The Desert

I continually read about Lent as being a "desert", and so it is. We go into the desert as did Jesus, to face our temptations, to recognize what rules us, and to overcome those passions that keep us from God.

Father Powell has a great post on this today, so here's just a snippet to encourage you to go and read the rest:

These forty days are a countdown for detachment, for unplugging. Lent is a time for us to detach from all the teats of our poisoned culture and to stop sucking at the breasts of market-tested nihilism and brand-name conformity; to stop the sewer-flood of Hollywood-funded debauchery and sadism into our homes; to speak the gospel Truth to the dark powers of “might makes right” moralities; to witness against the suicidal, all-you-can-eat buffet of liberal religious candy our children are fed daily...even in our Catholic schools. Lent is a time for you to remove your lips from the honeyed breasts of genetic science and its Faustian promise of near-immortality. You will live forever but not by murdering a child; you can be beautiful forever but not at the price of harvesting our children like melons.

I just LOVE good writing and strong images, especially those that show us in stark relief the realities of the world we have to face every single day.

What are you doing here? Go read the rest of what he has to say!