The enemy suggests to the Son of God a different way from the Father, but Jesus shrugs off that stench.

Francis' life had undergone a radical change when the Physician Jesus had spoken to him.

The Poor Man had realised that he was loved and that, by following Him, he would be healed from self-worship to render it to God alone.

The Crucifix at San Damiano and the leper he had met had changed him inwardly.

The Minim of Assisi devoted himself to frequent fasts and nights in prayer, for periods of forty days (in consonance with the forty days Jesus spent in the desert).

He did this often - apart from the period before Easter.

At those times he would suspend his apostolic commitments, retiring to hermitages: simple and austere places, far from the cities.

There, as his biographer Celano recalls, he would build his nest in the clefts of the rock*.

The Sources chronicle his Lenten periods, where he was often put to the test.

"Two years before he rendered his spirit to God, after many and various labours, divine Providence drew him aside and led him to a lofty mountain, called the mountain of La Verna.

Here he had begun, according to his custom, to fast during Lent in honour of St Michael the Archangel, when he began to feel flooded with extraordinary sweetness in contemplation, inflamed by a more lively flame of celestial desires, filled with richer divine gifts [...] intent on seeking God's will, to which he yearned with the greatest ardour to conform himself in everything" (FF1223).

La Verna was par excellence "the desert" of Francis, where, as happened to Jesus in arid places, he was subjected to oppressive temptations.

While the Saint was in prayer, there "came a great multitude of ferocious demons [...] and they began strongly to fight and vex him" (FF 1901).

But he began to shout aloud:

"O damned spirits, you can do nothing except as much as the hand of God permits you [...] And I am prepared to cheerfully endure every punishment and every adversity that you, my God, want to send me for my sins".

Then the demons, confused and overcome by his constancy and patience, departed" (FF 1901).

He fed more than on material bread on that of the Holy Word and taught his brothers to adore God alone, wherever they were, trusting in divine care and solicitude.

In fact, his sons, faithful to Francis' exhortation, when they passed near a church, would stop and prone, with body and spirit, adore the Almighty, saying: "We adore you, O Christ, in all your churches" (FF 401).

The power of the Holy Spirit placed them in the right attitude of need, before power or success, just as Christ had instructed them, without allowing themselves to be caged by such seductions.

"It is written: 'The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and him only shalt thou worship.

"And the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness tempted by Satan, and was with the beasts"

*Famous is the hermitage of the Carceri, near Assisi; in reality Francis created twenty in central Italy.

[1st Sunday in Lent]

Levi's call and sharing the table with him produced scandal among the Pharisees, but Jesus taught them that it is the sick who need the doctor!

Francis and Clare saw in their vocation and that of the brothers and sisters who followed them an attractive and fundamental appointment in their existence.

Through the Call, God was realising a secret gift in them, far beyond the expectations of a petty life.

Regarding Francis, we read in the Sources:

As he was passing near the church of St Damian, he was inspired to enter it. He went there, and began to pray fervently before the image of the Crucifix, who spoke to him with moving goodness:

"Francis, do you not see that my house is falling down? Go, then, and restore it".

Trembling and astonished, the young man replied:

"I will do it gladly, Lord".

However, he had misunderstood; he thought it was about that church which, because of its antiquity, threatened imminent ruin.

At those words of Christ he became immensely happy and radiant; he felt in his soul that it was really the Crucified One who had given him the message.

As he left the church, he found a priest sitting nearby, and putting his hand in his purse, he offered him money, saying:

"Sir, I beg you to buy oil to make a lamp burn before that Crucifix. When this money is finished, I will bring you more, according to need" (FF 1411).

The Poverello, considering minority as a specific vocation of the Friar, was worried because "he saw that some ardently desired the offices of the Order, of which they made themselves unworthy, apart from anything else, even for the mere ambition to govern. And he said that these were not Friars Minor, but had forgotten their vocation and had fallen from glory" (FF 729).

Clare, regarding the vocation of the sisters residing at San Damiano, also expressed herself in her Testament as follows:

"The Lord himself has placed us as a model, as an example and mirror not only for other men, but also for our sisters, those whom the Lord himself has called to follow our vocation, so that they too may shine as a mirror and example for all those who live in the world" (FF 2829).

«I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to conversion» (Lk 5:32)

Saturday after the Ashes  (Lk 5:27-32)

Jesus replied to John's disciples, who were fasting a lot, surprising them: as long as the Bridegroom is with his wedding guests, they cannot fast.

Francis knew well how to discern between the importance of fasting and the exaggeration of doing it. Indeed, in his life, never did form take the place of substance.

The Sources illustrate:

"Francis rebuked his brothers who were too hard on themselves and who reached exhaustion by dint of vigils, fasts, prayers and corporal penances [...].

The man of God forbade such excesses, admonishing those brothers lovingly and calling them to common sense, healing their wounds with the medicine of wise instructions [...].

He spoke with them, identifying himself with their situation, not as a judge then, but as an understanding father with his children and as a compassionate doctor with his own sick. He knew how to be sick with the sick, afflicted with the afflicted" (FF 1470).

All this while being "a new man, [who] with new virtues renewed the way of perfection that had disappeared from the world" (FF 3162).

«Can the wedding guests be afflicted as long as the Bridegroom is with them?» (Mt 9:15)

Friday after Ash Wednesday  (Mt 9:14-15)

Jesus emphasises how 'to lose' one's life for the cause of the Kingdom is, in truth, to gain it.

Francis, at the beginning of the Regola non bollata (1221), writes that the brothers wished to live following the example of the Lord Jesus.

He emphasises various expressions of the Gospel, highlighting the importance of denying oneself and taking up the cross.

The pious father often gathered his sons around him and spoke at length about the Kingdom of God "the contempt of the world, the necessity of denying one's own will" (FF 1058), teaching them.

"Go [...] proclaim peace to men; preach penance for the remission of sins. Be patient in tribulation, watchful in prayer [...]" (FF 1058).

Leaving oneself to embrace the call in all its breadth, willing to lose one's life to find it in the incarnate Word, was the motif of their daily life.

Illuminating is a passage from the Sources, taken from the Major Legend:

"While one day he was praying, so isolated from the world, and was all absorbed in God, in the excess of his fervour Christ Jesus appeared to him, like one confined on a cross.

On seeing him, he felt his soul melt. The memory of Christ's passion was so vividly imprinted in the innermost recesses of his heart, that from that moment on, when Christ's crucifixion came to his mind, he could hardly restrain himself, even outwardly, from tears and sighs, as he himself reported in confidence later, when he was approaching death.

The man of God understood that, through this vision, God was addressing to him that maxim of the Gospel: 'If you want to come after me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me' (FF 1035).

But Clare too, her blessed father's first seedling, always endeavoured to deny herself, spurring her own soul and that of her sisters with assiduous meditation on the Passion of Christ.

"To nourish her soul uninterruptedly with the ineffable joys of the Crucifix, she meditated very frequently on the prayer of the five wounds of the Lord. She learned the Office of the Cross, as St Francis, the lover of the cross, had composed it, and she used to recite it with equal love" (FF 3216).

In her wonderful letter to Ermentrude of Bruges*, Clare expresses herself thus:

"Lift up your eyes to heaven, O dearest, for it is an invitation to us, and take up your cross and follow Christ who goes before us. For after many and various tribulations, it is He who will lead us into His glory.

Love God with all your heart, and Jesus, His Son crucified for us sinners, and never let the memory of Him fall from your mind.

Meditate without tiring yourself on the mystery of the cross and on the sorrows of the Mother standing at the foot of the cross" (FF 2915).

Clare, following the example of Francis, lived the Holy Word of the Gospel enclosed in St Damian's, out of love for the Bridegroom, repudiating every worldly ambition.

In the time in which she lived, she chose to live as a recluse for those she loved and by whom she felt loved.

The penitential and renegade dimension is no longer so harsh and disconcerting, when it is Charity that exudes from the walls the beauty of the spousal and regenerative experience she had, by Grace, as well as so many of her sisters.

Ermentrude is responsible for the spread of the Order of the Poor Clares in Flanders.

«For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it» (Lk 9:24)

Thursday after Ash Wednesday  (Lk 9:22-25)

On this Ash Wednesday, the liturgy brings to our reflection three cornerstones of the Lenten season that is beginning.

The focus is on discreet charity, on prayer in hiddenness, on fasting from sin combined with bodily fasting, attested by a joyful countenance.

The Poor Man of Assisi, after his initial conversion, never ceased meditating on Jesus' forty days in the desert, before his public life, and constantly thought of the Passover of the Lamb sacrificed for our redemption.

Francis lived his entire existence according to a penitential style, never allowing form to dominate over substance; implementing the Word in a wise human and spiritual balance, synonymous with inner stature.

He was hard on himself, but tender and compassionate with the brothers who exceeded in debilitating fasts.

In the Sources we read:

"Francis reproached his brothers who were too hard on themselves, and who reached exhaustion by dint of vigils, fasts, prayers and corporal penances.

Some in fact, in order to repress the ardour of their senses, inflicted torments on themselves so cruel that they seemed to be driven by suicide.

The man of God forbade such excesses, admonishing those brothers lovingly and calling them to common sense, healing their wounds with the medicine of wise instructions" (FF 1470).

He continually brought Christ's Passion to mind and called for mortification.

"If he was at table with people of the world and they offered him food to his taste, he would barely taste it, making some excuse so that they would not notice that he was depriving himself of it out of penance.

And eating with the brothers, he often put ashes on the food, saying, to disguise his abstinence: 'Sister ashes is chaste!

But also, out of love for the brothers, he knew how to make himself one with their needs and weaknesses.

"Although, then, with all his strength he encouraged the brothers to an austere life, he did not like that intransigent severity that does not cover the heart of piety and is not seasoned with the salt of discretion.

One friar, due to excessive fasting, could not sleep at all one night, tormented as he was by hunger. Realising the pitiful shepherd that his sheep was in danger, he called the friar over, put some bread in front of him and, to prevent him from blushing, he began to eat first, while gently inviting the other to eat" (FF 1095).

So the brother banished his shame and contentedly took food.

Francis' vigilance and condescension had prevented the friar's body from being harmed, giving him cause for great edification.

In the morning, explaining the incident to his sons, he said to them:

"To you brothers, let not food but charity be an example" (FF 1095).

The Minim was animated by a strong contemplative sense.

Celano, in the Second Life, informs us:

"He was not so much a praying man as he himself was transformed into living prayer" (FF 681).

He was always looking for secluded spaces where he could be united with Christ.

"And if he suddenly felt visited by the Lord, so as not to be without a cell, he made himself a small one with his cloak.

And if at times he was without it, he would cover his face with his sleeve, so as not to reveal the hidden manna" (FF 681).

«When you pray, enter into your chamber, and shut your door [Is 26:20; 2 Kings 4:33] pray to your Father, who [is] in secret» (Mt 6:6)

That conversion, which began for the Poverello when he stopped worshipping himself (as the Sources say), lasted for the whole of his life, fading in the three directions described and suggested by the Gospel.

"But when you give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret, and your Father who looks in secret will [render] it to you" (Mt 6:3-4)

Ash Wednesday (Mt 6:1-6.16-18)

The Minim of Assisi, in order to follow Jesus and live his Gospel, renounced everything (literally) after his conversion to be free to follow in his Lord's footsteps.

He understood that earthly goods are a stumbling block to the evangelical freedom of 'becoming one' with the Master.

Hence we read in the Sources:

"On the advice of the bishop of the town, a very pious man, who did not think it right to use ill-gotten money for sacred purposes, the man of God returned to his father the sum, which he wanted to spend on the restoration of the church. And in front of many who had gathered and were listening:

"From now on," he exclaimed, "I will be able to say freely: Our Father, who art in heaven, not Father Peter of Bernardone. Behold, I will not only return him the money, but I will also return him all my garments. Thus, I will go naked to meet the Lord'.

O noble soul of a man, to whom Christ alone suffices!" (FF 597).

When the first companions began to arrive, who wanted to live like him, Francis "taught, having learned it by revelation, that the first step in holy religion consists in fulfilling that word of the Gospel: if you want to be perfect, go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor.

So he admitted to the Order only those who had renounced property and kept absolutely nothing for themselves.

So he did, in homage to the word of the Gospel, but also to avoid the scandal of private purses' (FF 1121).

«Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, who does not receive a hundredfold now, in this time, in houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, together with persecutions, and in the age to come, the life of the LORD» (Mk 10:29-30)

In the light of the Gospel, at the time:

"Several men of culture and famous men of letters, both of the laity and the clergy, renouncing the allurements of pleasures, sin and worldly greed, entered the Order in their turn, committing themselves to follow, each according to the particular grace received from God, the poverty and the example of Christ and His servant Francis" (FF 1487- legend of the three companions).

In the section of the Sources: "Chronicles and other testimonies" we find out about the brothers:

"They then strove so diligently to renew in themselves the religion, poverty and humility of the early Church, drawing with thirst and ardour of spirit from the pure waters that flow from the spring of the Gospel [...] renouncing all possessions, denying themselves and, taking up their cross, naked they follow the naked Christ.

Like Joseph, they lay down their cloak*; like the Samaritan woman, their amphora, and they run free and light, before the Face of the Lord, never looking back. 'Forgetting past things, they always lean forward [...]' (FF 2218).

Holy love is content with the fruit of prayer and it is its characteristic to disregard earthly gifts, thinking only of serving the Word in the brothers, with freedom of spirit.

*Jacobus of Vitry captured, in particular, the apostolic commitment of the Friars Minor.

Tuesday 8th wk. in O.T.  (Mk 10:28-31)

Francis of Assisi was in love with Our Lady Poverty; he married her and esteemed her because she was chosen by the Son of God, who had nowhere to lay his head.

He was so evangelically attracted to her that he took pity when he met creatures poorer than himself.

The Sources recount:

"It happened to him, during a journey, to meet a poor man. Seeing her nakedness, he was saddened in his heart and said to his companion in a voice of lamentation 

"The misery of this man has brought us great shame; for we, as our only wealth, have chosen poverty: and behold, it shines more brightly in him than in us" (FF 1126).

And he advised Bernard, a citizen of Assisi, who later became his companion in the following of Christ, to leave his possessions, considered a false feud.

But to be sure, 'when morning came, they entered a church and, having prayed devoutly, opened the book of the Gospel, willing to carry out the first advice offered them.

They opened the book, and Christ manifested his advice in these words: 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell all you possess and give to the poor. They repeated the gesture, and the passage came up: "Take nothing for the journey". A third time again, and they read: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself".

Without delay Bernard carried out everything and did not omit a single iota. Many others, in a short time, freed themselves from the mordacious cares of the world and, under the guidance of Francis, returned to the infinite good in the true homeland.

But it would take too long to say how each one achieved the prize of the divine call" (FF 601).

Clare herself had requested and obtained from Pope Gregory IX the Privilege of Poverty (17 September 1228) in written form.

This document assured the Poor Sisters of St. Damien the right to live without any property in this world, following in the footsteps of the One who, for our sake, became poor and the Way, the Truth and the Life.

In the same Rule, concerning those who wanted to enter the monastery to follow Christ, Clare says:

"And if she is fit, let the word of the holy Gospel be spoken to her: let her go and sell all her possessions and endeavour to distribute them to the poor. If this cannot be done, good will suffices' (FF 2757).

And in her first letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague, her spiritual daughter, she wrote:

"O blessed poverty! To those who love you and embrace you procure eternal riches!

O holy poverty! To those who possess and desire you God promises the kingdom of heaven, and infallibly offers eternal glory and blessed life.

O pious poverty! Thee the Lord Jesus Christ [...] deigned to embrace in preference to all else" (FF 2864).

«One thing you lack: go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me» (Mk 10:21)

Monday 8th wk. in O.T.  (Mk 10:17-27)

Francis of Assisi was a bitter enemy of judgement.

The phrase from the Gospel that underlines this evil was indelibly written in his memory.

«Why do you look at the mote in your brother's eye but the beam in your own eye do you not see?» (Lk 6:41).

He was careful not to forget that every tree is recognised by its fruit.

The legend of the three companions in the Sources relates:

"He insisted that the brothers judge no one, and look not with contempt on those who live in luxury and dress with exaggerated refinement and pomp, for God is our Lord and theirs, and he has the power to call them to himself and to make them righteous [...].

This is our vocation: to heal the wounds, to bind up the broken, to call the lost.

Many, who seem to us members of the devil, may one day become disciples of Christ" (FF 1469).

In the Legenda Perugina we find an enlightening episode concerning the tree that is characterised by the fruit it produces.

A young friar came to Francis yearning for the Psalter.

The friar warned him of the vanity of having the breviary afterwards, mounting up like a prelate and asking his brother to bring him the breviary.

A few months later, the friar returned to the Poverello to speak to him again about the psalter.

Francis said to him:

"Go and do as your minister tells you" (FF1628).

At those words the young man began to return the way he had come.

But the saint began to reflect on what he had said and "suddenly he cried out after him:

"Wait for me, brother, wait for me!".

He went up to him and said:

"Come back with me, brother, and show me the place where I told you to do, concerning the psalter, what the minister will tell you".

When they arrived at that place, Francis bowed down before the friar and getting down on his knees said:

"My fault, brother, my fault! Whoever wants to be a 'minor' must have only the cassock, the rope and the breeches, as the Rule says, and in addition footwear, for those who are constrained by obvious necessity or illness".

To all the brothers who came to consult him on the subject, he gave the same answer. And he would say:

"As much a man knows, as much he does; and as much a religious is a good preacher, as much he himself acts".

As if to say: the good tree is known by the fruit it produces" (FF 1628).

Clare of Assisi was also, in the Spoleto valley, a tree of good fruit, as the same papal bull Clara Claris Praeclara emphasises, extolling its qualitative stature.

"This was the tall tree, reaching towards the heavens, with expanded branches, which in the field of the Church produced sweet fruits of religion, and in whose pleasant and pleasant shade many followers flocked from all sides, and still flock to enjoy its fruits" (FF 3294).

«For every tree is known by its own fruit» (Lk 6:44)

8th Sunday in O.T.(C)  (Lk 6,39-45)