CHAPTER IX.
Of the Manner of Asking Alms.
Let all the Brethren strive to imitate the poverty and humility of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and let them remember that we ought to have nothing else in the whole world, as the Apostle says : ‘Having food and raiment, let us therewith be content’ And they ought to rejoice when they converse with persons who are mean and despised by the world, with the poor and the weak, with the infirm and lepers, and those who beg in the streets. When it is necessary let them go for alms, and not be ashamed thereof, but rather remember that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living and Omnipotent God, set His face as a hard stone, and was not ashamed, but became poor, and a stranger, and lived on alms together with the Blessed Virgin and His Disciples. When men treat them with contempt, and deny them an alms, let them give thanks for this to God, because for these reproaches they shall receive great honour before the tribunal of Our Lord Jesus Christ ; and let them know that the injuries they undergo shall not be imputed to those who suffer them, but to those who offer them. Alms is a right and an inheritance due to the poor, and which Our Lord Jesus Christ purchased for us. The Brethren who labour in seeking alms will have a great recompense thereof, and they will procure merit for those who give to them ; for all that men do in this world shall perish, but for their charity and alms-deeds they will be rewarded by God.
Let the Brethren make known their wants to one another with confidence, in order that they may relieve and minister to one another. And let everyone love ‘0 and nourish his Brother as a mother loves and nourishes her own son, in so far as God gives them grace to do so. ‘ Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not ; and he that eateth not, let him not judge him that eateth.’ And when necessity shall arise, it is lawful for all the Brethren, wherever they may be, to eat of any such food as men can eat, as Our Lord said of David, who ate the bread of Proposition which it was only lawful for the priests to eat. Let them also remember what Our Lord says : ‘Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life : and that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare shall it come upon all that sit upon the face of the whole earth.’ Nevertheless in time of manifest necessity let them all act as their need shall require, and as Our Lord shall inspire them, for necessity has no law.