Day 9 - Feb. 29

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today's suggested reading [HERE](http://totalconsecration.ageofmary.com/preparation-09.html) is again from the Imitation of Christ on this 9th day of our journey. Continuing to speak about temptations, the author reminds us of our special need for humility:

...Let us then humble our souls under the hand of God in every temptation and tribulation, for the humble in spirit, He will save and exalt. In temptation and tribulations, it is proved what progress man has made; and there also is great merit, and virtue is made more manifest.

Pope Benedict also quoted from the Imitation of Christ last Sunday:

On this Sunday of Lent we meet Jesus who, after having received baptism in the Jordan River from John the Baptist (cf. Mark 1:9), undergoes temptation in the desert (cf. Mark 1:12-13). St. Mark’s narration is concise, lacking the details that we read in the other two gospels of Matthew and Luke. The desert of which he speaks has different meanings. It can indicate a condition of abandonment and solitude, the “place” of man’s weakness where there are no footholds or certainties, where temptation is the strongest. But it can also mean a place of refuge and rest, as it was for the people of Israel, who had escaped from Egyptian slavery, where one can experience God’s presence in a special way. Jesus “remained in the desert for 40 days, tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:13). St. Leo the Great comments that “the Lord wished to face the tempter’s attack to defend us with his help and to instruct us with his example” …

What can this episode teach us? As we read in the book "The Imitation of Christ," "as long as he lives man is never entirely free from temptation ... but it is with patience and with true humility that we become stronger than every enemy" ... the patience and humility of following the Lord every day, learning to build our life not apart from him or as if he did not exist, but in him and with him, because he is the font of true life. The temptation to remove God, to create order in ourselves and the world by ourselves, counting on our own resources, is always present in human history.

Jesus proclaims that "the time is accomplished and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15), announces that in him something new is happening: God addressed man in an unexpected way, with a unique and concrete nearness, full of love; God becomes incarnate and enters into the world of man to take sin upon himself, to conquer evil and bring man and the world back to God. But this announcement is accompanied by the request to correspond to a great gift. Jesus, in fact, adds: "convert and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:15); it is the invitation to have faith in God and every day to convert our life to his will, orienting every action and thought of ours to the good. The time of Lent is the propitious moment to renew and strengthen our relationship with God, through daily prayer, gestures of penance, works of fraternal charity. (Underlining is mine)

Let us pray the Veni Creator Spiritus and the Ave Maris Stella for our own on-going conversion and for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world.