Journeying to the Wilderness
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February 21, 2026Today is the First Sunday of Lent, which is an invitation to step into the wilderness, following the journey of Jesus, who was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days—days in which we are challenged to go about the transformation, reparation, and renewal of life.The Gospel recounts how Jesus spent forty days of solitude, challenge, and testing in the wilderness. The desert experience of Jesus is a way for us to face and embrace the same experience in which we are confronted with temptation, hunger, and loneliness. It is an experience that exposes our limitations and weaknesses but also leads us to a realization about God meeting us in the wilderness. This season of Lent challenges us to step away from what is familiar and let God speak to us deeply in our hearts.Lent is a time to reflect more deeply, to repent more truthfully, and to reconnect with God more faithfully. We would always say this is a season of spiritual renewal where we examine ourselves and, in humility, acknowledge our sinfulness, seek God’s forgiveness, and have the willingness to once again be transformed according to God’s ways. The practices that we do, like prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, are not mere rituals, for these are means by which we allow God to reshape and reform us. Fasting leads us to recall our dependence on God; prayer attunes our hearts to God, and almsgiving reflects Christ’s love to the needy.Each time we come face-to-face with temptations, the tendency is to choose the easiest path rather than the right one, and we would rather think “anyway, everybody does it” than think “what would Jesus do?” Jesus’ response to temptation is always rooted in Scripture. Lent reminds us of this: to always search for courage and strength from God rather than depend on our own.May we approach this season with an open heart, though burdened, tired, discouraged, and uncertain of what lies ahead. The wilderness experience is not a place of unending despair but of living hope. We just allow God to reshape us; it is where renewal begins. Commitment to this journey into the unknown is not just out of obligation, but out of a deepest desire to draw closer to God, to be transformed by Christ’s love, and to serve one another with renewed faith and love.My dear St. Paul the Apostle community, may the Spirit of God lead each of us through this season of Lent. May our journey into the wilderness bear much fruit—deepened faith, renewed love, and awakened hope. We journey together as one community, knowing that the joy of Easter awaits us at the end.