Infant JESUS. St. Bonaventure even says that she went from house to house to solicit work; and that when our Blessed Saviour was old enough, she used to employ him to carry home the work she had finished, and to ask for more. We may imagine, he also adds, that the holy Virgin, in order to be able to buy food for him, was often forced to send him for the money that was due to her for her work, and to implore for the payment of at least a part of it. It was a great humiliation to the Son of GOD to be sent upon such an errand, and great also must have been the confusion of the holy Virgin in being reduced by necessity to send him on it.

Perhaps, alas! when the Sacred Youth thus carried home the labours of his Mother to those who had employed her, and entreated payment in her name, he may have met with abusive language, and instead of receiving the money which was justly due to him, he may have had the door shut upon him, and have been sent home penniless and weary. These insults are unfortunately too often practised towards poor and helpless strangers, and we cannot suppose that Christ escaped them, since he came upon earth on purpose to humble himself, and to suffer for our sakes. Most probably therefore he has often come home tired and hungry, as children are used to be, and, asking his Mother for bread, has had the mortification to hear her answer with a sigh that she had none to give him. Upon these occasions our Blessed Lady used to feel the deepest anguish, and with many tender words she would try to console him, and to appease his hunger. She used also to redouble her industry, in order to procure money for his necessities; and as she loved him a thousand times better than she loved herself, she has without doubt often put aside her own meal, in order to reserve it for him when he should appear to need it.

These are some few of the many hardships which JESUS patiently endured during his banishment in Egypt; and we should learn from this history to be very patient in all the sufferings that may chance to befall us. Indeed, we could hardly feel impatient at them, if we did but reflect a little upon all that this tender Infant suffered for our sakes, both before and during his residence in Egypt, as well as in the many labours and afflictions of his after years. Little children should particularly try and remember this, for our dear heavenly Mother will love them more tenderly when she sees them trying to imitate the patience which was so dear to her in her little JESUS; and she will doubtless reward them by obtaining for them from this divine Son greater graces through her prayers, than they could ever hope to have acquired by their own.

When the Holy Family had lived seven years among the Egyptians, an Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, and bade him return into Israel; for Herod, who had sought the death of the boy, was now dead. The next morning, therefore, Joseph, who was a pattern of patient obedience, took the Mother and Child, and set forth on his journey. St. Bonaventure thinks it not unlikely that many good people in the city accompanied them a little way on their journey, in acknowledgment of their pious and peaceable behaviour while living among them. He also pleases himself with supposing that when these kind people were about to take leave of the Holy Family, they may have called the child JESUS to them, and pitying their great poverty, they may have bestowed a few pence upon him. He tells us to compassionate the confusion of the Divine Child, who, blushing, held out his little hands to receive the money which love of poverty alone had induced him to want; and also to pity his holy parents, who shared his trouble and humiliation with him. And now their friends returning to the city, the Holy Family were left once more to travel alone and unaided through the pathless desert. This second journey must have been even more distressing and painful to them than the first; for then the little JESUS was so small, that they could more easily carry him, but being now seven years old, he was far too big to be carried conveniently by the delicate Virgin, or the weak old man. And still he was too young and tender to be able to make this long journey on foot without the greatest pain.

Think what this sweet child must have endured, toiling beneath a burning sun, and his little feet travel-worn and bleeding from incessant walking in the hot desert. A little longer walk than usual makes us weary, and alas! at trifles like these we often grumble and complain, but surely we should bear them more patiently, did we think oftener of JESUS, Mary, and Joseph, on their journey from Egypt. When they had nearly gained the borders of Israel, Joseph heard that the son of that Herod, who had wished to murder JESUS, was reigning there, and he felt afraid of proceeding on his journey, but the Angel again appearing, told him to go back to Nazareth, where he had formerly lived. Thither he directly went, and lived there until JESUS was twelve years of age. It is said (and it is not improbable), that the fountain is still to be seen from which JESUS was accustomed to draw water for His: Mother; for our truly humble Lord no doubt often did these humble little offices for Mary, as she had no one else whom she could ask to perform them. Here, also, it is very possible that St. John the Evangelist often came to see JESUS, with his mother, who was sister to the

Blessed Virgin. Honored even in the tenderest years of infancy by the frequent presence of JESUS, St. John grew up so holy, and pure, that he was ever the disciple whom JESUS loved the best, and who alone was permitted to share in the sorrows of the blessed Virgin when she stood beneath the Cross upon which her Son was dying.

When our Divine Lord was twelve years of age, he went with his parents to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, which was kept there every year, and which always lasted during the space of eight days. When it was over, our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph returned to Nazareth, but JESUS remained in Jerusalem. Our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph had returned by different roads, each therefore fancied the child was in company with the other. But when they met in the evening, and found that JESUS had returned with neither of them, they were very much alarmed, Mary especially, was inconsolable for the loss of her child; and they instantly returned to Jerusalem seeking him every where in tears and great grief of heart. At last entering the temple on the third day, they found JESUS there sitting among the Doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions, and astonishing every one by the wisdom of his discourse. Overjoyed at once more beholding her little JESUS, who was the only joy and consolation of her heart, Mary tenderly embraced him, and at the same time remonstrated with him, gently saying:

Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing."

JESUS in reply, sweetly told her that it was needful for him to do the business of his Heavenly Father; and then, with a ready obedience, which should ever be the subject of our closest imitation, he returned with her and Joseph to Nazareth, where Scripture tells us he remained subject to them.

I have told you of the grief of our Blessed Lady on losing her son, and I must now remind you of the many hardships he must have borne during his three days' absence from her. For he had no home to go to, neither had he any money with which he could have procured himself provisions; you may therefore imagine him sitting at the door of some poor man, craving admittance, when in compassion to his miserable appearance he may have been received, and sparingly helped to eat. And thus, as a great Saint tells us, the poor child JESUS ever delights to remain among the poor. I must also beg you to observe the great humility which made him sit among the Doctors of the law, and ask them questions, as if he were ignorant of the subjects upon which he

spoke; though, in reality, he knew all things, and it was this great humility alone, which made him condescend to appear ignorant before his creatures. I am sure, I need not say more to convince you of the great necessity of humility, and shall therefore only add, that instead of being anxious to display our acquirements, we should rather be desirous of concealing them; as by this means, we shall, in a slight degree, be able to imitate the humility of the child JESUS in the temple, who deigned (though full of wisdom and the grace of GoD) to ask questions, as if he had been foolish and ignorant like other children of his age. M. C. A.

Feast of St. Winefride, V. M.

LIFE OF ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY.

VOL. II. CHAPTER VI.

HOW THE DEAR SAINT ELIZABETH RENOUNCED THE WORLD, AND RETIRING TO MARBURG TOOK THE HABIT OF THE GLORIOUS SAINT FRANCIS.

"Unam petii a Domino, hanc requiram, ut inhabitem in domo Domini omnibus diebus vitæ meæ : ut videam voluptatem Domini... quoniam abscondit me in tabernaculo suo."- Ps. xxvi. 7,8,9.

"Pro Francisci chordulâ,
Mantello, tuniculâ,

Purpuram deposuit."

(From an Ancient Prose in honour of St. Elizabeth, in a Franciscan

Missal printed in 1618.)

THE Duke Henry kept his word; and as long as Elizabeth remained with him, he strove by every act of tenderness and regard to make her forget the former injuries he had heaped upon her. He paid her all the honour due to her rank, and left her at full liberty to practise her pious exercises and works of charity. These she resumed with all her wonted fervour; it was at this period that she completed her foundation of St. Mary Magdalene's hospital at Gotha, about which she had already taken some steps during her husband's life-time. As heretofore,

her love for the poor furnished her with ample occupation during those hours, which were not already devoted to prayer and contemplation. Excused, on the score of widowhood, from the obligation of appearing at public entertainments, she equally avoided any occasion of attending the private parties of the nobility or the court banquets, for well she knew that these were but too often purchased at the expense of oppressing and overburthening the poor. She preferred, to the pomp and circumstance of this world's grandees, the modest humility of God's poor people, and she sought a share in their happiness by adopting the lowly ways of voluntary poverty. The spectacle of such a life formed too striking a contrast to that of worldlings, not to excite again the illwill of those evil courtiers, and unworthy knights, whose hatred had already embittered the joys of her childhood, and enhanced the first pangs of her widowhood. To punish her contempt for riches and pleasures, which were what they most adored, they affected a boundless contempt for her person. They disdained to visit or converse with her; and if they happened to meet her by accident, they took care to say as they passed by, in a voice sufficiently audible for her to hear it, "What a fool she is!" But she suffered these outrages with such sweetness, a holy joy and resignation painted on her countenance, that they presumed even to charge her with having forgotten the memory of her deceased husband, and with yielding to an unseasonable mirth. "Unhappy men !" says an author of that same period, "they knew not what it was to possess that peace of mind which is withheld from the impious." The duchess Sophia herself appears to have yielded to the force of the calumnies, and to have given signs to her daughter-in-law of surprise and indignation. Elizabeth bore it all in silence and peace, for she knew that our Lord, who was her only love, could read the secret of her heart.

On the other hand, her pious friends, of whom she had many, appreciated and admired her humility. Besides which, it was at this period that she received an encouragement, of all others the most calculated to comfort and support her under her trials and persecutions. The Holy See itself interposed in her behalf, the common Father of Christendom, He, who was looked upon as the refuge of persecuted innocence, came to her succour. We have already seen, on a previous occasion, how the cardinal Hugolin was the bearer of a correspondence between our Elizabeth and that blessed man, St. Francis of Assisium: this cardinal was now Pope, having succeeded to the chair of Peter under the title of Gregory the Ninth. No sooner did he learn her