The 40 days and nights of the Lenten season invite us into a desert experience with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit led him into the desert to pray, meditate, reflect, struggle, fight and emerge victorious. It was a growing moment of renewal through conversion, penance and self-denial. It is also a season of prayer, fasting and almsgivings.
Lent is a desert experience of a long retreat of silence, reflection, meditation, and prayer. We all need this desert experience. Every Lenten season is a journey of grace into the desert. There are fewer distractions. It is quieter and clearer in the desert.
Indeed, Lent is the longest spiritual retreat every Christian can or should embark on to prepare and enter joyfully into the Easter joy of the Resurrected Lord. Lenten season is a moment of grace and mercy. We are inviting three actions of forgiveness, conversion and reconciliation with God, others and ourselves, with the attitudes of praying, fasting and almsgiving.