St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church
  • Home
  • Church
    • Mass Times
    • Cluster Calendar of Events
    • Ministry schedule
    • Father's Weekly Message
    • Weekly Bulletin
    • Giving
    • Parish and Finance Councils
    • Knights of Columbus
    • Honorable W. Patrick Donlin Assembly #1205 (4th Degree)
    • Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
  • Religious Education
    • Weekly Religious Ed Message
    • SA Rel Ed Facebook Page
  • Daycare
  • Contact
  • IC Butternut
  • SF Fifield
  • Diocese of Superior
  • Marywood Spirituality Center
Picture
Fr. Shaji Joseph Pazhukkathara

Lent - A Season of Grace......

3/3/2022

0 Comments

 
​Lent - a season of grace…
 
The first Sunday of Lent starts with forty days of Jesus' fasting and his battle with the tempter, the devil.  The number forty is an important number in the Bible. It rained for forty days and nights while Noah and company were in the ark (Genesis 7:1-23). 
In the Book of Exodus 34:28, we read, “Moses was there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the    tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.” IKing chapter 19, we read that Elijah traveled forty days in the wilderness.
 
In the Gospel, we read today, the temptation of Jesus. If we look at the life of Jesus, it is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. In the Book of Exodus, Moses led Israelites through the Red Sea and wandered in the desert, and was tempted for forty years before they reached the Promised Land. The new Moses: Jesus, after the Baptism and led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. The Israelites fall in the temptations, but Jesus brings victory over the temptation.
In the desert, the devil tries to tempt Jesus by quoting the Bible passage. On the other hand, Jesus faces the temptations by quoting Bible passages. Each time Jesus says, it is written…if we look at those Words we can see them in Deuteronomy chapters 6 and 8. These two chapters of Deuteronomy give us the Word of God while Israelites were in the desert.
In the desert, Jesus was hungry, and the first temptation: the devil tempts Jesus to use his power for himself. Jesus defeated the tempter by quoting from the book of            Deuteronomy 8:3, “...so you might know that it is not by bread alone that people live…” God was telling Israelites in this passage about his love and care for them.
Then the devil tells, if Jesus worships the devil, he can have all glory and power. Again Jesus quest from Deuteronomy 6:13 and tells that one should serve God alone. 
Then the tempter asked Jesus to throw him down and let Father send angels to rescue him. Are we tempted to pray to God something like this? Jesus’ answer to this          temptation is Deuteronomy 16:16, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
 
Pope Francis in his message for the Lent reminds us that “Do not grow tired of doing good.” ‘Lent invites us to conversion,’ Pope Francis wrote, ‘to a change in mindset, so that life’s truth and beauty may be found not so much in possessing as in giving, not so much in accumulating as in sharing and sowing goodness.’ During Lent let us ask God for the grace to turn away from the tempter.
 
The essence of evil is a turning away from God. Our mind has the tendency to run away from God. Lent is time to give up our head and give in to our heart. We need to set aside our mind for some time to be with God and sowing the goodness.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Church
    • Mass Times
    • Cluster Calendar of Events
    • Ministry schedule
    • Father's Weekly Message
    • Weekly Bulletin
    • Giving
    • Parish and Finance Councils
    • Knights of Columbus
    • Honorable W. Patrick Donlin Assembly #1205 (4th Degree)
    • Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
  • Religious Education
    • Weekly Religious Ed Message
    • SA Rel Ed Facebook Page
  • Daycare
  • Contact
  • IC Butternut
  • SF Fifield
  • Diocese of Superior
  • Marywood Spirituality Center