After Jesus' baptism, He was 'led by the Spirit into the desert' where He was tempted by the devil. He passed through undistracted. Our own Lent takes its shape by the way we can, each in our own way, follow Jesus in allowing the Spirit to lead us into 'desert moments' where we can experience something of the silence, sacrifice and solitude which Jesus experienced during His forty days in a genuine wilderness.

While many of us crave to 'get away' and leave our usual routine, yet faced with the reality of being alone in silence, we find ourselves intimidated and perhaps even afraid of the solitude we thought we desired. To become accustomed to the silence, we sacrifice our busy needs for attention and begin to devote twenty or more minutes to quiet prayer each day. Then, entering into silence becomes less difficult and rewarding.

Our fasting, traditionally, meant reducing our intake or abstinence of food and drink. We, actually, fast to achieve greater detachment and freedom from things that threaten to distract us from the fuller life that Jesus desires for us. We should consider, this Lent, to fast from our reliance on technological distractions that keep us idle. The goal of fasting is to imbibe the exemplified life of Jesus our Lord. Let nothing distract us from the goal of our Lenten journey - a greater freedom and deeper relationship and identification with the Lord.