this way can we deepen the presence of the Lord.    Only in the desert can we personalize the attitudes characterized by the Chosen People with Moses and epitomized by Christ during His 40 Days --- such attitudes as interior silencing, patience acceptance of suffering and difficulties, self-emptying and detachment, and a real dwelling in the presence of God.

The desert is thus a place away for the bustle of noisy living.    No radio.   No TV.    No large numbers of people around.    To go there is to be shaken out of the ordinary.    The desert positively is a place of prayer as it was for the Chosen People and for Jesus.    Prayer that arises from solitude and silence.     The desert is an on-going experience of preparing a place in our heart for the coming of Jesus.    There I must learn not to complain when things do not go my way --- as many of the Israelites did.   There I must remember that Jesus Himself lacked a place to even lie down and rest.   There, in that interior desert, I have to wait patiently and trust that God will give me what I need if I but learn to depend on Him more and more.   

Being in the desert is a way of living.   Being in the desert demands emptying of self and its excessive attachment to persons and things.   The reward of this desert experience is beyond measure.   God Himself comes out of darkness to illumine our hearts and souls with the light of faith.    He relieves our dryness with living water that lasts forever.    He grants us a true intimacy with Himself that calls us forth to surrender the whole of ourselves to Him: body and soul, mind and heart.  He grants us the gift of divine presence from the deepest center of His being.   This is the purpose of the desert experience.    This is Lent!

As St. Paul tells us in Second Letter to the Corinthians: the love of Christ that overwhelms us (II Corinthians 5:14), that love which is His gift of intimacy is so precious that no price is too high to pay --- even life itself.    This is the reward of our desert living experience.

"This is the time of fulfillment.    The reign of God is at hand!   Reform your lives and believe in the Good News of Jesus!" (Mark 1:15).

Let us enter into Lent into its deepest depths so as to be filled with the deepest love and intimacy of our God.

They were not particularly clever.    Others around them were better educated and had developed many intellectual ideas.   Many were better merchants.     These people were poor.   Most were nomadic shepherds or small village people who barely eked out a living.     

However, once they were "chosen" by God, they were God's forever.   Even today we refer to the Jewish people as God's "Chosen Ones."    Even when they strayed, looking to other gods for hope or for help, God clung to them fiercely, calling them back again and again whereas anyone else would have gladly let them go.

It is the same with us!   God chooses us, He elects us, in Christ, to be a holy people, a royal priesthood, a chosen nation, to be a Church, to be signs of the reign of God on earth.   

On the First Sunday of Lent, the "Rite of Election" is held.   The Catechumens (those who have never been baptized) who have been preparing to receive the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion), and all those who have been working with them for years believe that God has "chosen", has "elected" them, to become one of us, the baptized.

During this Ritual with Bishop Thomas Curry, their godparents/sponsors, their catechists, and their friends will testify before the Bishop that God has chosen these people.   They offer in evidence how these Catechumens have been living amongst us: hearing and following God's Word, praying with God's chosen people (each of us), and taking part in the work and the communal life of God's Church.    After listening to this evidence, Bishop Curry in the name of the Archbishop of Los Angeles will declare that they are "elected" for Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion.    He will declare that they are chosen to be God's in Christ Jesus --- not because they have earned it, but because God wants it.  And that is an election by a landslide!!!

At the same time, those Candidates (persons who are baptized in another ecclesial community) are also chosen to be admitted to the Sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Eucharist at the Easter Vigil.   

Let us keep all these people in our prayers each and every day as they prepare to be numbered fully among us at the Easter Vigil.

Landen Hamilton  Corey Hill
Hunter Hill            Kaylan Hill
Eduardo Morillas  Blake Windrum

How strange the above titles/terms sound in our ears!   We are not too familiar with these terms, yet they have been part of our Catholic vocabulary since the time of Jesus Himself.   For Jesus Himself used these terms:  "I have "chosen" you, you have not "chosen" Me." (John 15:16).

We sometimes hear these terms in reference to national, state and local elections.   We hardly expect to find these terms referring to the Church and its members.   

But long before our ancestors thought about electing their leaders, God was "electing" a people.   The first person God "chose"/"elected" was Abraham.   God constantly throughout the pages of the Scriptures refers to the Jewish People as His Chosen People, His Chosen Nation.    God selected from all the people of the world this rag-tag clan in a tiny corner of the earth to be a special, holy, chosen people.    God did not choose them because they were note worthy in any way.   They were neither powerful nor mighty.