Lent is a six-week journey.

But what happens as the journey continues?

Week Three of the Lent journey focuses on Spiritual Thirst.

The readings this week center around water.

• Exodus 17, Israel is wandering in the wilderness and begins to thirst. In desperation they cry out to Moses, and God provides water from the rock. A rock the Apostle Paul will point back to and claim is Christ. (1 Corinthians 10)  

• Psalm 95, a retelling of the Exodus 17 story. 

•  John 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well.

John draws on an Old Testament style of storytelling to reveal something deeper: the woman’s physical thirst points to a deeper thirst, one Jesus reveals that only He can satisfy. 

The Church Fathers reflected deeply on this theme of conversion.

These were the leaders and theologians of the early Church — the ones who helped articulate and defend the faith passed down from the apostles.

For them, conversion was not simply a moment. It was a lifelong process.

Lent is a season that helps us focus on that transformation.

This week the invitation is to look beneath our actions and ask deeper questions:

What am I truly thirsty for?

To close the episode, Dr. Mark Masucci helps bridge the gap between the Church’s story and our cultural imagination, reflecting on Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas and the film Good Will Hunting as examples of the deep human longing for inner transformation.

Because beneath every human longing lies the same truth:

Only Christ ultimately satisfies.

In the second week of Lent the conversation shifts from self examination to self denial.

Last week was the call to examine our desires

This week, we confront them.

Lent begins with self-examination — naming the loves that shape us, the habits that form us, the desires that may have become disordered. But awareness alone is not transformation.

Now comes the narrow door.

In this episode, Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes explore why the Church gives us the spiritual discipline of fasting after we have taken inventory of our hearts. Fasting is not punishment. It is not spiritual dieting. It is a way of bringing our loves back into order.

James reminds us that we are tempted by what we love. And often, we are trapped not by evil things — but by lesser things we have learned to cling to for satisfaction.

Fasting creates space.

Fasting exposes attachments.

Fasting loosens the grip of earthly desires that quietly rule us.

It is how we practice freedom.

And right in the middle of this call to repentance, the Church gives us the Transfiguration — the moment Jesus reveals His glory to Peter, James, and John. For a brief moment, the veil is pulled back. The disciples see who He truly is.

What would happen if we saw Christ like that?

We would realize He is what our souls have been reaching for all along.

The world offers highs that fade by Monday morning. But on the mountain, we glimpse the glory that actually satisfies.

So after naming our disordered desires, we begin to deny them — not to lose something, but to be freed from loving lesser things.

Because the goal of Lent is not deprivation.

It is transformation.

It is renewal.

It is learning to love God with all our heart.

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Lent is a six-week journey.

But what are we actually meant to do in week one?

In this episode of You Are Here, join Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes to explore the Church’s focus for the first week of Lent: Temptation and Self-examination.

The Gospel reading traditionally centers on Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:9-13; Luke 4:1-13  — Jesus in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. But this is not simply a story about Jesus resisting sin. It is about Christ taking on our weakness.

As Hebrews reminds us, we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with us. He has taken on human nature. He understands temptation from the inside.

The first week of Lent invites us to confront our own wilderness:

Where am I weak?

What patterns of desire are disordered?

What in me needs transformation?

Because of Adam, we are no longer the kind of beings we were meant to be. Lent begins by naming that reality honestly.

We join Jesus in the wilderness as He fights His first battle — not only as an example, but as the faithful Adam who resists where humanity failed.

And yes, we end with a cultural reference to The Godfather — one of the classic films that reminds us of the dangers of an unexamined life

In short: Don’t be like Mike.

Participate in Lent.

Start with self-examination.

Step into the wilderness with Christ.

What is Ash Wednesday — and why do Christians put ashes on their foreheads?

In this episode, Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes explore the meaning, symbolism, and origins of Ash Wednesday. From Genesis — “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” — to the early Church’s understanding of repentance, ashes mark the beginning of Lent with honesty and hope.

Topics discussed:

- Why Ash Wednesday falls on Wednesday?

- The biblical meaning of ashes as repentance and turning (Genesis, Job, Jonah)

- How external practice shape our internal lives

- Why Ash Wednesday pushes back against secularism

Ash Wednesday confronts us with death — and prepares us for resurrection.

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What is Lent - and why do Christians still practice it?

In this episode Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes explore the meaning, origins, and purpose of Lent. Far from legalism, Lent is a preparation for Easter - a season of prayer, fasting and repentance that reshapes our interior world.

In this episode Dr. Mark and Nathan explore:

- The Origins of Lent in the early Church

- Why the season of Lent is 40 days long

- The significance of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (Matthew 6)

- Why Lent is not legalism, but preparation

- How fasting shapes the interior life

- Why Lent pushes back against secular autonomy and materialism

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We all measure time by something — semesters, deadlines, sports seasons, algorithms, achievement. But the Church has kept time differently for centuries.

In this opening episode of our Lenten season, Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes introduce the Church Calendar — the sacred rhythm that tells the story of Christ from Advent to Easter and beyond.

Because the way you measure time shapes the person you become.

So what story is your calendar telling?

You Are Here.

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“C” for this week - Cue and Craving

Coming off last week’s episode where it was discussed that we are primarily lovers and not thinkers. The next question then is, how do we change our loves?

Join Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes as they discuss how loves form us so we are called to form our loves. Dive deeper through research and personal testimony, as the discussion unfolds on how to habitually form those loves.

What is the habit loop and how do we change our habits, thus our loves? Listen in this week to find out!

Points within:

- How do we practically love God?

- Romans 6-8

- Book: Atomic Habits, James Clear

- What is the Habit Loop and how does it relate to your loves?

- Book: You are what you Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. James K.A. Smith

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Who are we as people and what causes us to do what we do? Why do we feel a tension as we are trying to Follow Jesus? What are your “loves?”

Join Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes as they discuss what causes us to do what we do. They will unpack an early Church Father, Augustine, and what he said about who we are as people. And how this actually clashes with Enlightenment thinking and Secularism.

So, what does Augustine have to say to Secularism and the conversation of Christianity and Culture today?

Listen in to find out!

Points within:

- Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

- Why do you sin?

- Enlightenment and Romantacism - who are we?

- Where is Truth found?

- Do our feelings matter?

- Rightly ordered loves

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The third “C” for this week is conflict drawn from Jesus calling people to “follow him.” Christianity, Culture and Conflict.

How does this clash with the narrative and values of our secular culture and how does it create conflict?

Join Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes as they explore this topic and show how Jesus not only creates conflict with our current culture, but also created conflict as he called the disciples.

Points within:

- What does “follow me” mean?

- How does Jesus create conflict with his disciples?

- The Gospels

- How to do evangelism?

- What is authenticity within Christianity?

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The third “C” for this week is Creeds or Confessions.

What is a Creed? How many are there? Why is it important that we know them? And how does this relate to “Am I on the right Track?”

Join Dr. Mark Masucci and Nathan Hughes as they converse with this and demonstrate how knowing the Creeds will help us in our secular Culture today.

Topics within:

- What is a Creed?

- How do they relate to Ecumenical Councils? (What is an ecumenical council?)

- What are the main/important ones?

- How do you know you are in a cult?

- How does the Apostles Creed relate to the Bible?

- How do Creeds bring a rootedness to your faith?

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