In this week’s Gospel Jesus is tempted by Satan. Very easily Jesus shows Satan that his efforts are futile. Is it that easy with us? I am sure not, because Satan can be so crafty and subtle that sometimes it takes us a while to see how we have yielded to the temptation and to his plan to lead us to do the wrong thing.

For this Lenten season I want to ask myself: What Lenten disciplines will lead me towards conversion this year? At one time I was a chronic Play Whe fan and one year I decided to stop for Lent. Thank God after that season I had no desire to continue. I am sure that this has been the experience of many. You hear people say, “I was an alcoholic or a chain smoker or a great speaker of ‘foreign language’ and one Lenten season I decided to stop and was able never to restart and here I am free from that addiction.”

There are so many other aspects of our lives where we need conversion, and the season of Lent is almost always the perfect time for any conversion.

Oftentimes that particular year God would send that priest or feature speaker         who may be doing the Lenten retreat that you decided to attend, to speak just the right message for your conversion and that of many others in the congregation.

Sometimes our failings become so much a part of us that we begin to feel that it’s okay to do what we do. This year let us ask the Holy Spirit, first to help us to make that decision to want something extra special for ourselves this year during this time of reparation and reconciliation. Next we ask that we be placed in a forum where the presenter would bring us to the desire of conversion.

Let us pay more attention to the Gospels at this time and ask the Lord to help us not to regard the readings as just mere words, but to help them to minister to us, reaching deep within us, that apart from conversion, we may hunger and yearn to learn and know more about our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ and the life God wants us to live.

We want to be as strong as Jesus was in today’s Gospel; we want to resist Satan with all the power and energy which would have been supplied from His heavenly Father; we want to pray and approach Jesus with confident faith this Lenten season knowing and having that trust that Jesus will never fail us.

Always remember that we must not be afraid or ashamed to ask our Blessed Mother to help us on this journey of conversion. She is always willing to help us along the path to salvation. Also remember that very powerful prayer that Jesus himself taught us – The Our Father. Really contemplate on the words of this prayer and let them really minister to us, especially the words “lead us not into temptation”.

I close, hoping that this will be one of the most fulfilling Lenten seasons of our lives.

May God richly bless you. —Rosana Gonzales, CERO, Suburban Vicariate