The Library of Work and Play: HousekeepingGilman, Elizabeth Hale
General
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping
Gilman, Elizabeth Hale
Home economics
One of the stories about St. Francis tells of a flock of birds that
came to listen to a sermon he preached to them, and another is about a
wolf whom he persuaded not to hurt people any more. The reason he could
do these things, and the reason people who have never seen him love him
very dearly is because he loved everything and everybody in the world,
and God and our Lord Jesus more than all.
No one was so dirty, or so sick, that he did not want to take care of
him; no one was so cross, or so cruel, that he did not want to be kind
to him.
Every day he went about helping poor people, and sick people, and
troubled people; and he taught them all to be sorry for the wrong
things they had done, and to sing songs of joy because God loved them.
After a little, a good many men began to help him do this. They gave
everything they had to the poor, and never after that kept any money.
They worked every day to get a little food, and the rest of the time
they spent in helping and teaching people. St. Francis called them his
"Little Brothers," not because they were small or young, but because
he taught them to think themselves of no importance, and to think, if
anybody scolded them or hurt them, that they deserved it and more too.
One of these Little Brothers was named Brother Juniper. He was always
thinking of ways to help people. One day, all the Brothers went out
to work, and left Brother Juniper to take care of the little hut where
they lived, and to get some food for them. When he set about this he
began to think of the Brothers who usually did the cooking, and how
much time they had to spend every day getting food ready for the others
to eat. To be sure, they had but one good meal a day, yet even so the
cooking of it took time the Brothers might otherwise have used for
prayer, or tending the sick, or some other good work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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