COLLOQUY XLI
What a precious Treasure is Poverty
The holy man once entered a certain church with Brother Masseo, and began to beseech God to inspire him and his followers with the love of holy Poverty, and he prayed with such fervour that his face shone like fire. Then, all inflamed with this divine ardour, he approached Brother Masseo with open arms, and called him to him. The Brother, filled with wonder and admiration, threw himself into the arms of his blessed Father, and so great was the fire which burnt in the heart of Francis, that solely by the breath which came from his mouth, Masseo was raised many cubits above the earth. The Brother afterwards said, that while he was thus lifted up, he was filled with such sweetness that he had never in his life experienced anything like it. Then Francis said : ‘Let us go to Rome, to beseech the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, that they would teach us how we may rightly and fruitfully possess this precious treasure of holy Poverty, for it is so divine and glorious, and we are so vile and abject, that we are unworthy to contain it in such vessels. It is indeed a heavenly grace, which so teaches and penetrates us, that henceforth we “may trample under foot all earthly things, and may cast away from us all impediments which could hinder the soul from being most freely and speedily united to its God.’