Third Lesson

At another time, the man of God wanted to go to a certain hermitage to spend some time in contemplation.^a He rode on a donkey belonging to a poor man because he was weak. While this man followed the servant of God and climbed into mountainous country on a hot day, he became worn out from the journey over a rather rough and long road. When he became weakened from a burning thirst, he began to cry out urgently and say that unless he had a little something to drink, he would die immediately. The man of God leaped down from the donkey without delay, knelt on the ground, raised his hands to heaven, and did not cease praying until he understood that he had been heard. When he finally finished his prayer, he told the man: "Hurry to the rock over there, and there you will find running water, which Christ in his mercy has produced from a rock for you to drink at this very hour." The thirsty man ran to the place pointed out to him and drank the water produced from the rock by the power of another's prayer, and he consumed the drink furnished for him by God from the most solid rock.

Fourth Lesson

At one time, when the servant of Lord was preaching on the seashore at Gaeta, he wished to escape the adulation of the crowd, which in its devotion was rushing upon him. He jumped alone into a small boat that was drawn upon the shore. The boat, as though it were guided by an internal source of power, moved itself rather far from land without the help of any oars. All who were present saw this and marveled. When it had gone out some distance into the deep water, it stood motionless among the waves as long as, with the crowd waiting on the shore, it pleased the man of God to preach. After listening to the sermon, witnessing the miracle, and receiving the blessing they asked for, the crowd went away. By the influence of no other command but a heavenly one, the boat reached the shore; it subjugated itself without rebellion, as if it were a creature serving its Maker, to the perfect worshiper of the Creator and obeyed him without hesitation.

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Lectio tertia.

3 ¹Alio quoque tempore vir Dei ad quamdam eremum transferre se volens, ut ibi liberius contemplationi vacaret, quia debilis erat, cuiusdam pauperis hominis vectabatur asello. ²Cumque diebus aestivis famulum Dei sequendo vir ille montana conscenderet, asperioris et longioris viae itinere fatigatus nimioque sitis ardore deficiens, instanter coepit clamare ac dicere, quod nisi paululum biberet, confestim spiritum exhalaret. ³Absque mora vir Dei prosilivit ab asino, et fixis in terra poplitibus, palmas tetendit ad caelum, orare non cessans, donec se intellexit auditum. ⁴Oratione tandem finita: « Festina », inquit viro, « ad petram, et illie aquam vivam reperies, quam tibi hac hora misericorditer Christus de lapide bibendam Produxit ». ⁵Cucurrit sitiens homo ad locum ostensum bibitque aquam de petra orantis virtute productam et poculum hausit a Deo sibi de saxo durissimo propinatum.

Lectio quarta.

4 ¹Tempore quodam, quo famulus Domini secus mare praedicabat Gaietae, cum turbarum in eum prae devotione ruentium declinare vellet applausum, in unam littori haerentem naviculam prosiliit solus. ²Illa vero, tamquam si motoris vi gubernaretur intrinseca, cernentibus et mirantibus cunctis, qui aderant, sine aliquo remige longius se protraxit a terra. ³Cum autem aliquanto spatio maris secessisset in altum, stetit inter fluctus immobilis, quamdiu exspectantibus turbis in littore, viro Dei praedicare complacuit. ⁴Cumque, audito sermone visoque miraculo ac benedictione accepta, ipso rogante, multitudo recederet, non alterius quam caelestis iussionis impulsu navis applicuit, tamquam. si creatura Factori deserviens, Creatoris perfecto cultori et sine rebellione se subderet et sine retardatione pareret.