For all which do Thou vouchsafe to grant me Thy grace, O kind Jesus, Who wast on this day presented in the Temple by Thy lowly virgin Mother, and wast taken up with joy into the loving arms of the just and devout Simeon.
CHAPTER XIII
☙ Of the persecution of Jesus, and His flight into Egypt
BLESS Thee, and give thanks to Thee,
O Lord Jesus Christ, most mighty
King of Kings, for Thy persecution,
and for the hardships forced upon
Thee, in the days of Thy childhood, when Thou
didst flee from the face of the most wicked King
Herod, and wast driven forth as a stranger and
an outcast from Thine own land, and hadst to
enter in secret that land of Egypt, from which, in
the days of old. Thou hadst with a mighty hand
led forth the children of Israel.
I praise and magnify Thee for the toilsome journey and long exile, which Thou didst undergo, dwelling in a foreign land for the space of seven years, amidst a barbarous people, and men altogether strange to Thee.
How cruel was the wickedness which could seek to slay the Author of life, and could drive out, from the land into which He had been born, the King of heaven! What tears would not one have shed, could one have seen the graceful virgin Mother, with her Child, so fair and so beloved, hurrying away, sheltered by the darkness of the night, to take refuge in a land of which they knew
