We are into the great season of Lent. We spend six weeks preparing to celebrate the high point of our faith: the Paschal Mystery -- the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Lent is a time for personal reflection on where we stand as Christians.  A little reflection will convince us that there are many ways we fail through word and action.  A reflection will convince us that we fail to be the kind of people that the Gospel challenges us to be.

It is never too late to get started.We must remember that thos who came to the vineyard at the eleventh hour were paid the same amount.  But the earlier we start; the better.

After His Baptism, Jesus goes to the desert for forty days.  And, during that time, He is tested by the Evil One.  Mark does not say how; Matthew and Luke do.

The tests are really examples of the kind of tests that Jesus was to face in the course of His public life.  The purpose of these temptations is to help us understand the conflicts that were in Jesus' own life and that will also be found in ours, too.

Fr. Zach