In our second Lent reflection, a nun of Stanbrook Abbey reflects on this as a special time for deepening our awareness of the hidden world that surrounds us

In last Sunday’s Gospel, we read how the Devil led Jesus to a high mountain, and tried to tempt him with promises of power and glory. In today’s Gospel (Matthew 17:1-9) Jesus leads his disciples – us – up another mountain and we glimpse, in the face and even in the clothes of Jesus, something of the divine glory we are called to share. We are not made for the desert.

The Mount of the Temptation and the Mount of the Transfiguration form a diptych that puts into sharp relief the choice we make as Christians, which we will renew, or profess for the first time, at Easter, when we renounce Satan’s version of glory, and affirm our belief in the creating, redeeming and deifying Trinity whose glory manifests itself in self-emptying love.