The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

3. ELIZABETH VISITS THE MANGER.

[December 3 ^rd:] This evening I saw Elizabeth coming from Juttah to the Cave of the Nativity. She was riding on a donkey led by an aged manservant. Joseph received her very warmly, and she and Mary embraced each other with intense joy. She pressed the Infant Jesus to her heart with tears. Her couch was prepared beside the place where Jesus was born. In front of this place there stood sometimes a high stand like a sawing-trestle, with a little box on it. They often laid the Infant Jesus in this box, standing round Him in prayer and caressing Him. This must be the custom there, for I saw in Anna's house the child Mary lying on a similar stand. Elizabeth and Mary talked to each other in the sweetest intimacy.

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