We yearn, many of us, for a deeper spiritual life; we sorrow because the joy of life seems flitting ever further and further away from this complex social organism of ours. We seek direction, and the Poverello is here to lead us; and the way he leads is that of detachment and renunciation. But his own personality and life are an assurance to us that the renunciation he preaches, leads to richer gain; he leads us through death, only that we may find life even here, in some measure, upon the earth, and in the fulness of the spirit hereafter. Thus and not otherwise does he interpret to us the Poverty of Christ. FATHER CUTHBERT, O.S.F.C. Crawley, Feast of St Anthony of Padua, 1901. APPENDICES APPENDIX I A PRAYER OF THE BLESSED FRANCIS TO OBTAIN HOLY POVERTY. O Lord Jesus! Show me the ways of Thy dearly-loved Poverty. I know that the Old Testament was but a Figure of the New. In the Old, Thou hast promised that “every place that your foot shall tread upon, shall be {Deut. xi. 24.} yours.” To tread under foot is to despise; Poverty treads all Things under foot, therefore she is the Queen of all Things. But, O my dear Lord Jesus, have pity upon me and upon my Lady Poverty, for I am consumed with Love for her, and can know no rest without her. Thou knowest all this, my Lord, Thou who didst fill me with the Love of her. But she sitteth in sadness, rejected of all; she, the Mistress of Nations, is become as a Widow; the Queen of all Virtues is become contemptible; {Lament. i. 1.} and sitting upon a dunghill she lamenteth that all her friends have despised her and have become her enemies; for long now she knows them to be wantons and no Spouses of hers. Remember, O Lord Jesus, that Poverty is so much the Queen of the Virtues, that Thou, forsaking the dwelling-place of the Angels, didst descend upon Earth in order to espouse her in Love Everlasting, and so as to bring forth in her, and by her, and through her, all the Children of Perfection. And she clung to Thee with such Fidelity, that even within Thy Mother’s womb she paid Thee homage, for Thy Infant Body was, it is thought, the smallest of all. And at Thy Birth she received Thee in a Holy Manger and Stable; and in Thy Life upon Earth she so deprived Thee of all things, that Thou hadst no place where to lay Thy Head. And as a faithful Helpmeet she followed Thee loyally when Thou didst go forth to do battle for our Redemption, and in the Agony of the Passion she was Thy only Armour-bearer. When Thy Disciples denied Thee and fled, she alone did not leave Thee, but was Thy faithful Companion with all the host of her Princes.