Francis called his companions to himself with the illuminating power of his special calling in his following Christ in poverty.
We find in the Sources:
"After a few days, three other men from Assisi came to them: Sabbatino, Morico, Giovanni de Capella, who begged Francis to receive them into the fraternity. He received them with humility and affection" (FF 1438).
The Bishop of Assisi said to the man of God: "Your life seems hard and harsh to me, since you possess nothing in this world".
The saint replied:
"Sir, if we had possessions, we should also have weapons to defend ourselves.
It is from wealth that questions and quarrels arise, and so the love of God and the love of neighbour are impeded in many ways" (FF 1438).
Francis exhorted his followers not to fear:
"Do not be afraid of being considered insignificant and unbalanced, but proclaim penance with courage and simplicity.
Trust in the Lord, who has overcome the world!
He speaks with his Spirit in you and through you.
Be not afraid, for before long there will come to us many learned and noble men, and they will join us in preaching to kings, princes, and peoples. In great numbers they will be converted to the Lord" (FF 1440).
"This Francis said, and gave them his blessing. The men of God went, keeping faithful to those admonitions.
Everyone who saw them was greatly amazed at their way of dressing and living so different from any other [...].
Wherever they entered, be it a city, a castle, a village, a dwelling, they proclaimed peace, exhorting men and women to fear and love the Creator of Heaven and earth, and to observe his commandments.
And so in the Major Legend):
"Often, then, discussing poverty, he applied to the brothers that expression from the Gospel:
'The foxes have dens and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head'.
This is why he taught the brothers to build poor huts for themselves, in the manner of the poor, to live in them not as in their own houses, but as in the houses of others, as pilgrims and strangers.
He said that the code of pilgrims is this: to gather under the roofs of others, to feel thirsty for the homeland, to pass away in peace.
He sometimes ordered the brothers to demolish the houses they had built or to leave them when he noticed something in them that [...] clashed with evangelical poverty.
He said that poverty is the foundation of his Order, the main base on which the whole edifice of his Religion rests" (FF 1120).
"And he called unto him the Twelve, and began to send them forth two by two, and gave them authority over unclean spirits" (Mk 6:7).
15th Sunday in O.T. B (Mk 6:7-13)