Divine Intimacy - Lenten Meditations for 2026 - Day 5

The desert exposes what we truly love. We open Lent’s first Sunday by sitting with Saint Paul’s urgency—now is the day of salvation—and then step beside Jesus as he refuses the devil’s plausible shortcuts: bread without trust, spectacle without obedience, power without worship. Each scene becomes a mirror for our lives, where comfort, image, and control tug at the heart. Instead of rules alone, we explore how confidence in the Father reframes fasting, how humility undercuts pride’s hunger to be seen, and how true worship breaks the spell of more.

From there, we draw on Divine Intimacy to map the great combat against the triple concupiscence of flesh, pride, and avarice. Temptations are not signs of failure but invitations to rely on actual grace, given right at the edge of our limits. We talk frankly about how to answer in real time: short prayers that steady the will, simple acts of penance that teach the body to wait, and a habit of trust that keeps us from negotiating with shadows. The goal is not stoic toughness; it is attachment to God that makes lesser loves lose their grip.

We also share a personal journey of leaving the sacraments, tasting what the world promises, and returning through the sobering call of fatherhood. That honesty shapes how we speak to a generation raised on noise and nihilism. Beauty—cathedrals, chant, the traditional liturgy—cuts through cynicism, not as aesthetic escape but as a sign of the real. Yet beauty must be paired with truth about the Church’s wounds, or seekers feel betrayed. We hold both: the spotless Bride and our imperfect pilgrimage. The way forward is dependence, not self-sufficiency—letting God reorder desire so Lent becomes training in freedom.

If this conversation helps you face your own desert with courage, share it with a friend, subscribe for the full Lent series, and leave a review to tell us what practice keeps you grounded right now.

Transcript

Welcome And Plan For The Day

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Morning, everyone. Welcome to our fifth day of meditations for Lent this year. We are on the first Sunday of Lent. And we will do the uh the epistle and gospel from Mass for today, and then we will go into Divine Intimacy. Uh these are up on YouTube as well as all the different audio podcast apps, so check us out on all of those. And um, and uh yeah, I'll throw up an image on screen like I usually do, so there's nothing really to watch. You just just listen. Unless I forget to throw up the image on screen, and then you can all see me uh read without realizing you're watching. But anyways, we throw up the image and we'll get going with the epistle for today here. Okay, so the epistle for the first Sunday of Lent from Second Corinthians six one through ten. Brethren, we exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain, for he saith, In an accepted time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation, giving no offense to any man, that our ministry be not blamed, but in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, and stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long suffering, in sweetness and the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the armor of justice on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet known, as dying, and behold we live, as chast chastised and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as needy, yet enriching many, as having nothing, and possessing all things. Matthew four, one through eleven. At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter coming said to him, If thou be the Son of God, command command that these stones be made bread. Who who answered and said, It is written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him upon the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written that he hath given his angels charge over thee, and in their hands shall they shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said to him, All these I will give all these will I give thee, if falling down thou thou wilt adore me. Then Jesus saith to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. Okay, let me switch over to divine intimacy now. Okay, so now divine intimacy for the first Sunday of Lent. The great combat the presence of God. O Jesus, I withdrew in spirit with you into the desert. Teach me how to fight the triple concupiscence of the flesh, pride, and avarice. Meditation one On this day, which is the real beginning of Lent, the Church invites us to the great combat, the struggle against sin which will bring us to the Easter resurrection. Our model is Jesus, who, although exempt from the incitements of concupiscence, will to be tempted by the devil for us in order to have compassion on our infirmities. After forty days of rigorous fast, while he is feeling the pangs of hunger, Jesus is tempted by Satan to change stones into bread. No one can undertake a serious program of penance or mortification without feeling its discomforts, but that is the time to resist the insinuating voices which invite us to condescend to the demands of nature. That is the time to reply with Jesus, not on bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. Man's life is far more dependent on the will of God than on material food. If we are convinced of this truth, we shall have the courage to submit to privations, trusting in divine providence for our sustenance. Jesus was next tempted a pride. Such a miracle would have aroused the admiration and enthusiasm of the people, but Jesus knew that his father had chosen an entirely different way for him, the way of humiliations rather than of triumphs, the way of the cross and of death. Because he had no desire to escape from this way, he resolutely rejected the suggestion to pride. The best means of conquering temptations to pride and vanity is to choose exactly what humiliates us and make us makes us appear little in the eyes of others. The devil returns to the attack and attempts and tempts Jesus to avarice. All these I will give thee if falling down thou wilt adore me. But Jesus replies, The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, in him only shalt thou serve. He whose heart is firmly anchored in God will never let it be drawn away from his service by an attraction for or envy of earthly things. But if this strong adherence to God is weakened or lost, the temptations to avarice will often succeed in making even those stray who have a special vocation to be serving God alone. Meditation two. Jesus was tempted because he willed it. We, however, are tempted without willing it, and often against our will. The temptation of Jesus was wholly exterior, for it found no echo within him. On the contrary, our nature, wounded by the triple concupiscence of the flesh, of pride, and of avarice, is not only an easy prey for the assaults of the devil, but is itself the source of many temptations. It is impossible for us to live without temptations. Our virtue does not consist in being exempt from them, but in being able to overcome them. It is a struggle which none can escape. God even wishes the struggle to be the price of eternal life. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he hath been proved he shall receive the crown of life. Let us learn from Jesus how to conduct ourselves in temptations. Primarily, he teaches us to have a great confidence in God. Jesus would not satisfy his hunger, nor impress men by means of a brilliant miracle, not accept kingdoms and wealth because, in a spirit of perfect filial confidence, he had entrusted everything to the Father's care, his life, his mission, and his glory. Those who will fully trust in God and who rely on his divine providence will not be easily enticed by the vain flattery of the devil, the world, or the flesh, because they know that only God can give true blessings and real happiness. We should extend the practice of this confidence to the moment of temptation. If God permits us to be tempted, he does not permit us to be tempted beyond our strength. In accompanying every temptation, there is always a special actual grace sufficient to overcome it. Therefore, instead of being disturbed by the violence of the struggle, let us use faithfully the grace God always gives and turn to him in humble, confident prayer. Now our colloquy. Lord God, our Father, life by which all live, without which everything would be as dead, do not abandon me to evil thoughts and to pride. Take away from me all concupicence, and do not give me as prey to an irreverent and foolish spirit, but take possession of my heart, that I may always think of you. Help me now, my redeemer, I beseech you, so that I will not fall before my enemies, caught in the snares which they set for my feet to abase my soul. But save me, strength of my salvation, that I may not become a laughing stock to your enemies who hate you. Rise, O Lord my God, my strength, and your enemies will be dispersed, those who hate you will flee before your face. As wax melts in the fire, so do sinners vanish before your face. I shall hide myself in you, and rejoice with your children, satiated with satiated with all your good things, and you, O Lord God, Father of orphans, protecting mother, spread your wings that under them we may take refuge from our enemies. I entrust myself to you, my God and Savior. I wish, particularly in times of struggle, to take refuge in you with redoubled confidence, for you are my defense and will deliver me from the nets of the fowler and from all misfortune. You will cover me with your wings and I shall be safe. Your fidelity will surround me like a shield, and I shall feel neither the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the plague that roams in darkness, nor the attacks of the noonday devil. You are my hope, Lord, you are my refuge, O Most High. You have commanded your angels to watch over all my paths, and they will bear me in their hands lest my feet strike against a stone. And there is the readings and meditations for today. And then, you know, you you do that once, and maybe you go back to mass for a few weeks and then you do it again. And the next thing you know, you're doing it two Sundays in a row, and then before you know it, it's been a year since you've been in Mass. Um, but yeah, so when I went away to college, I you know fell away from the sacraments. Um and I would never say I stopped believing in the Catholic faith. Um, I I even believe that if I had died at, you know, while I was away from the the sacraments, that I probably would have gone to hell, you know, for for the for that, the mortal sins from missing mass and such, among other many other things, and not confessing them, of course. Um, but I was, you know, 20, you know, in my 20s, anyways, and you feel pretty, pretty invincible, you know, when you're in your 20s, you think you have 60, 70 years of life left ahead of you, and uh you can you can get around to it eventually. So anyways, I was away from the church for for like a decade, like a decade. Until um in in you know, every couple of years, uh um I would come back, you know, usually during Lent. Um during Lent or you know, right before Easter. Uh I did that quite a few times throughout that decade. Um But it wouldn't take long to then just fall away again. But um when uh when we when my wife got pregnant with our oldest, um I knew I wanted to raise him, you know, as as Catholic in the church. Um and and I knew that because over that decade I had sampled everything the world had to offer. You know, when when we talk about the the triple concupiscence of of of pride, flesh, and and avarice, um, you know, I had sampled everything the world had in regards to all those, and uh and life was still pretty empty. You know, and and that was fine for me. Uh at least I thought that was fine for me on my own. Um but when you know I realized that I was going to be responsible now for you know another human life or a child. Um I knew I didn't want it for them, and I knew that all the world had to offer was emptiness. Um I knew that that you could really only find what you needed in God, and I wanted my child to have that and not have the emptiness that the world offered, and that's what brought me back um to the church. And I think that's what we need to show the world. That's what we need to show to the young people that are mired in in the nihilism of our age, you know, the hopelessness that so many young people, especially young men, uh, feel because they they know what the world has offered them. They've they've had it their whole lives. I was lucky enough to grow up in the church and in a you know, not a drastically different time period, but a time period different enough from what it is now to where to where um I don't know, life wasn't as saturated with just the worldly nihilism as it is now. But young people now, you know, those those coming to age now, that that's all they've known. That's all they've that's all they've lived in is the emptiness of of the secular world. And they crave something so much more. And um, we we need to to show them that that God and that the church offers what they're truly searching for. You know, and I think a lot of that um is done through through beauty. I think a lot of people, um, a lot of young people these days, they it they see the beauty that is offered by by the church, especially by the the traditional elements of the church. They see the cathedrals, they hear the chant, they see this this the the traditional liturgy, and it's just um ethereal and otherworldly to them. And they get they get the the sense that something is offered there that the world could never offer, and that's what draws them to the church. And I I we need to we need to double down on that. We need to use that. Um but we also need to be entirely honest with them, and and and they need to come into the church realizing that yes, the church has all these things that they desire. You know, the the the beauty, the beauty of the church is there, it is otherworldly, it is eternal. Um but it's also marred and mired by by the same issues of the world that they've seen their whole lives. It's not perfect. That you know that the the church is the spotless bride of Christ, yes, but the church militant here on earth um is certainly imperfect, and um and we got to be honest about that. We can't can't cover that up. Um, we can't hide it because then when they do see it and find it for themselves, they feel betrayed. But like I said, we we that doesn't mean we should not do our best to to use the beauty um in just eternal uh the eternal beauty of the church to to draw people to it, to show people that that something besides the secular worldly nihilism, you know, that that something offers more than what they've they've gotten throughout the world. And we have to recognize our ourselves that we have to depend upon on God for everything, um, you know, especially when we are struggling with things in the church. Um we have to recognize we just have to depend more upon God. I know I do. You know, I I'm a person who thinks I can solve everything. Um I've always had a lot of uh I've always been very intellectually prideful. You know, uh from when I was young, I was always told how how smart I was. And whether it was true or not, it it um certainly helped lead me to believe that I could always figure something out, I could always figure everything out for myself. You know, I was smart enough to figure it out for myself and solve whatever issues there may be. And um I just had to realize that that's just not the case. Especially when it comes to when when it comes to the problems in the church. Um I just have to depend upon God. And um and that will, you know, help us get through, help us ward off the temptations of of concupiscence. But anyways, uh yeah, so thank you all for being here for this first Sunday of Lent. Um, yeah, I know I'm getting it out later than usual, but it won't be more than half an hour, 45 minutes later than usual today. Tomorrow should be on time. Um, in a couple of weeks, I will be traveling for my grandmother's funeral. Um, I don't know exactly how that's gonna work out as far as these meditations go. They might be recorded on just my laptop camera and uh earbud mics from a hotel room. So when that comes, you'll just have to, I guess, deal with it, unfortunately. But anyways, thank you all. I hope you have a great first Sunday of Lent, and I will see you all tomorrow.