(5) With St. John the Baptist who will obtain for me, if I ask him, the spirit of penance. _Resolution._ To examine myself to-day as to the place penance is having in my Advent, and if it has none, to fix at least _one_ daily penitential act. _Spiritual Bouquet._ "He was in the deserts." ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (2) HIS MISSION. "In those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert of Judea.... preaching the baptism of penance unto remission of sins." (St. Matt. III. 1. and St. Mark I. 4). _1st. Prelude._ John preaching and baptizing by the Jordan. _2nd. Prelude._ Gratitude to the "Friend of the Bridegroom" for pointing Him out to the Bride. POINT I. THE PROPHET. When John was about thirty years of age the "word of the Lord" (St. Luke III. 2) reached him in his solitude, just as it had done all the prophets of old from Samuel down to Malachias, but since then, that is for a period of four hundred years, God had spoken through no prophet. As a result of this "word" the "Prophet of the Highest" came into all the country about the Jordan--a large area--and began his mission. His arrival made a great stir and the people flocked to see and hear him. There "went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the country about Jordan." All classes went--publicans, soldiers, even the Pharisees and Sadducees, for if this man were really a prophet sent from God, it behoved _them_ to know all about him. What did the multitudes see? A man wearing a "garment of camels' hair and a leathern girdle about his loins," whose food consisted of locusts and wild honey--a man as the Angel Gabriel had prophesied "in the spirit and power of Elias" (see IV Kings I. 8). What did they hear? A voice of one crying in the desert: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths." (St. Matt. III. 3). And what were their conclusions? That this was he who was spoken of by Isaias the prophet (verse 3), that he was "sent from God" (St. John I. 6) and that he "came for a witness, to give testimony of the light" (St. John I. 7). What light? The "Light of the world." John came to proclaim that the dawn which the world had been so long watching was on the point of giving place to day, that the "Sun of justice" was even now rising with "health in His wings" for those that feared God's name, and that they must go forth to meet him (Mal. IV. 2). I too must go forth. What am I going to do to-day which will prove to myself, to my Guardian Angel, to my Patron Saint, to Mary my Mother and to Him Who is coming that I am preparing the way of the Lord? POINT II. HIS PREACHING.