Read or listen to this Sunday’s Mass readings here.

• Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
• 2 Peter 3:8-14
• Mark 1:1-8

It was a crisp Sunday morning.  The Pauline family looked out their picture window at the snow that had piled up overnight.  It was a huge, white blanket of snow covering everything they could see.  There must have been 14 inches!

“Are we going to be able to make it to Mass today, Dad?” Lucy asked.

“I sure hope we can,” Dad answered.  He looked again at all the snow and wondered to himself if the car could get through.  The streets looked pretty congested and snow-packed.

Mom came back from the kitchen and said, “It looks like we might be stuck.  But I think that we should prepare ourselves for Sunday Mass by reading today’s Scriptures.  We’ll see if the snowplow comes in time to get us to church this morning.  If it does, we will be ready to go!”

The Paulines gathered around the kitchen table, and Dad read from Mark, Chapter l.  The reading told of John the Baptist who foretold the coming of Jesus by quoting the words of Isaiah, a great prophet of the Old Testament.  John spoke loudly, saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” (Mark 1:3b)  John went ahead of Jesus, telling people to remove any obstacles that would prevent them from entering into the full life God wants for them.

“Okay now, Kids,” Mr. Pauline said.  “Who can give me an example of how something goes ahead of something else to prepare the way?”

The kids looked around the room.  Nothing was coming to them.  Mom and Dad looked from one blank face to the next.

Just then they heard a sharp, grinding noise.  The noise was growing louder and louder.  It was coming with power and might.  It was the snowplow coming down the street!

Suddenly Vincent’s eyes brightened, and he leaped to his feet.

“That’s it!”  Vincent exclaimed.  “John the Baptist was like the snowplow!  He prepared the way for Jesus, like the snowplow is going ahead of us so we can get to church this morning!”

“Yeah!” said Mary Clare.  “The obstacles have been removed, and the path is now clear for us.”

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