Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on March 8, 2026 in Ernescliff College, Toronto. It is similar to the previous day's meditation in Lyncroft centre, titled "Begone Satan!".

Conversion, like Jesus at the well, is first and foremost an initiative of God. We respond with our freedom. It’s in that most intimate part of ourselves, where the image of God deep within us, needs to be awoken, brought back to life, as though it had remained dormant but now is brought forth into the wild.

We have the freedom now to exercise penance through Lent in a way that leads to conversion, and to defeating the toxic presence of the evil one.

It’s what Jesus does in the desert (Matt 4), the Land of Mordor, this dark motif that sets the tone for all of Lent. A time of penance that purifies us, that awakens in us an interior struggle, that reminds us that we will never really convert if we just coast along, if we drift through life, if we just go with the current.

Music: Carlos Gardel, Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink.

Thumbnail: The Temptation Of Christ, by Duccio Di Buoninsegna, 1308, Frick Collection