Make Ready

“Make ready the way of the Lord.” Luke 3:4

Christmas is not usually associated with taking longer periods of praying, reading the Word, fasting and penance. We usually skip the season of Advent, and go right into the merry making, and hectic pace of the season of Christmas. But just as we go through a time of preparation when we have a special visitor coming to stay at our house, we want to prepare our hearts and minds for Jesus. 

The Church recommends we take some time to examine our life and see if there are areas we need to attend to. Our modern society has lost a sense of sin. It is not cool to talk of sin. That is exactly what our enemy wants. To grow in holiness, we need a stronger sense of sin. The more we sin, the more callous we become, the more accepting we become of our own weakness and of the sin of others. That is how our society got into the predicament we are in. 

Lord, have mercy on us, help us to take some time to go into our own personal “desert” like John the Baptist, so we can hear Your voice, and make a clean space for Your coming.