Chapter 6: Of the birth and poverty of the Lord Jesus

I BLESS, and give thanks to You, O Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten of the Father, born before all worlds, Who, of Your unspeakable condescension, did vouchsafe to be born in a filthy stable, and for love of holy poverty, to be laid in a narrow manger.

I praise You, most loving Jesus, for Your illustrious origin; for Your glorious birth of the pure Virgin Mary; for Your poverty; and for Your humility in lying in so poor and mean a crib. Who can meditate as he should on the thought of the most High God, so demeaning Himself for our sake? O what thanks does not the human race owe to You, Who, for its redemption, did choose to lie in a narrow manger!

O boundless tenderness, O wondrous sweetness, O sweetest love — God born a helpless babe, wrapped in mean swaddling clothes, laid in a narrow manger, with brute beasts surrounding Him!

O humility passing human thought, that the Lord of all lords should deign to become the fellowservant of His own servants! But, O my Lord, and my God, it seemed to You too small a thing, that You Who are my Creator should also be my Father; You did even stoop to become my Brother, and to be made flesh of my flesh, taking in very truth my nature upon You, sin only excepted.

O Birth, outside the course of nature, triumphing over the natural order of our births, and assuaging by Divine power the tears which we shed at them, in order that, by It, our nature might be restored!

O how blessed and how lovely was Your Nativity, O sweetest Jesus, Child of the illustrious Virgin, Who, by Your birth from the womb of Your highly exalted Mother Mary, do make good the faults of our birth, renew our condition, cancel our condemnation, blot out the handwriting of the decree which was against us; that so, if a man is tempted to repine at being born of Adam's stock, he may rejoice in Your undefiled Nativity, and in the most blessed trust that by Your grace he has been born again.

I thank You, for Your self-chosen and glorious Nativity, O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, by Whom we have access to that Grace in which we stand, and trust in the hope restored to us from above of the glory of the sons of God. You are the pledge of our redemption: You are the everlasting hope of all men; to You do we sinners humbly fly for refuge — to You, Who did come to seek us, when as yet we knew You not.

O sweet and holy Infancy, from which alone true innocency comes to human hearts; by which, however old a man may be, he may go back to blessed infancy, and may be made like to You, not by the shrinking of his limbs, but by the lowliness of his mind, and the holiness of his life!

O most gentle Jesus, Who, that You might give to all men an example of a holy life, and the means of everlasting salvation, did will to be born of Mary the Virgin, at the hour of midnight, grant that I may tread in the sacred footsteps of Your humility and poverty! Grant that I may join, in giving praise and thanks to You, the Angels and the whole company of the heavenly host, whom You did cause to be the joyful heralds of Your Nativity!