With the celebration of Ash Wednesday when we received ashes on our foreheads, this was the first moment and sign of entering into the process of encountering God on the spiritual journey of Lent. This simple yet powerful gesture of humility reminds us of our unworthiness and sinfulness in the face of the majesty and mercy of God. It calls us to conversion, “Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel,” and brings awareness of the significant role of Lent. This Holy Season should help us awaken the gift of our relationship with God. The liturgy offers us various signs and symbols drawing abundantly from a long human tradition to which God has given a valuable meaning. It is worth seeing these symbols and signs as a way to approach God’s plan for us. Lent lasts 40 days. This is a symbolic number that indicates a special time of preparation before a substantial meeting with God. On account of our brokenness, we need to stand before God adequately prepared. For this we need a time of preparation. The prophets used to prepare themselves for a long time for this encounter with God, especially when the important mission was awaiting them. Each of us receives, in the season of Lent, his or her own 40 days- a time to prepare ourselves for this particular encounter with God to grow in our relationship with Him. This period of 40 days of preparation for the meeting with God has its own particular place: a desert. This is a place located far away from the tumult of the world and its pleasures, putting us in good condition to remain in solitude where God can be really found and heard in the sincerity of our heart. It is not necessary to be physically a desert. Rather, it is necessary to create some distance and space from the influence of the world in order to be able to listen to the Word of God. It is a task for each of us to create the condition of the desert place in our hearts, living far away from the daily distractions of this world. This is why the Catholic Church proposes that we abstain from noisy and frivolous entertainment during the Lenten Season. The particular climate of the desert is expressed in humility of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer - the three fundamental biblical actions of each person coming back to God. These actions reflect our love toward God, inner meditation, and seriousness about our relationship with God that helps us make God the center of our lives. They enable us to hear God in the deepness of our hearts through the solitude of the desert. The Lenten stance of ‘being the man in the desert’ evokes the color of blood (red) mixed with a heavenly goal (blue). This color, violet, is the color of mourning and sadness, hard labor and torment. It is typical of the desert atmosphere where everything is lacking and everything achieved is the result of pain, suffering and violence. It is also the color of the bloodshed of the Son of God who brought low the heights of heaven for us. The Lenten liturgy reminds us of the love of God toward us, the love who offered Himself for us on the cross. This story of love, so beautifully kept in the heart of the Mother of Jesus, survived in the form of biblical narratives we celebrate today in the form of the Stations of the Cross and Lenten hymns. I want to express words of profound gratitude to everyone who responded to support the Bishop’s Annual Stewardship Appeal last week. Your witness of sacrificial giving and prayerful offering to support our family of the Diocese of St Augustine is such a profound expression of the life of stewardship that we embrace and live by every moment of our lives. I also want to thank in a special way the Stewardship Committee who executed the success of the appeal in our parish. Thank you! Let us use this time of Lent to be better prepared for our encounter with God and I wish you a blessed first week of Lent! With prayers, Fr. Andy