ST.FRANCIS OF ASSISI : BLESSING TO BRO.LEO
Once, when St.Francis and Bro.Leo were together at Mount La Verna, Leo “longed with a great desire to have something encouraging from the words of the Lord noted down briefly in the hand of St.Francis. For he believed he would escape by this means a serious temptation that troubled him, not indeed of the flesh but of the spirit, or at least that he would be able to resist it more easily. Languishing with such a desire, he nevertheless was afraid to make known the matter to the most holy father. But what man did not tell Francis, the Spirit revealed to him. One day Blessed Francis called this brother and said : ‘Bring me some paper and ink, for I want to write down the words of the Lord and his praises which I have meditated upon in my heart.* After these things he had asked for were quickly brought to him, he wrote down with his own hand the Praises of God and the words he wanted, and lastly a blessing for that brother, saying: ‘Take this paper and guard it carefully till the day of your death. Immediately every temptation went to flight, and the writing was kept and afterwards it worked wonderful things. The original sheet of paper with these Praises is preserved today in a reliquary in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi. On the one side of the paper is the text of the Praises of God. It is in the handwriting of St.Francis, but it is difficult to read, for quite obviously Brother Leo followed the advice of St.Francis and kept it with him, but in a folded state. Consequently, the various, manuscripts give varying readings of the text.
