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the desert both bearable and profitable during Lent is the presence of Jesus there with us. The version of the temptations given in St Mark’s Gospel is briefer, but we do well to remember these forms of temptation described in the other Gospels as we step into the heat of the desert. Jesus decisively rejects all these temptations and reiterates his firm resolve to follow the path set by the Father, without any kind of compromise with sin or worldly logic…Jesus...does not dialogue with Satan, as Eve had done in the earthly paradise. Jesus is well aware that there can be no dialogue with Satan, for he is cunning… That is why Jesus chooses to take refuge in the word of God and responds with the power of this Word. Let us remember this: at the moment of temptation, of our temptations, there is no arguing with Satan. Our defence must always be the Word of God! And this will save us.10 It is not insignificant that we hear of the covenant of God with Noah and his family at this point in Lent. Noah evidently lived in a world of sinfulness and corruption which the Scriptures link definitively with the physical evil of the flood which swept so many away. It is hard for us to see the connection sometimes, but we also live in a world where those in power, whether material, political or spiritual, have sometimes listened to the devil’s lies,