o one else could have helped
us."

[22] "The Child is laid in the crib, so hearty and so rare! My little
Hans would be nothing by His side, were he finer than he is.
Coal-black as cherries are His eyes, the rest of Him is white as
chalk. His pretty hands are right tender and delicate, I touched
Him carefully. Then He gave me a smile and a deep sigh too. If you
were mine, thought I, you'd grow a merry boy. At home in the
kitchen I'd comfortably house you; out here in the stable the cold
wind comes in at every corner."

[23] Richard Rolle, poet, mystic, and wandering preacher, in many ways
reminds us of Jacopone da Todi. Though he has left no Christmas
verses, some lovely words of his show how deeply he felt the wonder
and pathos of Bethlehem: "Jhesu es thy name. A! A! that wondryrfull
name! A! that delittabyll name! This es the name that es above all
names.... I yede [went] abowte be Covaytyse of riches and I fand
noghte Jhesu. I satt in companyes of Worldly myrthe and I fand
noghte Jhesu.... Therefore I turnede by anothire waye, and I rane
a-bowte be Poverte, and I fande Jhesu pure borne in the worlde,
laid in a crybe and lappid in clathis."{28}

[24] "When midnight sounded I leapt from my bed to the floor, and I saw
a beautiful angel who sang a thousand times sweeter than a
nightingale. The watch-dogs of the neighbourhood all came up. Never
had they seen such a sight, and they suddenly began to bark. The
shepherds under the straw were sleeping like logs: when they heard
the sound of the barking they thought it was the wolves. They were
reasonable folk; they came without waiting to be asked. They found
in a little stable the Light, even the Truth."

[25] "Within a poor manger and covered with hay lies Jesus of Nazareth.
In the hay lies stretched the Eternal Son of God; to deliver from
hell man whom He had created, and to kill sin, our Jesus of
Nazareth is content with the hay. He rests between two animals who
warm Him from the cold, He who remedies our ills with His great
power; His kingdom and seigniory are the world and the calm heaven,
and now He sleeps in the hay. He counts it good to bear the cold
and fare thus, having no robe to protect or cover Him, and to give
us life He suffered cold in the hay, our Jesus of Nazaret