Prepare ye the way of the Lord

A voice cries out in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths. Isaiah 40:3

John the Baptist was a voice crying out in the desert proclaiming repentance as the the way of hope to the afflicted and those lost in the wilderness of darkness and sin. John was the messenger who led the people to Jesus.

Pondering John the Baptist brings us to Mary, the mother of Our Savior. Introducing Redemptoris Mater, his encyclical devoted to the Blessed Mother, Pope John Paul II wrote, "The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation, for when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! Galatians 4:4-6. This is the meaning of Advent. God initiates; Mary responds. God offers; mankind receives. This is the way of love and faith."

Mary is unique in her perfection and holiness. She is a mother for everyone. She draws us near her to reveal her Son to the Church and to the entire world. It is fitting to reflect on the four weeks of Advent by contemplating the past, present, and future in our lives with Jesus.

Mary is perfectly prepared for the coming of God. She is young, poor, and unassuming. By God's grace and her free choice, she became the Mother of God.

Pope John Paul II described Mary as "the one who in the ‘night’ of the Advent expectation began to shine like a true ‘Morning Star'. For just as this star, together with the ‘dawn,’ precedes the rising of the sun, so Mary from the time of her Immaculate Conception preceded the coming of the Savior, the rising of the ‘Sun of Justice’ in the history of the human race".