[aishah]

i've been reading the road to assisi by paul sabatier and there are several passages that have made me smile (and laugh!). this one is one of my favorites though:

One day a novice who could read the psalter, though not without difficulty, obtained from the minister general - that is to say, from the vicar of St. Francis - permission to have one. But as he had learned that Francis desired the brothers to be covetous neither of learning or for books, he would not take his psalter without his consent.

"Father," the novice said to St. Francis, "it would be a great consolation to have a psalter. Though the minister general has authorized me to get it, I would not have it unknown to you."

(francis talks to the novice about how wanting books/learning has just led to people thinking high and mighty of themselves for reading about the great things others have done and expecting praise for talking about the great deeds of others.)

...A few days later, St. Francis was sitting before the fire when the novice drew near to speak with him again about his psalter. "When you have your psalter," Francis said to him, "you will want a breviary, and when you have a breviary you will seat yourself in a pulpit like a great prelate and will beckon to your companion, 'Bring me my breviary!'"

St. Francis said this with great vivacity. Then, taking up some ashes, he scattered them over the head of the novice, repeating: "There is the breviary! There is the breviary!"