"Lead Us Not Into Temptation..."

This line is familiar to all of us because we say those words when we pray "The Lord's Prayer- Our Father..." We pray that our Heavenly Father will keep us away from all temptation and all evil. I think of this phrase as we prepare to enter this first full week of Lent. Our readings for this weekend speak of temptation and how we need to avoid it at all cost. The devil is always at work, trying to derail us in our relationship with God and one another. We need to remain strong and firm in our faith, values, and convictions. The first reading that we will listen to this weekend is where it all began, Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7. God gave man a very clear instruction of where he could eat in the garden and not eat. As the author writes, "Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made." It was the serpent who tricked the woman in getting her to believe that if they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would become like gods. It was that temptation that led to the fall of our first parents and the existence of original sin that we are all conceived with and cleansed of at baptism. In the Gospel, Matthew 4:1-11, we have the basis for our Lenten Season, Jesus being led into the desert where he was tempted by the devil and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus, the new Adam, did not give in to the devil's temptings. Our Lord had a comeback for each of the things that the devil did. That is the resolve that we all pray for, that God will keep us from giving into temptation and keep us away from all sin. As we pray the "Our Father," may these words flow in our mind and heart and pray that the grace of God will keep us free from all temptation and sin. Have a blessed weekend!!!