CHAPTER VIII
☙ Of the suckling of the hungry Jesus
BLESS Thee, and give thanks to Thee,
O Lord Jesus Christ, never-failing
Fountain of life, for being suckled at
the breasts of Mary the Virgin, by
whose sacred milk Thou wast fed — Thou Who
givest food to all. Thou Who art the Food and
Bread of Angels.
O the unspeakable sweetness of the condescension of God to man! Who can rightly think of the excellence of the mystery and the bounty of the undeserved mercy, that God should be suckled at a Mother's breasts, and be nourished by a Virgin's milk? O my Lord and my God, with what tenderness of love hast Thou made Thyself one with me, by thus subjecting Thyself to the needs of our human weakness! O great and tremendous mystery that Thou, one and the same Person, art thus made known to us as God of the substance of God the Father, and very man of the substance of Thy virgin Mother: that we thus confess Thee to be, at one and the same time, the son of a woman, and the Only-Begotten of the Father's Glory: that Thou art made a partaker of our human nature, and yet, being one and the same person, art worshipped as the Lord of Angels.
I praise Thee, therefore, and bless Thy infinitely tender love, for that Thou didst think no scorn of being nourished at Thy Mother's breasts, if so Thou mightest make it plain that Thou hadst indeed taken upon Thee our flesh, of the substance of Thy Virgin Mother.
