Chapter 9: Of the suckling of the hungry Jesus

I BLESS You, and give thanks to You, O Lord Jesus Christ, never-failing Fountain of life, for being suckled at the breasts of Mary the Virgin, by whose sacred milk You were fed — You Who give food to all. You Who are the Food and Bread of Angels.

O the unspeakable sweetness of the condescension of God to man! Who can rightly think of the excellence of the mystery and the bounty of the undeserved mercy, that God should be suckled at a Mother's breasts, and be nourished by a Virgin's milk? O my Lord and my God, with what tenderness of love have You made Yourself one with me, by thus subjecting Yourself to the needs of our human weakness! O great and tremendous mystery that You, one and the same Person, are thus made known to us as God of the substance of God the Father, and very man of the substance of Your virgin Mother: that we thus confess You to be, at one and the same time, the son of a woman, and the Only-Begotten of the Father's Glory: that You are made a partaker of our human nature, and yet, being one and the same person, are worshipped as the Lord of Angels.

I praise You, therefore, and bless Your infinitely tender love, for that You did think no scorn of being nourished at Your Mother's breasts, if so You might make it plain that You had indeed taken upon You our flesh, of the substance of Your Virgin Mother.

O You Who give food to all, and were Yourself content with so little, feed my soul, I beseech You, with the rich banquet of Your Holy Word, and give me grace to serve You, and to give thanks to You, so long as I shall dwell in this frail tenement of clay.