Chapter 17: Of the garments with which we should clothe Jesus and His Mother

I GIVE Thee thanks, Creator of the firmament, Fashioner of its celestial lights and of the flowers of spring, because, although Thou needest not my goods, Thou, for my in struction, didst order me to clothe Thee with the garments of an infant on the day of Thy Purification, before Thou

"She brought forth her first-born Son," &c. (Luke ii.), Gospel for Midnight Mass. What follows is omitted in the French tran slation.

wert carried into the Temple. And this is the manner in which Thou dost desire me to draw from the hidden treasures of Thy love — namely, to extol with all my powers the innocence of Thy Holy Humanity, but with such faithfulness and devotion, that if I could receive in my own person all the glory due to Thy blessed innocence, I would, nevertheless, freely renounce it, in order to enhance thereby the praise of Thy innocence. It seemed to me that this pure intention clothed Thee with a White robe, such as infants wear: Thou whose omnipotence "calleth those things that are not as those that are" (Rom. iv. 17).

So also, when I endeavoured to penetrate devoutly into the abyss of Thy humility, I saw thee clothed in a green tunic, as a sign that Thy grace is ever flourishing, and that it never withers in the valley of humility. Then contem plating the fire of Thy love, which has made Thee produce all which Thou hast produced, I beheld Thee clothed in purple, to indicate that charity is truly a royal mantle, without which none can enter into the kingdom of heaven.

As I admired the same virtues in Thy glorious Mother, she appeared to me clothed in the same manner ; and as this Blessed Virgin nourishes like a rose without thorns, and a lily without spot, being adorned with the flowers of all virtues, I besought this most benign Mother to intercede continually with Thee for our necessities