Francis, a disciple of Jesus, kept away from his life the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the preoccupation with appearances on the outside without caring about the greed rooted in his heart. 

He, who had married Our Lady Poverty, was happy to give to his neighbour and for him all was world.

In this sense the Sources come to our aid, which admirably illustrate what dwelt within the Servant of God.

"Francis, the Poor Man of Christ, while on his way from Rieti to Siena for the cure of his eyes, was crossing the plain near Rocca Campiglia, in the company of a doctor fond of the Order.

And three poor women appeared along the road as the Saint passed by. They were so similar in stature, in age, in appearance, that you would have called them three copies modelled on a single mould.

When Francis was near, they, bowing their heads reverently, addressed this singular greeting to him:

"Welcome, Lady Poverty!"

The Saint was immediately filled with unspeakable joy, for there was no greeting more pleasing to him than the one they had addressed to him.

Thinking at first that the women were really poor, he turned to the doctor who accompanied him:

"Please, for the love of God, let me give something to those poor women.

The man was very quick to take out his bag and, leaping from the saddle, gave each one a few coins. 

They rode on a little further along the road they had taken, when all of a sudden, looking around, the friar and the doctor saw no shadow of women in the whole plain.

Greatly astonished, they added this fact to the wonders of the Lord, for evidently it could not have been women, those who had flown away more swiftly than birds" (FF 680). Further, we read:

"His charity extended with a brother's heart not only to men in need but also to animals [...].

He had, however, a special tenderness for lambs, because in Scripture Jesus Christ is often and rightly compared for his humility to the meek lamb' (FF 455).

Free from formalism, the Poor Man of Christ when he came across lambs that were being led to slaughter would buy them in order to save them.

He gave as alms what he had received in his heart from his God: compassion.

And Jesus' warning was not directed at them:

"Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and tray, but your inside is full of robbery and wickedness" (Lk 11:39).

This admonition concerns rather those who take glory from one another, neglecting that which pleases God: to give in alms what has been given to us.

For he who is pure everything is pure.

Tuesday 28th wk. in O.T. (Lk 11,37-41)

In today's passage to the crowds thronging in search of signs Jesus replies that only one sign will be given to them: that of the prophet Jonah.

Francis of Assisi was a man of God attentive to signs; but for him the sign of the signs through which God spoke to him was Jesus Crucified and Risen, He who three days and three nights remained in the tomb and rose again to give us true Life.

His profound adherence to the Cross was so evident that even the poor garment he wore was in the shape of a cross.

We read in the Sources:

"This herald of God, worthy to be loved by Christ, imitated by us [...] had from Heaven the mission to call men to weep, to lament [...] and to imprint with the sign of the penitential cross and with a cross-shaped garment, the Tau on the foreheads of those who groan and weep.

But he then confirms in it, with its incontestable truth, the testimony of that seal that made him like the living God, that is, like Christ Crucified.

A seal that was imprinted in his body not by the work of nature or the skill of an artificer, but rather by the marvellous power of the Spirit of the living God". (FF 1022).

That sign which one of his disciples converted by Francis and later became Brother Pacifico "saw with his own bodily eyes: Francis marked in the form of a cross by two swords, placed crosswise, very bright: one stretched from his head to his feet, the other, transversely, from one hand to the other, at the height of his breast.

The Crucifix and the Cross was for him the sign of Jonah who turned his life upside down at San Damiano:

"the image of Christ Crucified from the painting spoke to him, moving his lips" (FF 593).

"From that moment, the Compassion of the Crucified One became fixed in his holy soul and, as can be piously believed, the venerable Stigmata of the Passion, though not yet in the flesh, became deeply impressed in his heart" (FF 594).

"This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, and no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah" (Lk 11:29).

Monday, 28th wk. in O.T. (Lk 11,29-32)

After the Crucifix of San Damiano had spoken to him, inviting him to repair his house, which was falling into ruin (referring mainly to the Church made of living stones, rather than to the walls), Francis immediately set about selling what he had with him.

In fact, in the Major Legend of St. Bonaventure, we read: "He got up, therefore, making the sign of the cross, and taking some cloths with him, hastened to the city of Foligno to sell them.

He sold all that he had brought; he also got rid, fortunate merchant, of the horse, with which he had come, collecting the price.

Returning to Assisi, he devoutly entered the church he had been commissioned to restore.

He found a poor priest there [...] and offered him the money to repair the church and humbly requested that he allow him to live with him for some time.

The priest agreed that he should stay; but, for fear of his parents, he did not accept the money - and that true despiser of money - threw him out of a window, estimating him to be abject dust' (FF 1039).

But even his son-brothers, called to follow Him who alone is good, abandoned all possessions to follow the new way traced out by Francis following the Gospel.

"Bernard, a citizen of Assisi, humbly begged him to give him his advice: what to do to stop enjoying the goods of some lord and live according to God.

Francis told him that he must return them all to the master from whom he had received them and then added:

"If you want to prove with facts what you say, as soon as it is daylight, let us go into the church, take the book of the Gospel and ask Christ for advice". 

When morning comes, they enter a church and, having prayed devoutly, they open the book of the Gospel, willing to carry out the first advice offered to them.

They open the book, and Christ manifests his advice in these words:

"If you want to be perfect, go, sell all you possess and give to the poor".

Without delay Bernard did everything and did not omit a single iota" (FF 601).

Clare herself, in her first letter to Agnes of Bohemia, emphasises among other things:

"This exchange is truly magnificent and worthy of all praise: to refuse earthly goods in order to have those of Heaven, to deserve heavenly goods instead of earthly ones, to receive the hundredfold and to possess the blessed life for eternity" (FF 2868).

All that is impossible for men is possible with God!

28th Sunday, O.T.  B  (Mk 10:17-30)

In these few verses of today's Gospel is contained the true blessedness, enunciated by Jesus, of those who know how to listen and embody the Word of God in the folds of daily life.

Francis, who considered himself simple and idiotic, passionately loved the Word of God.

In fact, when he came across its letters on the ground, he would pick them up for due consideration.

The Sources attest to this, in the first letter [written by him] to the Keepers:

"Even the writings containing the names and words of the Lord, wherever they are found in inconvenient places, let them be collected and placed in a worthy place" (FF 242).

Clare herself, a little plant of the Seraphic Father, recalls in her Testament how much Francis loved and lived the Word, giving it as an example:

"The Son of God became our way; and this by word and example our blessed Father Francis, true lover and imitator of Him, showed and taught us" (FF 2824).

And to those who asked him if he was pleased that educated people should enter the Order, he replied:

"I have pleasure in it; provided, however, that following the example of Christ, of whom we read not so much that he studied as that he prayed, they do not neglect to dedicate themselves to prayer, and provided they study not so much to know how they should speak, as to put into practice the things they have learned, and, only when they have put them into practice, propose them to others.

I want my brothers to be disciples of the Gospel and to progress in the knowledge of the truth, so that at the same time they may grow in the purity of simplicity" (FF 1188).

"And the principal reason why he revered the ministers of the Word of God was this: that they revive the offspring of their dead brother, that is, they revive Christ, who was crucified for sinners, when they convert them, being their guide with pious solicitude and solicitous piety.

He affirmed that this office of piety is more pleasing than any sacrifice to the Father of mercies, especially if it is fulfilled with zeal dictated by perfect charity, so that one labours in it more by example than by word, more by the tears of prayer than by the loquacity of speeches" (FF 1135).

"For he had never been a deaf hearer of the Gospel, but, entrusting to a commendable memory all that he heard, he sought with all diligence to follow it to the letter" (FF 357).

"Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and [keep] it" (v.28).

Saturday of the 27th wk. in O.T. (Lk 11,27-28)

Jesus testifies to the onlookers that He casts out demons not by Beelzebul but by the Finger of God, by the work of Him.

As Jesus did, so Francis had temptations and was greatly tried by the devil.

But the Finger of God, the Holy Spirit, won every battle in him, extending the Kingdom of heaven in hearts.

Like Francis, Clare too encountered such trials from which, by the Grace of God, she always emerged unscathed, because she was not divided, but totally united with Christ.

The Sources are eloquent bearers of great existential and spiritual truth. Let us look at what they tell us in this regard.

"In those places he had to fight hand to hand with the devil, who confronted him in order to frighten him not only with interior temptations, but also exteriorly with clashes and ruin.

But Francis, as a very strong soldier of Christ, knowing full well that his Lord could do everything everywhere, did not let himself be frightened at all, but repeated in his heart:

'You cannot, O evil one, unleash the weapons of your malice against me in these places any more than you would do to me if we were in the crowd'" (FF 446).

And a friar, who had long been harassed by the assaults of the devil and wept at the feet of Francis, was delivered by him:

"the Father felt pity for him and understood that he was tormented by malignant instigations:

"I command you, O demons," he exclaimed, "by the virtue of God, not to torment my brother any more from now on, as you have dared so far.

Immediately that gloomy darkness dissipated, the friar rose free and felt no more torment, as if he had always been free of it" (FF 697).

Clare was also attacked several times by the enemy.

"While she was once weeping, in the middle of the night, the angel of darkness appeared to her in the form of a black child, and thus admonished her: Do not weep so much, for you will go blind!

But, she answered him at once:

"He will not be blind who will see God", he turned away in confusion" (FF 3198).

And in the first letter to her spiritual daughter, Agnes of Bohemia, Clare expresses herself thus:

"The man covered with clothes cannot pretend to wrestle with an unclothed man, for he who offers a grasp to his adversary is sooner thrown to the ground" (FF 1867).

The servants of God, in their simplicity, have clear ideas, because they are guided by the Finger of God - and they do not give up the authentic Vocation.

"But if by the Finger of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come for you" (Lk 11:20).

Friday, 27th wk. in O.T. (Lk 11:15-26)

Chapter eleven of Luke goes on to show how confident and persevering prayer not only obtains what is asked, but more: the great gift of the Holy Spirit.

In the Sources, the example of Francis is magnificent.

Poor in the things of the world but rich in the Spirit of God, the Poverello considered the Lord as the Great Helmsman who gives abundantly to those who trust in Him.

In the Sources we find an indicative episode:

"The servant of God, who had become very ill, was brought back to Assisi from Nocera by an escort of ambassadors, whom the devout people of Assisi had sent.

The escorts, with the servant of God, arrived at a little poor village called Satriano.

As the hour and hunger made them feel the need for food, they went to look for it in the village. But finding nothing to buy, they returned empty-handed.

Then the Saint said to these men:

"If you have found nothing, it is because you have more faith in your flies than in God (by 'flies' he meant money).

But go back to the houses through which you passed and humbly ask for alms, offering as payment the love of God.

And do not think that this is a shameful and humiliating gesture: it is a wrong thought, because the Great Almsman, after sin, has made all goods available to the worthy and the unworthy, with most generous kindness'.

The knights put aside their blushes, spontaneously went begging and managed to buy with the love of God what they had not obtained with money.

Indeed, those poor people, moved and inspired by God, generously offered not only their belongings but also themselves.

And so it came to pass that Francis' poverty made up for the indigence that money could not alleviate" (FF 1130).

On the other hand, the Servant of the Lord throughout his life had always believed that God offers much more than we think, giving the Holy Spirit - the Sum of all good things.

In fact, in the Regola bollata (1223) Francis states that one must "desire above all things [...] to have the Spirit of the Lord and his Holy operation" (FF 104), which rests on those who live the Gospel faithfully.

The Poor Man of Christ, in fact, considered Him the Minister of the Order.

And He said:

"With God [...] there is no preference of persons and the Holy Spirit, the general minister of the Order, rests equally on the poor and the simple" (FF 779).

"How much more will the Father who is from heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" (Lk 11:13b).

Thursday of the 27th wk. in O.T. (Lk 11,5-13)

After praying, Jesus receives a request from the disciples to teach them how to pray.

Thus he gives them the 'Our Father'.

If we look in the Franciscan Sources we realise how important prayer was for the little Poor Man.

Francis, the Herald of the Great King, was no longer so much a man who prayed as a creature made prayer.

And just as the disciples, when they saw Jesus praying, asked him to teach them to pray, so the friars who had the good fortune to see Francis immersed in prayer, asked him to teach them.

"When, then, the brothers asked him to teach them to pray, he said: When you pray, say:

"Our Father" and "We adore you, O Christ, in all your churches which are in the whole world, and we bless you, because through your holy cross you have redeemed the world" (FF 1068).

"Moreover, he taught them to praise God in all creatures and [...] to confess frankly the truth of the faith" (FF 1069).

And in his writings (specifically, the Paraphrase of the "Our Father"):

"O most holy Our Father: creator, redeemer, consoler and our Saviour. Who art in heaven: in the angels and in the saints, enlightening them to knowledge, because thou, Lord, art light: enkindling them to love, because thou, Lord, art love; making thy dwelling in them and filling them with bliss, because thou, Lord, art the supreme good, eternal, from whom all good comes and without whom no good exists' (FF 266- 267).

He recommended to his brothers not to neglect prayer. Indeed:

"Above all else," he firmly asserted, "the religious must desire the grace of prayer" and he urged his brothers in every possible way to practise it zealously, convinced that no one makes progress in the service of God without it.

Walking and sitting, at home and away, working and resting, he was so intent on prayer that he seemed to have devoted every part of himself to it, not only his heart and body but also his activity and time" (FF 1176).

"When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come" (Lk 11:2).

Wednesday of the 27th wk in O.T. (Lk 11,1-4)

Francis of Assisi, the Knower and the Least of God, always had clear in his conscience the importance and necessity of the contemplative life, tempered by work that keeps idleness at bay and conforms to Christ. He demanded this for himself and for his brothers. He went so far as to say that serving his brothers was worth more than any stay in the hermitages, where he himself loved to go when he could.

We read in his writings: "And I worked with my own hands, and I want to work; and I firmly want all the other brothers to work as befits honesty. Those who do not know, let them learn, not for the greed of receiving the reward of work, but to set an example and keep idleness at bay" (FF 119).

Furthermore: "We are convinced that [...] those who live differently in hermitages have been reproached a great deal. Many, in fact, transform the place of contemplation into idleness and the hermit's way of life, instituted to allow souls perfection, reduces it to a place of pleasure [...] Certainly this reproach is not for everyone. We know that there are saints [...] who follow excellent laws in the hermitage" (FF 765).

Even among the friars there was discussion about whether to live in contemplation or action, in fact in the Major Legend it is written:

"While, firm in their holy purpose, they faced the Spoletana valley, they began to discuss whether they should spend their lives among the people or dwell in solitary places. 

But Francis, the servant of Christ, not trusting in his own experience or that of his own, entrusted himself to prayer, to insistently seek what the disposition of the divine will was on this point.

He was thus enlightened with an answer from Heaven and understood that he had been sent by the Lord for this purpose: to win souls for Christ [...] And so he chose to live for all, rather than for himself alone, spurred on by the example of the One who deigned to die, He alone, for all men" (FF1066).

But love for prayer and listening to the Word always accompanied his actions and those of his brothers.

"The tireless dedication to prayer [...] had brought the man of God to such clarity of spirit that [...] he scrutinised the depths of the Scriptures with a clear and acute intellect. He read the sacred books and kept tenaciously imprinted in his memory what he had once assimilated: for he continually ruminated with affectionate devotion what he had listened to with an attentive mind" (FF1187).

Transformed into prayer, without failing in service:

Francis had a special predilection for the Word of God, and in him, without failing in the services to be rendered to his neighbour, he always gave priority to listening to what the Lord asked or taught, fixing it well in his mind.

He had chosen the good part that no one could take away from him. 

Indeed, the Sources instruct us in this regard:

"He spent all his time in holy recollection in order to imprint Wisdom in his heart; he feared to turn back if he did not always make progress.

And if at times there were urgent visits from seculars or other matters, he would cut them off rather than finish them, to take refuge again in contemplation [...].

He was always looking for a secluded place, where he could unite himself not only with his spirit, but with his individual limbs to his God" (FF 681).

"Often without moving his lips, he would meditate for a long time within himself and, concentrating the external powers within, he would lift himself up with his spirit to heaven. In this way he directed his whole mind and affection to the one thing he asked of God: he was not so much a praying man as he himself was transformed into a living prayer" (FF 682).

He had understood the essence of the Gospel.

When he was infirm and full of pain, to a friar who had learned from Francis to take refuge in the Scriptures and who now invited him to have them read to him for relief, the Saint replied:

"It is good to read the testimonies of Scripture, and it is good to seek in them the Lord our God. But, as for me, I have already taken so much from the Scriptures as to be more than sufficient for my meditation and reflection. I need no more, Son: I know Christ poor and crucified' (FF 692).

Jesus, to the one who asks: "And who is my neighbour?" (Lk 10:29) answers by telling a story.

When faced with someone lying on the ground, one should not pass by, but rather come to his aid, take care of him, because every person who is beaten is one's neighbour, whoever he may be.

The Poverello, who had received mercy from the Lord, had learned the lesson well enough to apply it "sine glossa", literally towards everyone, starting with the most needy and marginalised of his time.

The Poor Man's encounter with lepers constitutes a fundamental page in his growth in the Spirit.

It was a crossroads that profoundly modified him and changed the coordinates of his interior life.

For those unfortunate people he feels compassion and "passion", willing to help them in any way he can, because he is the Suffering Servant.

We read in his wonderful Testament

"The Lord gave me, Brother Francis, to begin to do penance in this way: when I was in sin, it seemed to me too bitter to see lepers; and the Lord himself led me among them and I used Mercy with them.

And as I turned away from them, what seemed bitter to me was changed to sweetness of soul and body" (FF 110).

Thus "the Saint goes among the lepers and lives with them, to serve them in every need for the love of God. He washes their decaying bodies and heals their virulent sores [...].

For the sight of lepers, as he attests, was at first so unbearable to him, that as soon as he saw their shelter two miles away, he plugged his nose with his hands.

But here is what happened: at the time when he had already begun, by the Grace and virtue of the Most High, to have holy and wholesome thoughts, while he was still living in the world, one day a leper stood before him: he did violence to himself, approached him and kissed him.

From that moment he decided to despise himself more and more, until through the mercy of the Redeemer he obtained full victory" (FF 348).

And Francis healed many lepers:

"In the city of Fano, a young man named Bonomo, considered by all the doctors to be a leper and a paralytic, as soon as he was offered very devoutly by his parents to Blessed Francis, was freed from leprosy and paralysis and regained full health" (FF 564).

The care he lavished on lepers, as the Good Samaritan of the Gospel, was transformed, by the gift of the Lord, into power and efficacy in healing diseases of body and spirit.

He had visceral compassion for these souls abandoned to themselves and lived the Gospel of the derelict and marginalised to the letter, loving with extraordinary fondness the Lazarus of his time and beyond.

"Go, do likewise" (Lk 10:37).

Monday, 27th wk. in O.T. (Lk 10,25-37)