St. Francis answered him, “When we arrive at Santa Maria degli Angeli, soaked by rain, and frozen by the cold, and befouled with mud, and afflicted with hunger, and knock at the door of the Place, and the doorkeeper comes in anger and says, ‘Who are you?’ and we say, ‘We are two of your friars,’ and he says, ‘You are not telling the truth; rather you are two lewd fellows who go about deceiving the world and robbing the alms of the poor. Get you hence,’ and he doesn’t open to us but makes us stay outside in the snow and rain, cold and hungry, until nightfall. Then, if we bear such great wrong and such cruelty and such rebuffs patiently, without disquieting ourselves and without murmuring against him and think humbly and charitably that that doorkeeper really believes us to be what he has called us and that God makes him speak against us: O Friar Leo, write that here is perfect joy.
(from The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi)
