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First Sunday of Lent
• Year A • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II
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✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19
Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
📖 The Gospel - Matthew 4:1-11
The Spirit leads
Jesus into the desert, not away from God, but deeper into Him. For forty days
He fasts, He prays, He is tempted. And every single time the enemy comes with a
beautiful, reasonable sounding lie, Jesus answers with the Word of God. He
doesn't argue. He doesn't negotiate. He just speaks the truth, and the devil
leaves.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
Here is something very
powerful that I read in today’s gospel, it says the Spirit led Jesus into the
desert. Not the devil. Not bad luck. Not circumstance. The Holy Spirit brought
Him there. Which means the desert, the hard season, the dry stretch, the time
of testing, is not a detour from God's plan. It is the plan. The desert is
where you find out what you're really made of, and more importantly, what God
is really made of.
Genesis shows us the first Adam in the garden,
surrounded by beauty, given everything, and still tempted by the whisper that
God is holding something back. And he falls. Paul then shows us in Romans the
stunning reversal, the second Adam, Jesus, is led into a wasteland with
nothing, hungry and alone, and He stands firm. Where the first Adam lost
everything by grasping, the second Adam wins everything by surrendering.
And here is where it gets personal. I have
had my desert years. Years where the spiritual fire felt low and the road felt
long. Years of deep loss that I couldn't explain. But not once, not once
through all these years, did I ever stop praying my Rosary. Not once did I put
those beads down and walk away. Because when the enemy comes whispering his
reasonable lies, you need something solid in your hands. Something that
connects you to the Word made flesh and to the Mother who said yes. Those beads
have been my anchor in every desert I have ever crossed.
Lent is your desert. But here is the
extraordinary truth of this First Sunday, you are not walking into it alone.
Jesus already walked it. He knows every stone on the path. He knows exactly how
the enemy sounds when he shows up with his beautiful temptations. And He left
us His Word, His Mother, His Church, and His sacraments as everything we need
to stand firm. Walk into this desert unafraid, friends. The Spirit is leading
you. That means you are exactly where you are supposed to be.
💭 Reflection Question
When the enemy
whispers his most convincing lie to you, the one that sounds most reasonable,
most justified, what is the Word of God that you need to speak back to him this
Lent?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Agony in the
Garden
On this First Sunday
we stand at the entrance of our forty-day desert. Jesus in Gethsemane knew the
weight of what lay ahead, and He prayed through it, surrendered through it,
trusted through it. As you begin this Lenten week, bring whatever weight you
are carrying into the garden with Him today. He already knows it. He already
carried it.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
At Fatima, Our Lady
came with an urgent message for a world that was drifting, a world being led by
whispers away from God, just like in the garden of Genesis. Her remedy was
exactly what Jesus modeled in the desert, prayer, sacrifice, and clinging to
God's Word. She gave the children the Fatima Prayer to add to the Rosary: O
my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls
to Heaven, especially those who have most need of Your mercy. That prayer
is a desert prayer, honest, urgent, humble, and utterly reliant on God. Pray it
with fresh meaning today as you enter your Lenten desert.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, You
walked this desert before me, and You left a path. Lead me through my forty
days. When I am tempted, let Your Word rise up in me. When I am weary, let Your
Mother walk beside me. And when Easter comes, let it find me closer to You than
I have ever been before. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
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about My Spiritual Journey?
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