to the crib, her face eastward, raised to heaven. She stood with uplifted hands, and eyes fixed on heaven, rapt as it were, in an ecstasy of contemplation, inebriated with the divine sweetness. And while she thus stood in prayer, I beheld her child move in her womb, and at once in a moment, and in the twinkling of an eye, she brought forth her Son, from whom such ineffable light and splendor radiated, that the sun could not be compared to it; nor did the torch which the old man had set, in any manner give light, because that divine splendor had totally annihilated the material splendor of the torch, and so sudden and momentary was that mode of bearing, that I could not perceive or discern how, or in what part she brought forth. Nevertheless, I immediately beheld that glorious babe lying naked and most pure on the ground, his flesh most clean from all filth or impurity I then also heard angelic chants of wonderful suavity and great sweetness When the Virgin perceived that she had been delivered, she immediately bowed her head, and joining her hands, adored her Son with great respect and reverence, saying: “Welcome, my God, and my Lord, and my Son.” Then the child crying, and, as it were, shivering with cold
