the papacy.  This choice is nearly unprecedented and has met with mixed reactions from Catholics and the world.  Yet I believe Benedict’s choice to step away during Lent is intentional.  Pope Benedict is now going into a life of solitude and prayer—he is going into the desert to spend the rest of his life praying for us.  We need to pray for him too.

            Finally, I would ask that you read a book.  The parish has provided each of you with the book Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly.  Both Fr. Rich and I are reading this book and it is great.  It is well-written, easy to read, filled with concrete and moving examples and stories and has the potential to reignite your faith.  Sadly, only 2% of Catholics read a spiritual book last year.  Let’s not be in that number.

            I provide some of these thoughts with the overall point of Lent in mind.  Like Jesus, this period is meant to help us be prepared for the mission God has called us to.  This mission is as unique as each of us and we need to have periods of prayer in our lives to more fully grasp it.  Additionally, in a world so full of darkness and evil, we are to be prepared to stand up against sin, evil and the devil himself.  We can’t do this without being united to God.

            Don’t let this Lent be wasted.  Use these forty days to rediscover your Catholic faith and spend time with Jesus in the desert.