It is the time to see what weeds have grown up and need to be pruned from our lives.

Christ asks us to see Him in the suffering in various forms of weakness and vulnerability our own and others.

On this first Sunday of Lent, we ask Jesus, truly God and truly man, which of our beliefs and behaviors must change so that we can personally experience, and witness to others, today, the time of fulfillment he announced.

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

Jesus the Bridegroom came that we may have life and have it to the full.

These words of Jesus remind us, just one day after being marked on Ash Wednesday, of the paradox that the forty-day desert trek of Lent is cause for unparalleled hope.

We really want to return to God (Joel 2:12), to be more faithful to the Gospel.

Let us rejoice and be glad in the Praise of God this Holy Easter. Through the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been made new in the waters of Baptism and become co-heirs to life-eternal.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we have faith that creation itself is ordered by mercy; its galaxies, our planet, and the wonder of every living creature, great and small, fall under the sway of the Creator’s providential care. And while this gives us hope, we also know that even though we humans are the “crown of creation,” we are susceptible to sin, in its many forms.

The past, the present, and the future are wrapped up in this feast of the first Eucharist and in all celebrations of the Eucharist since then.  Moses, Paul, and the Lord are inviting us to be present.  We RSVP with our lives.

Determined to do the Father’s will, his “face was set, like flint, knowing that he would not be put to shame.”  His trust was in God.

I sometimes wonder if one reason we take on penances during Lent is not to say at the end of the season, “I did it, good for me,” but so that we fail at them and have to admit that we are not as good at keeping our promises as we think.

When the fragrance of a pure heart permeates an environment, a person can either be inspired to do likewise, or be threatened by one’s selfish ambitions.