THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT - THE DESERT OF SELF SACRIFICE THAT LEADS TO THE DESSERT OF GOD'S KINGDOM..............

The Gospel Proclamation on this 1st Sunday of Lent, Matthew 4:1-11; speaks of how Jesus journeyed into the Desert for Fasting and Prayer, following His Baptism in the River Jordan and before beginning His Public Ministry.  Jesus made this desert journey at the Holy Spirit, where he contended with the Temptations of Satan,  just as we the Disciples of Jesus The Christ and members of the Church He founded, are sojourners in the desert of Repentance, working to avoiding the Temptation to sin,  as we strive to answer God's Call to Continuing Conversion.  Our  observance of Lent allows us to closely examine our Baptism and the commitment to Life in Christ it signifies.  Lent provides us with a yearly season to see and set our hearts and minds away from the resistance to our relationship with the Holy Trinity and the People of God by the selfishly wrong choices we have made.  Through our own self sacrifice and by praying more for others as well as ourselves that we do God's Will; fasting from food, drink, or activity, in order to redirect our ability to focus on God and the needs and suffering of others; and to generously respond to those less fortunate than ourselves by our self giving donations to feed, cloth, house, of some of those in real need of these basic staples of human life.  By faithfully journeying through the sacrificial, repentant, desert of Lent - opens to us the opportunity to share in the ultimate, possible, dessert - an everlasting sharing in the Life of God's Kingdom of Love.  As you join yourself with Jesus and other Catholic-Christians during Lent 2014, what sacrifices and acts of self giving are you willing to make, as you Repent for your sins and Change the interior disposition of your hearts ? Let this First Sunday and Week of Lent actualize the commitment to sacrifice and self giving you make..............Father Troy David