because they could not share it otherwise without wasting it. Alas for the wickedness of those robbers! Alas for the spite of those extortioners, who had not even so much pity for Jesus hanging on the Cross, poor and naked, as to give Him back some little thing, or to leave even a shred of one of His garments for His sorrowing Mother to keep as a remembrance of Him Whom she had lost! Not one of these things did they, because, urged on by the Devil, they were working out their sacrilege, without thought of a judgement to come. O my most dearly loved Jesus, neither by word, nor by deed, dost Thou offer any opposition to all this: Thou dost endure it all in silence; and surely, in thus bearing the loss of all that belonged to Thee, Thou makest it plain to me what I ought to do when anything which I think needful for me is taken from me; for it is Thy Will that I should show myself more ready to bear the loss of worldly goods, than to claim things which belong to me of right. Thy garments were not, as I suppose, elegantly made, nor of brightly coloured stuffs, but rather plain and simple, such as poor folk would wear; or were, may be, made after the fashion of the clothing of the Nazarites or of the prophets of old; doubtless they were not the dainty work of a cunning tailor, but rather were woven and put together by the hands and the needle of the Holy Virgin, with skill inspired by the Holy Ghost; or were, may be, bought, during His childhood, for the use of her Son, by the Virgin Mother, with money earned by her by work done for her neighbours. To think of the Supreme Creator of Heaven, true God, and true Man, reduced to such straits as this! At His birth he had scarcely a few poor rags to cover Him, and now at His death, He has
