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 Thy humility and poverty! Grant that I may join, in giving praise and thanks to Thee, the Angels and the whole company of the heavenly host, whom Thou didst cause to be the joyful heralds of Thy Nativity!

BLESS Thee, and give thanks to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for that, as soon as Thou hadst taken upon Thee our flesh, Thou didst, for love of us, endure many hardships, and didst make trial, in all its bitterness, of the stress of utter poverty. For when Thou, very God, wast born into the world, Thou didst choose for the hour of Thy birth the secrecy of the night, and for its ease and comfort the winter cold: Thou didst not seek, as a home for Thy sovereign Majesty, the grandeur of a stately palace, but didst find instead, in a little crib, a shelter for Thy infant helplessness.

O poverty beyond compare, that Thou couldst scarce find swaddling clothes wherein to wrap Thee — Thou Who boldest the world in the hollow of Thy hand, Who unto Adam and to his wife didst make coats of skins. Who in wondrous variety dost adorn the sky with stars, the earth with flowers, and beasts with their coats of hair.

O holy poverty of the Son of God, more precious than all earthly wealth, poverty in which scarce one of us can follow Thee! For which of us has come into the world in straits such as Thine? In