COLLOQUY XVIII
He who Enters Religion from a wrong Motive Lies to the Holy Ghost.
In the city of Lucca there was a certain youth, illustrious by the nobility of his birth, but full of levity and inconstancy. He was much given to weeping, but his tears flowed from human causes, and not from the Spirit of God. This man came to the Brethren and expressed a most ardent desire to be received into the Order. They therefore brought him to the holy Father, when shedding abundant tears, and putting on a show of great fervour, he again humbly begged to be admitted among his disciples. But the Saint, who knew the external deceit and the internal tepidity, looking on him sternly, rebuked him, saying : ‘Miserable and worldly man, why dost thou He to the Holy Ghost, and seek to deceive me? Thy tears are human, and the Spirit of God is not with thee. Return to thy carnal things, thou art not worthy of spiritual ones, because thou dost not understand anything spiritual.’