COLLOQUY XIII
The Saint Complains that certain Superiors of his Order Follow other Ways instead of his.
After the blessed Father had renounced the office of General, a simple and devout Brother, grieving to think that he and the other Brethren were deprived of the care and protection of such a Father, complained to him very sorrowfully, saying ; ‘What grief and sadness I and my Brethren feel thou mayest judge, O good Father, if indeed we can call thee Father, who rejectest the care of thy children. Why is it, I beseech thee, that having brought us to God with such care and love, thou dost now abandon us to be nourished by others ? Take upon thyself once more the care of thy children, and lead them to the perfection of holy Religion, lest those who were so fervent under thy guidance should become tepid through the negligence of others.’ The blessed Father replied : ‘My son, I love my Brethren with all possible love, and I would love them still more as my own children if they would follow in the footsteps of their Father, instead of imitating the example of others ; nor did I relinquish the care of them as long as it pleased them to treat me as their Father. But there are some Superiors who propose to the Brethren other examples, they counsel them other things, and lead them astray, setting light by my precepts, and despising my salutary admonitions. Whether they do ill or well, the consequences will show in the course of time. Yet woe to those Superiors who thus contradict me, for I see clearly they are opposing the will of God, although I reluctantly condescend to them. It is a great grief and affliction to me, my Brother, to see that the Rule which I obtained with great labour and prayer from the mercy of God, and which would prove of the greatest utility to the Order and to the Brethren both present and to come, is overturned by the worldly wisdom of certain Superiors, who by their authority command some things to be kept which I have declared unimportant, and neglect and despise as foolish those which I have commanded to be observed.’