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PITHY QUOTES FROM PAST MASTERS
And if, driven by hunger and cold and night, we knock even more and call out and beg for the love of God with loud crying that he open the door for us and let us at least come inside, and he becomes angrier and says, ‘These are aggravating vagrants, I’ll pay them well for what they’re worth,’ and comes outside with a knobby stick and grabs us by the capuche and throws us on the ground and rolls us in the snow and beats us from head to toe with that stick; if we endure these things patiently and with happiness, thinking of the sufferings of the blessed Christ, which we must endure for His love, O Brother Leo, write that here and in this is perfect joy.
Francis of Assisi: Early Documents. Volume 3, The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, "How Saint Francis, Walking Along the Road with Brother Leo, Explained to Him Those Things That Are Perfect Joy"