By virtue of the faith testified to by the bystanders, Jesus heals not only the limbs of a sick person but, more radically, frees one from sins; a fact that scandalised the scribes with an evil eye. 

In Francis, perfectly conformed to Christ, this prerogative was repeated thanks to God's plan for him, open to divine Love.

The Franciscan Sources constitute "the vocabulary" of the life of the Poverello and the beginnings of his fraternity, with multiple episodes that reveal Francis' introspection and his holy operation through the Holy Spirit in him.

The Sources attribute to Francis 10 prodigies relating to healed paralysis. They are extensively mentioned in the Major Legend.

We quote some of them to testify how the Lord worked greatly through his servant:

"There was near the town of Orte, a child all shrunken up, who had his head joined to his feet and several bones broken.

Moved by the tears and prayers of his parents, the saint blessed him with the sign of the cross, and he stood up with his limbs well stretched out, instantly healed" (FF 1216).

Again: 'In the diocese of Rieti, a weeping mother presented her child to him, who had been so swollen for four years that he could not even see his own legs: the Saint barely touched him with his sacred hands and made him perfectly healthy' (FF 1215).

Where eminent Faith is alive, God works wonders with His instruments; indeed, He endows them with His own powers and enables them to work greater things with Him.

"And seeing Jesus their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Take courage, son, your sins are forgiven'" (Mt 9:2).

Thursday of the 13th wk. in O.T. (Mt 9,1-8)

On the first day of the week Jesus went behind closed doors into the place where the disciples were gathered.

He entrusted them with the mandate to announce the Good News, "breathing" on them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit.

Thomas, absent, struggled to believe and received a reprimand from Jesus for claiming to see and touch, without accepting the testimony of the other disciples.

Yet Thomas sought first-hand experience of the Risen One.

The Poor Man of Assisi and his friars grew in faith also through an active encounter with the Lord in lived poverty, solitude and prayer experienced in daily life.

Faith in Jesus, who died on the cross as an evildoer to assure us of Life without end, overflowed into the bare Minorite existence of Francis and his brothers.

It was certainly a divine gift, but it was also the fruit of a non-formal relationship, developed in the itinerary undertaken.

It is worth recalling what the Sources attest:

"[Francis] taught them to praise God in all creatures; to honour priests with particular veneration, as well as to believe firmly and confess frankly the truth of the faith [...].

They observed in all things the teachings of their holy father and, as soon as they saw some church from afar, or some cross, they turned towards it, prostrating themselves humbly on the ground and praying according to the form indicated to them" (FF 1069).

Clare herself, in her Letter to Ermentrude of Bruges, regarding the life of Faith, suggests:

"Remain, therefore, O dearest one, faithful until death to Him to whom you are bound for ever. And surely you will be crowned by Him with the crown of life.

The time of toil here below is short, but the reward is eternal.

Let not the splendours of the world that passes like a shadow daunt thee.

Let not the empty images of this deceiving world surprise thee; Close thine ear to the whistling of hell, And break its temptations from strong.

Endure adversity willingly, and let not pride swell your heart in prosperous things; these call you to your faith, those require it" (FF 2914).

The experience of God in their lives had been so strong, incisive and merciful that they could speak as no one had ever done.

"Thomas answered and said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (Jn 20:28)

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)

In today's Gospel passage Jesus proposes to those who want to follow him a real poverty of living and ready detachment from the demands of kinship.

Francis of Assisi fell in love with Our Lady Poverty from the very beginning and never separated himself from her, teaching his brothers to do likewise.

The Franciscan Sources offer countless passages on this subject.

We propose a few.

"While in this vale of tears, the blessed father despised the poor riches common to the sons of men and aspired wholeheartedly to poverty, desiring higher glory.

And since he observed that poverty, while it had been intimate to the Son of God, was almost rejected by all the world, he longed to marry her with eternal love.

Therefore, in love with her beauty, in order to adhere more strongly to his bride and be two in one spirit, he not only left father and mother, but detached himself from everything.

From then on he held her in chaste embraces and not for a moment did he accept that he was not her husband.

He repeated to his children that this is the way to perfection, this is the pledge and guarantee of eternal riches.

No one was so greedy for gold, as he was for poverty, nor was anyone more concerned about guarding a treasure, than he was the gospel gem.

In this he was particularly offended, if in the brothers - either at home or outside - he saw anything contrary to poverty.

And indeed, from the beginning of his religious life until his death, he had as his wealth a single cassock, girdle and breeches: he had nothing else.

His poor appearance clearly indicated where he accumulated his wealth.

For this reason, happy, confident, agile in his race, he enjoyed having exchanged for a good worth a hundred times the riches destined to perish" (FF 641).

Convinced that the precarious condition brought one closer to that of Christ in a special way, he blessed almsgiving and considered it characteristic of becoming lesser according to the Gospel.

In the Major Legend:

"Sometimes, exhorting the brothers to seek alms, he used arguments of this kind:

"Go, for in these very last times the Friars Minor have been given on loan to the world, to enable the elect to perform in them the works by which they deserve the praise of the Supreme Judge and that most sweet assurance:

'Whenever you have done it to one of these lesser brothers of mine, you have done it to me'".

"Therefore," he concluded, "it is good to go begging under the title of 'lesser brothers', a title that the Master of truth has indicated in the Gospel with such precision, as the reason for eternal reward for the just" (FF 1128).

And in the Rule of St Clare:

"And so that we might never depart from the most holy poverty which we embraced, nor those which would come after us, shortly before his death he again wrote his last will for us in these words:

"I, little brother Francis, wish to follow the life and poverty of our Most High Lord Jesus Christ and his most holy Mother, and to persevere in it to the end.

And I beseech you, my Lord, and advise you that you live always in this most holy life and poverty.

And be very careful never to depart from it in any way by the teaching or advice of anyone" (FF 2790).

"The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Mt 8:20).

Monday of the 13th wk. in O.T. (Mt 8,18-22)

The Liturgy gives us the story of the healing of the haemorrhoissa, a poor sick woman - and the resuscitation of the daughter of Jairus, leader of the synagogue.

The common denominator of these episodes is the sincere trust that the Lord asks for and finds in some people.

Animated by indomitable Faith, Francis became Alter Christus and received from the Lord the Divine Energy for healing, testifying that God was in him and with him.

A simple man not by nature, but by divine Grace, he was a friend of the Most High, testifying to this character with numerous prodigies.

Already in his lifetime he performed many signs: for example, the one that took place in Nardi. A woman regained her sight the moment Francis made the sign of the cross.

Or the one portraying Francis in distress over a friar suffering from epilepsy. He went to him and, after blessing him, cured him.

In the process of canonisation, more than 40 miracles were recognised by the ecclesiastical authorities.

We report one of them, taken from the Sources and relating to after his death.

"The little son, barely seven years old, of a notary in Rome, had taken it into his head, as children do, to follow his mother who was going to the church of St Mark.

Since his mother had forced him to stay at home, he threw himself out of the window of the palace [...] The mother, seeing that she had suddenly lost her son [...] began to tear herself apart with her own hands [...].

But a friar of the Order of Friars Minor, named Rao, who was on his way there to preach, approached the child and then, full of faith, said to the father:

"Do you believe that Francis, the saint of God, can raise your son from the dead, by virtue of that love he always had for Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to give life to men?"

The father replied that he firmly believed this.

The friar prostrated himself in prayer with his companion and incited all present to pray.

As the prayer was finished, the child began to yawn a little, opened his eyes and raised his arms, finally stood up on his own and immediately, in the presence of all, began to walk, safe and sound, restored to life and, at the same time, to salvation by the admirable power of the Saint" (FF 1266).

Again in the Sources, in the Major Legend, we find a significant miraculous episode:

"The son of a nobleman of Castel San Giminiano, due to a serious infirmity, was reduced to the extremes, with no more hope of recovery.

From his eyes came a stream of blood, like that which usually spurts from the vein in his arm.

Throughout the rest of his body, too, there were signs of impending doom, so that he was now considered dead.

When his breathing became shallow, his life force, sensibility and motion were extinguished, he seemed to be gone altogether.

Relatives and friends had come for mourning, according to custom, and by now there was only talk of burial. But the father, who trusted in the Lord, ran with great strides to the church of Blessed Francis, which had been built in the village and, with the cincture around his neck, prostrated himself on the ground in all humility.

Making vows and praying without ceasing, amid weeping and sighing, he deserved to obtain that St Francis should make himself his patron saint with Christ.

In fact, returning immediately to his son, the father found him cured and transformed his mourning into joy" (FF 1280).

Prayer of Francis before the Crucifix (FF 276).

Most glorious God

illuminate the darkness of my heart.

and give me straight faith

certain hope and perfect charity

wisdom and knowledge,

Lord,

that I may do thy holy and true commandment.

Amen.

13th Sunday in O.T. B (Mk 5,21-43)

Francis of Assisi had great respect for the Church, which he considered mother, holy, catholic, apostolic, Roman:

"At the beginning of my new life, when I separated from the world and my earthly father, the Lord placed his Word on the lips of the bishop of Assisi, that he might counsel me wisely in the service of Christ and give me comfort.

For this reason and for the other eminent qualities that I recognise [...] I want to love [...] and consider as my lords not only the bishops, but also the humble priests" (FF 1562).

Furthermore, the Sources attest how Francis went with eleven companions to the Pope's Curia to inform him of his new and original plan of life and to obtain confirmation of the Rule he had composed.

We read: "Seeing that the Lord was increasing his brothers [...] he addressed the eleven of the group:

"Brothers, I see that the merciful Lord wants to increase our community.

Let us therefore go to our mother, the holy Roman Church, and communicate to the supreme pontiff what the Lord has begun to do through us, in order to continue our mission, according to his will and dispositions' " (FF1455).

He was thus presented to the supreme pontiff who begged Francis to ask God if that kind of life really corresponded to his will.

In obedience to his request, the Poverello, after long prayer, confirmed the holy intention as coming from God, convincing the Pope with a parable received by divine inspiration.

He embraced the saint and approved the Rule.

"Having received the blessing from Innocent III, they went to visit the tombs of the Apostles [...] Then the man of God set out from Rome with his brothers, heading for the evangelisation of the world" (FF 1460-1462).

On the other hand Francis, praying in front of the Crucifix of the church of San Damiano "which was threatening ruin, old as it was [...] he heard with the ears of his body a voice descending towards him and saying three times:

"Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is all in ruins!" "(FF 1038).

This referring not only and not so much to the walls as "to that Church which Christ purchased with his Blood, as the Holy Spirit would have him understand and as he himself later revealed to the brothers".

(FF 1038).

Saints Peter and Paul Ap. (Mt 16:13-19)

Matthew portrays Jesus healing a leper, exhorting him not to tell anyone and to go to the priest with the prescribed offering.

Francis "the Minim" poured out on everyone the Gratuity received from Christ. A man of indomitable faith, he also embraced those who were excluded, going far beyond any judgement or stereotypical mentality.

In the Sources, the episode that makes him the guardian of the marginalised is of extraordinary beauty and special humanity.

We read:

"One day, while riding his horse across the plain at the foot of Assisi, he came across a leper.

That unexpected encounter filled him with horror.

But, thinking and reflecting that, if he wished to become a knight of Christ, he must first overcome himself, he dismounted from his horse and ran to embrace the leper and, as the latter extended his hand as if to receive alms, he handed him some money and kissed him.

Immediately he got back on his horse; but no matter how much he turned to look on all sides, and although the countryside stretched open all around, he could no longer see the leper in any way.

Therefore, filled with wonder and joy, he began devoutly to sing the praises of the Lord" (FF 1034).

"From then on he clothed himself in the spirit of poverty, an intimate feeling of humility and deep piety.

Whereas before he abhorred not only the company of lepers, but even seeing them from a distance, now, because of the crucified Christ who, according to the words of the prophet, took on the despicable appearance of a leper, he served them with humility and kindness [...].

He often visited the homes of lepers; he gave them alms generously and with great compassion and affection kissed their hands and faces" (FF 1036).

"He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying: 'I want him: be cleansed! And immediately his leprosy was washed away'" (Mt 8:3).

Friday, 12th wk. in O.T. (Mt 8,1-4)

In the passage proposed by the Liturgy of the day, Jesus calls us to concretely do his will, to be like a dwelling founded on his Rock, resisting rain and wind.

Brother Francis loved doing God's will deeply, so much so that it was his true consolation.

He was happy when he saw even among his brothers full adherence to the divine will, or at least repentance, where some act was a little reluctant.

The Sources, clear informants of authentic experience, document this and offer material for careful reflection.

"And they, receiving with great joy and gladness the precept of holy obedience, prostrated themselves before the blessed father, who, embracing them with tenderness and devotion, said to each one:

"Put your trust in the Lord and He will take care of you".

This phrase he repeated every time he sent some brothers to perform obedience" (FF 367).

The Poor Man of Assisi, even in the face of a great accumulation of evils and trials, testified to his incomparable adherence to the divine will, like another Job.

We read with emotion:

"But no matter how agonising his sorrows were, he did not call them sufferings, but sisters.

[...] And though exhausted by long and severe infirmity, he threw himself on the ground, beating his bones weakened in the crude fall.

Then he kissed the earth, saying:

"I thank thee, Lord God, for all these pains of mine, and I beseech thee, O my Lord, to give me a hundred times more, if it pleases thee so.

I will be most content, if Thou dost afflict me and spare me no sorrow, for to fulfil Thy will is for me exceeding consolation'" (FF 1239).

And when the time came for his departure:

"Lying on the earth, after having laid down his sackcloth, he lifted his face to heaven, according to his habit, totally intent on that heavenly glory, while with his left hand he covered the wound on his right side, that it might not be seen.

And he said to the brothers: "I have done my part; may Christ teach you yours" (FF 1239).

Francis, the Little One of Assisi, drew good from his new heart. He had built his spiritual edifice on the Rock of Christ.

In fact, the Sources bring us an episode that testifies to this:

"After some months had passed, Francis was staying at the church of the Portiuncula, and was near the cell that rises after the house, along the street, when that friar returned to speak to him about the psalter.

Francis said to him: "Go, and do as your minister tells you.

At these words, he began to return the way he had come.

But the Saint, who remained on the road, began to reflect on what he had said, and suddenly 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 the shoes, 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 used to say: 'AS MUCH AS A MAN KNOWS, AS MUCH AS HE DOES; AND AS MUCH AS A RELIGIOUS MAN IS A GOOD PREDICATOR, AS MUCH AS HE HIMSELF ACTS.

"Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord!" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 7:21).

Thursday of the 12th wk. in O.T. (Mt 7,21-29)