Prepare a way for the Lord. Brethren, we prepare the way of the Lord as we are bidden to do by walking along it; and we can walk along it by preparing it. However far you journey along it, the way is always waiting to be prepared, so that you must start afresh from the place you have reached and advance along what lies ahead. You are lead to do so because at every stage you meet the Lord for whose coming you are preparing the way, and each time you see him in a completely new way and as a much greater figure than you have met before. The just man has the right prayer when he says: Set your way which justifies as a law for me, Lord, and I will always seek after it.
If you are on the way then fear only one thing: lest you leave it, lest you offend the Lord who leads you along it so that he would abandon you to wander in the way of your own heart. Apart from him fear no one. If you feel that the way is too narrow, look forward to the end to which it leads you. If you were to see how everything is to be attained, then you would say without hesitation: Broad, indeed, is your command. If you cannot see so far, believe Isaiah who could; he is your eye. He must have seen, for he described the consequences: Behold, he says, the redeemed shall walk by this way and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain also joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. The man who dwells sufficiently on this end I think will not only make the way easier for himself but also grow wings so that he no longer walks but flies.
Guerric of Igny, Fifth Sermon for Advent (CF 8, pp 30-36)
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