The Sayings of Brother Giles,
ONE OF THE FIRST DISCIPLES OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI.
On Vices and Virtues.
The grace of God, and the virtues, are the way and the ladder to Heaven; but sins and vices are the way and the ladder to the depths of hell. Sin and vice are a deadly poison, but virtue and good works are a good medicine. One grace induces and draws after it another; and one vice draws another after it also. Grace does not desire to be praised; and vice cannot suffer to be blamed. The mind is at peace in humility and rests, and patience is its daughter. Holy purity of heart sees God, but true devotion tastes Him. If thou lovest, thou shalt be loved. If thou servest, thou shalt be served. If thou fearest, thou shalt-be feared.
If thou bear thyself kindly towards others, it is meet that others should behave themselves kindly towards thee. But blessed is he who loves truly, and desires not to be loved again. Blessed is he who serves, and desires not to be served. Blessed is he who fears, and desires not to be feared. Blessed is he who shows kindness to others, and desires not that others should show kindness to him. But because these things are very high and require great perfection, fools cannot know or acquire them.
Three things are greatly to be desired, and of great utility; he that acquires them will never fall. The first is, that thou sustain voluntarily, and with joy, all tribulations that befall thee, for the love of Jesus Christ. The second, that thou humble thyself daily in all thou doest, and all thou seest. The third is, that thou love faithfully with all thy heart that heavenly and invisible treasure, which cannot be discerned by the eyes of the body.
Those things which are the most despised and abhorred by worldly men, of a truth, are the most acceptable and well-pleasing to God and His Saints; and the things which are the most valued and desired by the men of the world and the most pleasing to them, are most hateful and contemptible and displeasing to God and His Saints. This unhappy antagonism proceeds from the ignorance and malice of human nature; inasmuch as man, in his misery, loves most those things which he should hate, and hates that which he should love.
Brother Giles once asked another Brother: " Tell me, most beloved, is thy soul right with God?" To which the Brother replied: " That I know not." And Brother Giles said to him: " My Brother, I would have thee to know, that holy contrition, and holy humility, and holy charity, and holy devotion, and holy joy, are those things which make the soul good and blessed."
On Faith.
All those things which can be conceived in the heart, or expressed by the tongue, or seen with the eyes, or touched with the hands — all these are nothing in respect of the things which cannot be conceived, or seen, or touched. All that the Saints and wise men who have passed away, and those who are now in this present life, or will come after us, have written and spoken, or will write or speak of God, does not, and never can, tell so much of what might be told of Him, as a grain of millet compared with all heaven and earth, nay, a thousand times less. All the Scripture that speaks of God speaks of Him as it were lispingly, even as a mother does who lisps to her son who would not be able to understand her words if she spoke in another fashion.
Brother Giles once said to a secular judge: "Dost thou believe that the gifts of God are great?" The judge answered: "I do believe it." Then said Brother Giles: "I will show thee that thou does not believe it in very deed;" and he said to him: " What is the value of all thou dost possess in the world?" And the judge answered him: " It is worth about a thousand lire" ($200). Then said Brother Giles again: "Wouldst thou part with thy property for ten thousand lire?" The judge replied, without a moment's hesitation: "Certainly, I would do so willingly." And Brother Giles said: "Of a surety, all the possessions of this world are nothing in
