The Blessed Virgin speaks.
My daughter, know that I bore my Son as you have seen, praying alone on my knees in the stable. I bore him with such joy and exultation of mind, that I felt no pain or difficulty when he left my body. But I immediately wrapped him up in clean swaddlingclothes which I had previously prepared. When Joseph saw this, he wondered with great joy, that I had been delivered without any aid; but as the great multitude of people in Bethlehem was busy with the census, the wonders of God could not be divulged among them. And therefore, know truly, that although men, according to human ideas, would assert that my Son was born in the usual way, it is true beyond all doubt, that he was born as I tell thee and thou hast seen. — Lib. vii., c. 28.
While the Blessed Virgin and Joseph were adoring the infant in the crib, I beheld the shepherds, and those that tended the flocks, come to see and adore the child. When they saw him, they immediately adored him with great reverence and joy; and afterwards returned, praising and glorifying God for all that they had heard and seen. — Lib. vii., c. 23.
