Temptations are a regular part of our lives. When I was still living in Macquarie Fields, five days a week, I would go out in the morning and take an hour’s walk. Basically that was my exercise for the day.

Today is the First Sunday of Lent, and  today’s Gospel is taken from the opening of  Matthew, chapter 4.  We hear the well known, dramatic story of Jesus’ temptations in the desert which takes place before he begins his public ministry.

This Sunday the 6^th of March, the Universal Church enters the sacred time of Lent. Marked by the celebration of Ash Wednesday, we are reminded both by tradition and Gospel that this is a sacred time, a penitential time, to consider the beauty of humanity in God’s creation, but also to remember the limitations we have as human beings.

The remote community of Santa Teresa (Ltyentye Apurte) in Central Australia has once again lit up the desert sky with its now-famous Christmas lights display.

For more than 20 years the people of Santa Teresa have gone all out on the Christmas lights front, bringing the joy of the season to the Indigenous community of around 500 people.

Temptations are a regular part of our lives. When I was still living in Macquarie Fields, five days a week, I’d go out in the morning and take an hour walk.

The desert was a symbol of deep significance for the Israelites as well as for early Christians.

The temptations of Jesus in the desert is the theme for this Sunday. We’ve well and truly begun the season of Lent.

Fr Bosco Son SVD’s new assignment at the bustling Macquarie Fields Parish couldn’t be further away from his previous ministry in the small indigenous community of Santa Teresa in Central Australia, but he says his aim remains the same – simply to the love the people.

“Before taking up my position at Santa Teresa, the former Provincial, Fr Tim Norton SVD, asked me to try to do two things: one was to try to love the people and the other was not to create a problem,” he says.

Temptations are a regular part of our lives. Five days a week, I used to go out in the morning and take an hour’s walk around the corner in Macquarie Fields when I was serving in that parish.

The Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent, in all three years of the lectionary cycle, is devoted to the temptation of Jesus in the desert.