They returned with the brother, and when St.Francis gave them the assurance of the pardon of God, they changed their lives and entered the Order, in which they lived and died most holily.[22] What has sometimes been said of the voice of the blood is still more true of the voice of the soul.

When a man truly wakens another to moral life, he gains for himself an unspeakable gratitude.

The word _master_ is often profaned, but it can express the noblest and purest of earthly ties.
Who are those among us, who in the hours of manly innocence when they examine their own consciences, do not see rising up before them from out of the past the ever beloved and loving face of one who, perhaps without knowing it, initiated them into spiritual things?
At such a time we would throw ourselves at the feet of this father, would tell him in burning words of our admiration and gratitude.

We cannot do it, for the soul has its own bashfulness; but who knows that our disquietude and embarrassment do not betray us, and unveil, better than words could do, the depths of our heart?
The air they breathed at Portiuncula was all impregnated with joy and gratitude like this.
To many of the Brothers, St.Francis was truly a saviour; he had delivered them from chains heavier than those of prisons.

And therefore their greatest desire was in their turn to call others to this same liberty.
We have already seen Brother Bernardo on a mission to Florence a few months after his entrance into the Order.