During the season of Lent we are presented with a multitude of opportunities to become Christ's disciples and advocates, mirroring His life in the way we live our lives. A factor of Lent is the great fast we are to take part in. While Jesus was on earth He went into the desert and fasted for forty days and forty nights. Lent is a time of forty days in which we take part in the practice of fasting.

Fasting is when we abstain or rid ourselves of something - whether that be addiction, sin, certain foods, social media, etc. - and replace it with time with our Lord Jesus so that we are separated from the pleasures, vices or habits that separate us from the Lord. In turn we become more like Him, realizing that we do not need whatever it is we gave up. It is a journey of the discovery of our only need…God. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit fulfills every need of the human, for we were made to be in constant communion with Him. For you and I our chosen fasts may differ, and that is what makes our Lenten journey so unique. I encourage you to be with Jesus this Lent and every Lent after this to join Jesus in the desert with confidence that He alone will fulfill every need and that you would receive His abundance of life He so gracefully offers us. Come to know Christ, come to know what you truly need, come to recieve your greatest love. The love that will never hurt you, fail you, leave you, or confuse you.

Scriptures to meditate on:

“For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

“Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me” (John 15:4).

Serene Arana, SFC '25