with Thee, to lodge with Thee, to eat and drink with Thee, to be with Thee in vigil and in prayer, in sleeping and in uprising, and in promptly obeying every command that fell from Thy Lips. When Thou wentest through the cornfields on the sabbath-days they followed Thee cheerfully barefoot, and because they were fasting and compelled by hunger, they plucked a few of the ears of corn, as the Law permitted. Good is it for me to think over and diligently to mark these things, to my own grief and shame, but to Thy praise and honour, O good Jesus, and to that of Thy disciples. When they were hot and tired by reason of a long journey Thou didst bid them, as St. Mark tells us, to take a little rest: for as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings to keep them from the cold and the rain and the heat, and to protect them from the kite or the dog, so didst Thou gather Thy little ones, who were humble in heart, and though despised by the world were dear to Thee, saying to them : " Come ye apart into a desert place, where your eyes will not behold the vanities of the world, nor your ears be troubled by any distracting sounds, and rest ye for a while in meditation on the things of God, and in forgetfulness of those things which perish in the using."
And now, O most loving Jesus, Thou Who visitest the sick, and comfortest poor pilgrims shut out from the joys of Paradise, I beseech Thee to visit me in the time of my trouble and distress, whether it come to me in the form of weariness as I sit alone in my cell, or of dryness of soul as I sing in choir, or of taking too great pleasure in dainty food when I am in the refectory — when any of these temptations beset me, call me back,
