The first reading this week offers a meditation on the origin of sin. The writer doesn't so much explain why sin came into the world as tell a story about its entry.

How well do the people in your congregation know the voices within them? Today's readings begin and end with people paying attention to inner voices.

WHICH WOULD YOU choose: a debate with the tempter of souls or the sublime company of angels? Most nice people do not hesitate to voice their preference for the latter.

As the people of God take their first steps on the Lenten journey, the temptation is to talk about temptation. After all, don't the readings offer examples of those who gave into temptation (Adam and Eve) and one who didn't (Jesus) and some reflection of the difference between them (by Saint Paul)?

In our lives, we'll all be tempted to commit prideful, selfish acts. For some of us, our greed and ego will reach enormous heights and lead to disgraceful acts of catastrophic proportions. For others our pride will be somewhat more contained: a white lie here, a bribe there.

A friend tells this story about the first apartment he rented after  leaving the college seminary. His downstairs neighbor, for reasons never determined, was militantly anti-Catholic. So on Friday mornings as he was leaving for work, she would stand in the doorway waving a strip of bacon in his face.

To anyone who thinks God is remote and aloof, let them read today's Genesis account of Creation. How close is God? Imagine this: God bends low to the earth and scoops up handfuls of clay.

Sisters and brothers, we have begun our Lenten journey of repentance and return to God. Let us accept God's gracious gift of salvation and life.

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Each year on the First Sunday of Lent, the church reads the story of Jesus' temptation in the desert. His 40 days of fasting, of course, mirror both the 40 days of Lent and the 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert before reaching the Promised Land.

If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God . . . by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live . . . . --Deuteronomy 30:16