The Little Flowers and the Life of St. Francis, with the...

the sake of spiritual acts, spoke thus: “The servant of God, in eating and drinking and sleeping and supplying the other necessities of the body, ought to satisfy his body with discretion, in such sort as that Brother body shall have no right to murmur, saying: ‘I cannot stand upright and attend to prayer, nor be cheerful in tribulations of the mind, nor work other good works for that thou dost not satisfy my needs.’

“For if that the servant of God were to satisfy his body with discretion and in a manner enough good and decent, and Brother body were to be negligent and sluggish and sleepy in prayer, in vigils, and in good works, then ought he to chastise him as a bad and lazy mule, for that he is willing enough to eat, but unwilling to be of any profit and carry his burden. But if by reason of want and poverty Brother body cannot have what is necessary unto him in health and sickness, when he hath asked humbly and honestly of his brother or his superior for the love of God, and it is not given unto him, let him endure it patiently for the love of God that did Himself endure the same, that did seek one to comfort Him and found him not. And this necessity borne with patience shall be counted unto him of the Lord for martyrdom. And, for that he did that which he ought, to wit, ask humbly, his necessity is excused of the Lord, even though the body be full sore enfeebled thereby.”