at length about patience, about preserving poverty, and about placing the Holy Gospel ahead of all other observances. 

As all the brothers sat around him he stretched out his right hand over them and, beginning with his vicar, he placed it on each of their heads saying:

"Good bye, my sons,
live in the fear of the Lord ^{Acts 9:31}
and remain in it always!
A great trial and tribulation is at hand!
Happy are they who will persevere
 in the things they have begun! 
I am hurrying to God,
to whose grace I commend all of you!"

He then blessed in those who were there, all the other brothers
who were living anywhere in the world, and those who were to come after them unto the end of all ages.

Let no one claim this blessing as his own
for he pronounced it for those absent through those present.
As written elsewhere
it sounded like something for an individual;^a
instead it should be redirected to the office.

Chapter CLXIII
HIS DEATH AND WHAT HE DID BEFORE IT

²¹⁷As the brothers shed bitter tears and wept inconsolably, the holy father had bread brought to him. He blessed and broke it, and gave each of them a piece to eat.

He also ordered a Book of the Gospels to be brought and asked that the Gospel according to Saint John be read to him starting from that place which begins: Before the feast of Passover. ^{Jn 13:1 b} He was remembering that most sacred Supper, the last one the Lord celebrated with his disciples. In reverent memory of this, to show his brothers how muchhe loved them, he did all of this.

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