I’ve noticed, further, that Lent (spurred on, I believe, by fasting) dredges up - and makes more apparent - our sinfulness. If you’re there, then I’m in good company: My own venturing out into the desert with Jesus has yet again helped me to see that I am self-referential, self-indulgent, and selfish.

There, at the turning point of Jesus’ mission, we hear these powerful words: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Whatever you do, do it for God. Don’t do it because you’re tough and can handle more; don’t do it to be bolder than someone else; don’t do it so you can tell others about it; and don’t do it because it benefits you in some other way. Do it, whatever it is, because you love and trust God. The reward will be beyond your imagining.

The goal of a good Lent is to center our hearts on God (who is love) and to become like him by giving ourselves generously away.

Precisely because he is God-as-man, Jesus reveals to us what God intended by his Law, and what it means to live it out.

I’m often asked by parishioners to recommend books for spiritual reading. It’s sometimes tricky to nail down what someone means by spiritual reading, so I offer a number of suggestions in what I consider different categories of that genre.

I'm desperate to figure out how God wants to love the world through us in every practical detail.

Our days can pass by in a blur, but our lives need not be unexamined. This is the genius of the nightly examen prayer, which is an important practice for a serious plan of life.

You will know that you have truly prayed when you grow in peace, and when you find eagerness to get back to your day.

What I remember most fondly about Pope Benedict is how his theological work bore the mark of humility, which was reflected so well in his life of service.

Get that: Jesus wants to transform our world by transforming the lives of those who follow him from the inside out. And he does it chiefly by loving us into his new world.

And this love comes to meet me today, 2,000 years on from its Incarnation. Just like he got his hands dirty that first Christmas, so he comes to me today, unafraid of the messiness of my heart and undeterred by the chaos of my life.

The central claim of Christianity is that God became human. The world was half ready (at best) for him, and God the Son still “became flesh and lived among us.”

If God alone is our satisfaction, then we won’t hold too tightly to anything else: we will give what we have (time, talent, treasure) away.

When we open our hearts and share our lives with God in prayer, he shares his life with us. His life at work in us brings about growth in love and joy and peace!

This Sunday, the Church enters the Season of Advent. If we use these few short weeks wisely, we will find the time and space we need to prepare for Christ’s coming at Christmas.

That's the primary way Christ's kingship works: in and through his faithful followers. When we abandon ourselves to God - giving our total, undying, allegiance to Christ the King - we are made to bring God's love to life for everyone we encounter.

I know it’s hard to know your neighbors these days, but what a difference it would make to know these kinds of things, and to extend ourselves in love to meet people’s genuine needs.

If we can entrust ourselves to Jesus and rise to meet the demands of love today, then we can figure the rest of it out as we go - we can figure out how to overcome tomorrow’s obstacles tomorrow.

It’s especially important, given that we celebrate All Saints the day prior, to keep in mind the souls in purgatory - the people who are not yet saints who have gone before us in faith, and who we support by our prayers as they undergo their final purification.