In both our First Reading from Isaiah and our Gospel from St. Mark on Sunday, we hear, "Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight His paths! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!" We are exhorted by Isaiah and St. John the Baptist not to simply physically prepare the way of the Lord, as ancient Rome did in their preparations to lay siege to a city; but instead to take inventory of the interior landscape of our hearts and tend to the obstacles and and crooked paths that make it hard for Jesus to enter in. The Lord desires to come and abide with each of us, but often our hearts are cluttered and attention distracted. As we remember His birth and prepare for His coming again in glory, how can we make straight the way of the Lord to the innermost part of our hearts, as we prepare to receive Him in the Eucharist at our next Mass?