be put to shame and confusion. And thus also should we do; that is to say, not give up our prayer for every temptation, but resist courageously, for " Blessed is the man who endureth temptation," says the Apostle, " for when he hath overcome, he shall receive the crown of Eternal Life:" but if a man depart from prayer, because of temptation, of a surety, he shall be put to shame, or vanquished by his diabolical foe.
A Brother said to Brother Giles: " Father, I have seen other men who received from God the grace of devotion and of tears in their prayers, and I cannot feel in myself any such grace, when I go to worship God." To whom Brother Giles answered: " My Brother, I counsel thee to persevere humbly and faithfully in thy prayers; for the fruits of the earth cannot be had without toil and labor applied beforehand; and even after we have labored, the desired fruit does not follow immediately, but only in its season, when the fullness of time has come.
"And thus also, God does not give these graces immediately to a man in answer to his prayer; but in the end, when the time appointed is come, as it pleases Him, and not until the mind is cleansed from every carnal affection and vice. Therefore, my Brother, labor humbly in prayer; for God, Who is all good and gracious, knoweth all things, and discerneth what is best; and when the time and the season has come He will graciously give thee much fruit of consolation."
Another Brother said to Brother Giles: " What doest thou. Brother Giles, what doest thou?" And he replied: " I do evil." The Brother said: " What evil doest thou?" And Brother Giles turned to another Brother, and said: "Tell me, my Brother, which is the readiest, our Lord to give us His grace, or we to receive it? " And the Brother answered: " Of a surety, God is more in haste to give us His grace than we are to receive it." Then said Brother Giles: " How then, do we do well? " And the same Brother answered: " On the contrary, we do ill." Then Brother Giles turning to the first Brother, said: " Behold, Brother, it is clearly proved, that we do ill; and what I answered thee awhile ago was the truth, that I was doing ill."
Brother Giles said also: " Many works are praised and commended in the Holy Scriptures, such as the works of mercy, and other holy works; but of prayer, the Lord says thus: ' Your Father in Heaven seeketh men to adore Him (on earth) in spirit and in truth.' " Again Brother Giles said, that the true Religious are like the wolves, because they are seldom seen in public, except of great necessity; and with all haste, they seek how they may return to their secret place again, without holding much converse with men.
Good works adorn the soul, but prayer adorns and illumines the soul more than all others. A Brother who was an intimate companion of Brother Giles, said once: " Father, how is it that thou dost not sometimes go forth to speak of the things of God, and to procure and minister to the salvation of Christian souls?" To which Brother Giles replied: " My Brother, I would edify my neighbor by humility, and without doing hurt to my own soul, namely, by prayer." And the Brother said to him: "At least thou shouldst visit sometimes thy family." And Brother Giles answered: " Knowest thou not, that the Lord says in the Gospel: ' He that forsaketh father or mother, or brother, or sister, or possessions for My Name's sake, shall receive a hundred fold?' "
And he said: "A certain gentleman whose riches amounted to about sixty thousand lire ($12,000), entered the Order of Friars Minor; what great gifts then await the man, who for the love of God, gives up great things, seeing that God will give him back a hundredfold more! But we in our blindness cannot understand the perfection of a man truly virtuous and in favor with God, on account of our own imperfection and blindness. But if a man were truly spiritual, hardly would he ever wish to see or to hear any one, except of great necessity; because he who is truly spiritual desires continually to be separated from all men, and to be united to God by contemplation."
Then Brother Giles said to one of the Brothers: " Father, I would fain know what manner of thing is contemplation?" And the Brother answered him: " Father, I know not." And Brother Giles said: " It seems to me that the state of contemplation is a Divine fire, and a sweet unction of the Holy Spirit, and a rapture and suspension of the mind, inebriated by the contemplation of that inaffable
