We know by experience that we have not sufficient strength
in ourselves to bring to a successful completion our chief Lenten duty, which
is to die fully to sin in order to live fully in the risen Christ. But Christ
himself, before leaving his own, prayed to his Father to preserve them from
evil and from the evil one, from the seductions of the world and the attacks of
Satan. He taught them to ask, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil.
Obviously he did not intend that his disciples be spared every kind of
temptation and danger, for this would be impossible in this life; besides, God
himself permits it to test our virtue, but he wanted to assure them sufficient
strength to resist. The evil from which he desired to free them was sin, the
only real disaster, because it separates us from God.
Divine Intimacy
Father
Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD