Lenten Reflection
Dear Friends,
Fr. Brian Martin Mulcahy, O.P.
Now that we have entered the Lenten season, I would like to share with you a
meditation from Fr. Brian Martin Mulcahy, O.P.
At the start of every Lenten Season, on the First Sunday of Lent, the
Church, in her wisdom, always gives us the account of our Lord's Temptation
in the Desert for our consideration and reflection. The temptations that
Christ suffered in the desert for forty days at the start of His public
ministry were not His first temptations, nor would they be the last
temptation of Christ. In St. Luke's account of the Temptation, which we are
given this year, we read: *When the devil had finished every temptation, he
departed from Him for a time*. That next "time" would be in Christ's Passion
and Death, when our Lord would be tempted to flee the suffering and the
pain.
Oftentimes, when *we* speak of being tempted, of our own experience of
temptation, we speak of the struggle with our desire for something
pleasurable: be it another human being, a piece of chocolate cake, or a
large sum of money. The struggle arises when we realize that other factors
must be taken into consideration; that our lives consist of more than just
the accumulation of pleasurable experiences.
However, that is a very limited, restricted notion of what it means to
undergo temptation. That is *not *the type of temptation our Lord
experienced during His forty days in the desert. Such a limited notion of
temptation depicts the world and our lives as a place filled with beautiful,
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From: *Very Reverend D. Dominic Izzo, O.P.*
Sunday February 21, 2010
From: *Very Reverend D. Dominic Izzo, O.P.*
Sunday February 21, 2010
Dear Friends,
Fr. Brian Martin Mulcahy, O.P.
Now that we have entered the Lenten season, I would like to share with you a
meditation from Fr. Brian Martin Mulcahy, O.P.
At the start of every Lenten Season, on the First Sunday of Lent, the
Church, in her wisdom, always gives us the account of our Lord's Temptation
in the Desert for our consideration and reflection. The temptations that
Christ suffered in the desert for forty days at the start of His public
ministry were not His first temptations, nor would they be the last
temptation of Christ. In St. Luke's account of the Temptation, which we are
given this year, we read: *When the devil had finished every temptation, he
departed from Him for a time*. That next "time" would be in Christ's Passion
and Death, when our Lord would be tempted to flee the suffering and the
pain.
Oftentimes, when *we* speak of being tempted, of our own experience of
temptation, we speak of the struggle with our desire for something
pleasurable: be it another human being, a piece of chocolate cake, or a
large sum of money. The struggle arises when we realize that other factors
must be taken into consideration; that our lives consist of more than just
the accumulation of pleasurable experiences.
However, that is a very limited, restricted notion of what it means to
undergo temptation. That is *not *the type of temptation our Lord
experienced during His forty days in the desert. Such a limited notion of
temptation depicts the world and our lives as a place filled with beautiful,
