Tractatus Prior, Pars Prior, Cap. 5. De incommodis et indigentiis pauperis lesu.

Tractatus Prior, Pars Prior, Cap. 5. De incommodis et indigentiis pauperis lesu.

I bless you and give thanks to you, Lord Jesus Christ, for the many hardships endured at the very beginning of your birth and for the harsh suffering of extreme poverty. For when you, God, were born into the world, you chose the night for your secret, the cold of winter for your delight, and you didn't seek grand palaces for royal dignity, but a humble cradle to protect your tenderness. O poverty, greater than all poverty, that you barely had rags to wear, you who cover the whole world, you who made the first man a fur coat, you who adorned the heavens with stars, the earth with flowers, and the animals with skins and hair in wondrous variety. O holy poverty of the Son of God, more precious than all the riches of the world, scarcely able to be perfectly imitated by anyone. Who among the newborn has endured such hardships? What letter, what language, or what examples show that any of the saints had such a beginning of poverty? Therefore, I offer you the greatest praises from the depths of my heart, Jesus, illustrious King, beloved child, pleading for your sweetness, that you may grant me the gifts of your holy poverty to embrace with a loving and patient heart the hardships of need, with your grace to endure them. You came down from heaven to make her lovely for us, and you became poor from our wealth, even though you always remain rich and full from your own abundance. I praise you magnificently for the assumption of our poverty and fragility, since you deemed us so dear that, having laid aside your royal diadem, you chose to be counted among the sons of Adam as one of them, sharing in the communion of fragile nature, yet remaining always immune from any stain of sin.