Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, then returned from the Jordan and was conducted by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, where He was tempted by the devil. During that time He ate nothing.” –Luke 4:1-2 Lent is a march with a destination of the renewal of our baptismal promises at all the Easter Sunday Masses in the world. Jesus’ forty days in the desert prefigure Lent. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert (Lk 4:1), where He fasted for forty days (Lk 4:2) and refused to doubt that He was the beloved Son of God the...

“Honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice.” –Isaiah 58:13 On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, we received ashen crosses on our foreheads. On the second day of Lent, Jesus told us to deny ourselves, if we wished to become His disciples (Lk 9:23). On the next day of Lent, the Lord warned us that we would ruin our fasting, if we carried out our own pursuits (Is 58:3). Today, on the fourth day of Lent, the Lord promises we will receive many blessings from fasting, if we do not follow...

“…not turning your back on your own.” –Isaiah 58:7 It is possible for our Lenten fasting to have the effect of focusing on ourself. For example, we focus on our hunger pains, our weight loss, our inconvenience, our lightheadedness. Fasting that centers on ourself is not the kind of fasting the Lord wishes (see Is 58:5). Are our days of fasting only leading us to complain to the Lord, “Why do we fast, and You do not see it? afflict ourselves, and You take no note of it?” (Is 58:3) To such fasting, the Lord responds: “Was it really for...

“Choose life…by loving the Lord, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him.” –Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 Moses offered a three-fold plan for God’s people: to love God, to obey what He commands by heeding His Word, and to stay with God by holding fast to Him (Dt 30:19-20). Jesus offered the same plan. He declared: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (see Jn 14:21; 15:9-10), and stay with Me (Jn 15:5, 7; Mt 26:38). The best way to love, obey, and stay with Jesus is to follow His plan in Luke 9:23: deny ourselves for the purpose...

“Give me back the joy of Your salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me.” –Psalm 51:14 Why Lent? Some answers are: to return to the Lord with our whole heart (Jl 2:12), to receive God’s grace, mercy, and blessing (Jl 2:13-14), to do penance in fasting, weeping, and mourning (Jl 2:12), to prepare for Easter, to walk with those who are preparing to be baptized at Easter, to prepare to renew our baptismal promises, in obedience to the Holy Spirit and the Church, to “be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20) and others, even our enemies, because “now is...