_His_ preparation is coming to an end too. Let me go over in my mind once again all that He had to plan and to do by way of preparation before He could come to me in Holy Communion. It was for this that the Incarnation was a preparation. In order to feed me with His Flesh and Blood, He had to become incarnate. This is the point of Christmas, and it is the point of contact between JESUS and my soul. To-morrow Mary in an ecstasy of joy will look upon His Face and press Him to her heart; to-morrow Joseph, full of awe and wonder, will take Him in his arms; to-morrow the Angels will sing their _Glorias_ as they gaze upon their God incarnate; to-morrow the shepherds will adore and offer Him their gifts; and to-morrow I too shall touch Him very closely for I shall receive into my body and into my heart His Body and Blood, His Soul and His Divinity. He will be with me and I with Him. It is for this that I have been making my preparations and it is for this that He has been making His. How long has He been preparing? Not only during Advent, not only during the nine months, not only since the great promise was given in Eden, not only since the time when there was war among the Angels because of the Incarnation--I am getting beyond time already and farther back than that I cannot go for my mind is finite; but His is infinite and just because it is infinite there never was a time when the Incarnation was not in His mind, and there never was a time when I, His child, was not in His mind, and also there never was a time when He did not see the blest moments when He should bring the two into contact and make me understand personally what the point of the Incarnation is. These blest moments are my Communions and surely one of the most blest must be my Christmas Communion when He Who comes to me and Who feeds me with Himself is the Child Who was born at Bethlehem, He Who had been so long expected, the Seed of the Woman, the Orient from on high, the Star of the East, the Desired One of the nations, the Root of Jesse, the King of the Gentiles with His Key and His Sceptre, Emmanuel, God with us. _Colloquy._ I kneel at the door of the empty stable and offer Thee my heart, O my little JESUS! I have tried to make room for Thee; I have made my poor little preparations with Thy blessed Mother; I have taken long journeys to get to Thee; but my body is not fit to be Thy temple and my heart is treacherous and faithless. I am ashamed to have so poor a shelter to offer Thee. If it were not that Thou didst ask for it, I dare not offer it. Oh! Thou Who didst not refuse the manger-bed, come to my heart, look at the contrition and the humiliation and the reparation and the aching longing to be what Thou dost want, and forget the faithlessness and the failures and the weakness. Come, my little King, incarnate for me, come and save me, if I were not a sinner I should not need a Saviour. _Resolution._ To keep very near to Mary and Joseph to-day.