In the first half of Advent we count forwards:  first week, second week, and so on, paying attention to Avent Sunday, the day when Advent started.

Now the second half of Advent has begun, and it is Christmas Day that matters.  Today is the eighth day before Christmas, tomorrow is the seventh day, and so on.  The prayers of the Church follow this countdown, and the final readings from Isaiah build up to their climax.

Preparation for Holy Christmas
The Nine Excesses of Love in the Incarnation of the Word
Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will

Meditation                          Theme                              Day
I        Excess of Love           Trinitarian Love                December 16
II       Excess of Love           Constrained Love            December 17
III      Excess of Love           Devouring Love               December 18
IV      Excess of Love          Operative Love                December 19
V       Excess of Love          Lonely Love                     December 20
VI      Excess of Love          Imprisoned Love              December 21
VII     Excess of Love          Unrequited Love              December 22
VIII    Excess of Love          Supplicating Love            December 23
IX      Excess of Love          Agonizing Love                December 24

Holy Christmas – The Birth of Jesus                        December 25

***

Book of Heaven
12/17/03 – Vol. 6

The adoration that the Most Holy Virgin did when She encountered Jesus carrying the Cross.  The true spirit of adoration.

Continuing in my usual state, for a few instants a saw blessed Jesus with the Cross on His shoulders, in the act of encountering His Most Holy Mother; and I said to Him:  ‘Lord, what did your Mother do in this most sorrowful encounter?’

And He:  “My daughter, She did nothing but a most profound and simple act of adoration.  And since the simpler the act, the more easily it unites with God, Most Simple Spirit, in this act She infused Herself in Me and continued what I Myself was doing in my interior.  This was immensely pleasing to Me, more than if She had done any other greater thing.  In fact, the true spirit of adoration consists in this:  the creature dissolves herself and finds herself in the divine sphere; she adores all that God does, and she unites with Him.  Do you think that when the mouth adores but the mind is somewhere else, it is true adoration?  That is, the mind adores but the will is far away from Me?  Or, one power adores Me, and the others are all disordered?  No, I want everything for Myself, and everything I have given her, in Me.  This is the greatest act of cult, of adoration, that the creature can do for Me.”