At the beginning of this holy season of Lent, Holy Mother Church warns us of the threefold enemy of our soul, namely the flesh, the world, and the devil, by recounting to us the temptations her Divine Spouse faced in the desert after fasting for forty days (Matthew 4: 1-11). Just as our Blessed Lord was victorious over these temptations, we too can overcome these same stumbling blocks to salvation by the help of His grace and the practice of virtues to develop good, supernatural habits.

The "supernatural habits" the Church asks us to practice specifically during Lent to help us develop the virtues necessary to combat the threefold enemy of the soul are (1) fasting to control the concupiscence of the flesh, (2) almsgiving to combat the avarice and vanity of the world, and (3) prayer to persevere in humility over the devil.

When we pray, we humble ourselves before Almighty God, asking him to help us persevere in the combat of our souls.

In a certain way, when we pray, we practice all three of these Lenten "supernatural habits" at once! When we really pray, we intentionally put aside the cares of this world, its pleasures and vanities, its ways and its worries, and we say to Jesus Christ our Savior, "I want to spend time with You. I want to know You. I love You."

Throughout these forty days of fasting and penance, let us remember to spend more time with the God who loves us so much and desires only to be loved by those for whom He has given every drop of His Most Precious Blood.

Throughout this holy season of Lent, the priests of the Institute of Christ the King dedicate themselves in a special way to help the souls entrusted to their care by offering spiritual retreats and mornings of recollection in order to help us grow in our desire for God and the practice of all virtues, but especially charity.

"But above all, have charity, which is the bond of perfection."
Colossians 3:14