In today's Gospel Jesus asks his own, in the storm at sea, for a supplement of faith.

«Why are you afraid, [men] of little faith?» (Mt 8:26).

Even to Francis, in certain situations of life, Jesus asked for a greater faith, free from fear, because on his boat besieged by the waves of temptation was He: Christ, the Great Helmsman.

In the Sources, in the Second Life of Celano, we find a lesson in this regard:

"At a certain moment of his life, the Father suffered a most violent temptation of spirit, certainly for the sake of his crown.

For this he was distressed and full of suffering, he mortified and macerated his body, he prayed and wept in the most painful manner. This struggle lasted several years.

One day, while praying in St Mary of the Portiuncula, he heard a voice in spirit:

"Francis, if you have faith as much as a mustard seed, you will tell the mountain to move and it will move".

"Lord," replied the saint, "what is the mountain, which I wish to move?".

And the voice again:

"The mountain is your temptation".

"O Lord," replied the Saint in tears, "let it happen to me, as thou hast said.

Immediately all temptation disappeared and he felt free and completely serene in the depths of his heart" (FF 702).

Entrusting himself to Jesus, the Poverello did not become shipwrecked in the storms of life, and with Grace he was able to overcome every serious obstacle.

Clare herself, faced with pressing dangers, found the way out in the Faith and urged her sisters to do the same.

This is attested in her Letter to Ermentrude of Bruges in which she says, among other things:

"Support adversity willingly, and pride not swell your heart in prosperous things; these call you to your faith, those require it'.

Tuesday of the 13th wk. in O.T.  (Mt 8,23-27)