WHAT DOES LENT MEAN TO YOU?   Lent begins this month and, for many, it is just another process that the Church goes through every year. Lent is derived from the Latin quadragésima/quadragésimo (fortieth) and it refers to the duration of this liturgical period, which lasts 40 days. The number 40 is highly symbolic in the Holy Scriptures. Let's remember that the flood lasted 40 days, during which Noah and his family, as believers in God, were saved while the rest of humanity was left outside the ark because of their disbelief and died because of their hard hearts. Jonah, a man of God, was sent to the city of Nineveh to warn the people that within 40 days God would destroy the city for its wickedness. When they heard what was coming, the people of Nineveh decided to repent, they fasted and there was a change that God saw and extended to them His Mercy. So, He decided not to destroy the city because they changed their ways. On leaving Egypt, the people of Israel wandered throughout the desert for 40 years and a large number of them did not reach the Promised Land because they did not trust in God's Divine Plan and died in the desert. Those who believed finally crossed the Jordan River into the land promised to them by God the Father. What is the significance of the number 40? It is a Loving Call from God to not die without Hope. It is a process for reflecting on our life, how it is presently and how to keep us in Faith so as not to lose our way. It is a time when we are tested to see if our heart is open to hearing the Voice of God or if, on the contrary, it is hardened and leading us to pain, suffering and death. If we do not recognize the Mercy of God, we will remain outside the Ark of the Lord or dying in the desert. Jesus began His Work, His Mission and His Ministry at the age of 30 and He did so with a plan of Prayer and Fasting in the desert for 40 days. From the beginning of His Ministry, the Lord showed us that we will all face an enemy, the evilest one, Satan. He came to Jesus, who had withdrawn into the desert, to test Him just when He felt the most vulnerable in His, Flesh, hunger “the tempter approached and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. He answered, it is written the Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God'” (Matthew 4:3-4). Jesus shows us that we can defeat the enemy in the same way that He defeated him; it is with the Word of God. “Man does not live on bread alone”; in this is a great lesson in achieving Victory and Salvation.…