COLLECT SERIES
The Collect for the first Sunday of Lent
Year A reads as follows:
Father. through our observance of
Lent,
help us to understand the meaning of
Your Son's death and resurrection
and teach us to reflect it in our
lives.
In making this prayer tangible, the
following reflection questions emerged:
1.
What is the self-sacrificing love of
Christ?
2.
How may I be able to reproduce it in
my life this coming week?
3.
How does my Lenten observance support
this goal of self-sacrifice?
4.
What does Christ's death and
resurrection mean to me?
5.
How can I reflect its meaning in my
life this coming week?
6.
How have I succeeded in my Lenten
commitment so far?
Have I kept to the commitment I
set myself or have I already strayed
away from what I started?
7.
What alterations do I need to make to
my Lenten commitment during
this week?
8.
What extra supports do I need to
ensure progress during the first full
week of Lent.
On the first Sunday of Lent each
year, we are given the Gospel of the temptations of Christ. Each of the
temptations invite Jesus to be the false Messiah by being the political
Messiah, a powerful ruler and to accept human privileges of power, wealth and
glory. Like Jesus, in his humanity, Satan still tempts us. The
temptations have many forms and guises but underneath each of them, their
purpose is twofold, that is to provide a short-term gain or attraction since
Satan's goal is to lead us away from God.
The response of Jesus to Satan also
needs to be our own. Jesus chooses complete dependence on God, a recognition
that God and his will must always come first, a willingness to obey God at any
cost. In effect Jesus states that nothing- not pleasure, not power, not
wealth must ever come between us and saving will of God. Jesus does not fool
around with temptation but stamps on it decisively. We too need to stamp
decisively on the temptations that come our way so that we remain faithful to
God.
During this first full week of Lent,
let us ask God to be merciful to us and pray that when temptation comes our
way, we will call on God to assist us to be strong. Let us stand up to Satan
and all his works this week. Let us remember our goal- Heaven.
