to do so. You, therefore, who are the very first of the Order, do this
cheerfully; do not refuse to practise what you will have to teach these
saintly personages. Go, then, and with the blessing of God solicit
alms, full of confidence and joy, more than would be felt by him who
should offer a hundred for one. For it is the love of God you offer
in asking, when you say, 'For the love of God, bestow your charity on
me;' and in comparison with this divine love, heaven and earth are as
nothing."

To mitigate the reluctance still felt by some of them, he brought
forward the two following motives: "The bread which holy poverty causes
to be collected from door to door, is the bread of angels, because it
is the good angels who inspire the faithful to bestow it for the love
of God. It is thus that the words of the prophet, 'Man ate the bread
of angels,' are fulfilled in these holy poor ones. God has given the
Friars Minor to the world in these latter times, that the elect may
have it in their power to practise what will cause them to be glorified
by the Supreme Judge, when He will address them in these mellifluous
words: 'What you did to one of these, the least of My brethren, you
did it to Me.' It is pleasing to solicit charity in the capacity of
a Friar Minor, whom our Master seemed to designate expressly by the
appellation, 'the least of My brethren.'"

The disciples, persuaded and moved by this appeal, went of their own
accord to quest in the neighboring places, to get the better of the
natural repugnance they felt to it. At their return they presented
themselves to their Father with satisfied countenances, which delighted
him, and by a holy emulation they were proud of the things they had
collected for the love of God. One of them returning one day with much
cheerfulness, singing loudly the praises of the great Benefactor of