Christ the King's first combat
The forty days in the desert, and the temptation by Satan, are the opening battle of Christ's crusade.
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The forty days in the desert, and the temptation by Satan, are the opening battle of Christ’s crusade.
This is a bonus episode for our Preparation for Total Consecration series, coming in Week 3, and between Day 27 and 28. The purpose of this week is growing in knowledge of Our Lord, so that we may love him more dearly and follow him more nearly.
Today we are reading from Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi’s account of the temptation of Christ in the Desert.
The WM Review contributed this reading to the Catholic Family Podcast‘s project “Lent Around the World,” back in 2022:
Thanks again to the Catholic Family Podcast and a blessed Lent to all.
Meditation on the Public Life
We noted elsewhere Fr Ambruzzi’s words on the importance of meditation on the public life of Our Lord. On the full spiritual exercises, this public life would be the focus for much of the second week (which we have divided between Week 2 and 3) – with his third week being focused on the Passion, and the fourth on his Resurrection and glorification. The retreatant might be meditating on the public life of Christ several times a day, for several days, throughout the second week.
There can be no doubt that the common five-day Ignatian retreats lose something significant in omitting this, excellent though they are. And there can be no doubt that we are losing something here too, because one meditation a day for a week is just not enough time to cover everything that happened in those three years.
In due course we hope to supplement this Week on Our Lord with some more, as well. In the meantime, if readers want a very full resource for meditation on the public life of Our Lord, they should visit The WM Review’s project Father Coleridge Reader. We have just finished collating Fr Coleridge’s commentaries on the episodes recounted on the Sunday Gospels. If readers have a spare moment for spiritual reading or prayer, we refer them to the index to this project.
Alternatively, it would be good to return to the meditations on the Three Classes of Men and the Three Ranks of Humility this week – as well as the meditation on The Two Standards. They are a crucial part of growing in knowledge of Christ. We anticipated them in Week 0, but St Ignatius puts them with the meditations we are considering in Week 2 and 3:
Day 6: Satan’s battle plan to ensnare souls – and Christ’s battle plan to save them
The Two StandardsDay 8: Are you a weakling, a self-seeker... or something better?
The Three Classes of MenDay 9: Do we actually want what humility entails?
The Three Ranks of Humility
Finally, St Louis de Montfort recommends going to confession on the day of the consecration. Look ahead now, and consider whether you need to arrange that with a priest in advance.
CONTENTS:
READING: The text is based on an extract from Fr Aloysius
MEDITATION: The points for meditation are included below. A guide on how to use these points in meditation can be found here.
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