Jesus invites all to discern the signs inherent in nature, to give criterion to the last ones. When the fig tree buds, the season of fruit is near.

Thus Francis, a true lover and imitator of Him, reads in his own life and that of his brothers the offshoots of the Kingdom of God that is approaching, before events that speak the language of the Creator Himself.

In the Sources we find passages that indicate the signs of the growth of every believer, like the tree that sprouts and produces fruit:

"We are spouses, when the faithful soul is united to our Lord Jesus Christ by virtue of the Holy Spirit.

We are his brothers, when we do the will of the Father who is in heaven.

We are mothers, when we bear him in our heart and body through divine love and pure and sincere conscience, we generate him through holy works, which must shine out to others as an example" (FF 168/2. Letter to the Faithful).

Well, "when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is at hand"!

Francis also reads in his illness and death the approaching Kingdom of God.

He raises his head and thus addresses his own:

"Then the Saint lifted up his hands to Heaven, glorifying his Christ, because he could go to Him without hindrance of any kind.

But to show that in everything he was a perfect imitator of Christ his God, he loved to the end his brothers and sons whom he had loved from the beginning [...].

Then, while all the brothers were around him, he stretched out his right hand over them and placed it on the head of each one, beginning with his vicar:

"Farewell," he said, "all you my sons, live in the fear of the Lord and keep yourselves in it always!

And since the hour of trial and tribulation draws near, blessed are those who persevere in what they have undertaken!

For I hasten to God and commend you all to his grace'.

And he also blessed all the brothers, wherever they were in the world, and those who would come after them until the end of the ages" (FF 806).

"When they have already sprouted, behold, by yourselves you know that summer is already near" (Lk 21:31).

Friday, 34th wk. in O.T. (Lk 21,29-33)

Today's Gospel tells of the ultimate signs foretold by Christ.

Francis, who had experience of signs, lived his earthly pilgrimage uninterruptedly directed towards the manifestation of Christ and thus working for the good of his brothers and sisters.

Everything would crumble and in the end a single banner would continue to fly: the Cross of Christ, the ultimate sign and victory of the Risen One.

In the light of all this, Francis seemed to contrast the signs that would be manifested in the moon, the sun, the stars, the anxiety of peoples in anguish... with the one sign around which Christian existence revolves: the Cross through which the world has been redeemed.

In the Sources, then, we find passages that explain and support what has been said.

"And we give you thanks, because your Son himself will return in the glory of his majesty to consign the reprobate, who did not do penance and did not know you, to eternal fire, and to say to all those who knew you and adored you and served you in penance: Come blessed by my Father, enter into possession of the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world [...]" (FF 65).

And so Francis, the Minim "chose to live for all, rather than for himself alone, spurred on by the example of Him who deigned to die, He alone, for all men" (FF 1066).

And all this together with his brothers "concerned to refresh themselves more with the bread of tears than with the bread of abundance" (FF 1067).

Yes, there will be many signs in the universe at the full manifestation of Christ, but only one will stand undisturbed: his redemptive and transforming Holy Cross.

To his brothers, therefore, he taught:

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

"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and on earth anguish of nations in bewilderment by the roaring of the sea and the waves" (Lk 21:25).

Thursday, 34th wk. in O.T. (Lk 21,20-28)

Today's Gospel passage speaks of persecution and hatred towards the witnesses of Jesus.

The Poor Man of Assisi, having known Christ, well knew that following in His footsteps would also entail insults and persecution, starting with his family.

In fact, the people of Assisi and his father, a shrewd merchant, could not bear his radical change, and thought him mad.

But Francis, Herald of Christ, did not let himself be intimidated, guided by divine Wisdom, which suggests to those who welcome it every response appropriate to the moment.

The Franciscan Sources, a place of special evangelical training, narrate:

"One day, inflamed with enthusiasm, the Saint left the cave and set out towards Assisi, lively, quick-witted and joyful.

Armed with confidence in Christ and inflamed with heavenly love, he reproached himself for cowardice and vain trepidation, and boldly decided to expose himself to the hands and blows of his persecutors.

At the first sight of him, those who knew him as he was before, began to insult him, shouting that he was a madman and a fool, throwing mud and stones at him.

Seeing him so changed, exhausted by penances, they attributed his change to exhaustion and dementia.

But the Knight of Christ passed through that storm without paying any attention to it, not allowing himself to be struck and agitated by the insults, giving thanks to God instead.

News of what was happening spread through the squares and streets of the city, until it came to the ears of his father.

Hearing how they were mistreating him, he immediately went out to get him, intending not to free him but to end it.

Out of his mind, he pounced on him like a wolf on a sheep, and staring at him with grim eyes and a face contracted in fury, he seized him and dragged him home.

There he locked him up in a dark cubbyhole for several days, doing everything, with words and blows, to bring him back to worldly vanity" (FF 1417).

But "Francis did not let himself be moved neither by words, nor by chains, nor by beatings. He endured everything with patience, indeed becoming more agile and stronger in following his ideal" (FF 1418).

"Now before all these things they will lay their hands on you and persecute you by delivering you to synagogues and prisons" (Lk 21:12).

"And you will be hated by all because of my name" (Lk 21:17).

Wednesday 34th wk in O.T. (Lk 21,12-19)

In today's Gospel, while some were thinking of the beautiful stones of the temple, Jesus announces that nothing would remain of what they admired.

Francis and Clare of Assisi, with different paths, lived with the final horizon of life always before them.

By divine revelation and by unquestioned intuition they understood that the glitter of this world would be the first detractors of souls.

They knew that of all they saw, nothing would remain at the end of days.

And every day, from the first light of dawn, this thought guided them in the work of witnessing.

The Sources, a bottomless vein of the Gospel events experienced by these Giants of the Gospel, proclaim beginning with the Canticle of Brother Sun

"Be praised, my Lord, for sister our death of the body/ from which no man can escape/ woe to those who die in mortal sins;/ blessed are those who find in your most holy will,/ for the second death will do them no harm" (FF 263).

Nevertheless, Clare reminded her sisters of the ultimate goal of life:

"Blessed, however, are those to whom it is granted to walk this way and persevere in it to the end" (FF 2850).

Again in one of her letters to Agnes of Bohemia, she recalls:

"How many times do kings and queens of this world deceive themselves in this regard!

Even if they raise their pride up to heaven and almost touch the clouds with their heads, in the end they will be dissolved into nothingness, like rubbish' (FF 2894).

They always threw their hearts over the hurdle, trusting in God.

As Jesus announces in the Gospel: "These things you observe, there will come days when no stone will be left upon stone, which will not be destroyed" (Lk 21:6).

Tuesday 34th wk. in O.T. (Lk 21:5-11)

In today's Gospel Jesus emphasises the extent of a poor widow's gift: "her whole life" (Lk 21:4b).

A man of thought like Fr Claudel said: "What is life for if not to be given?".

Francis of Assisi, who shared his birth on his mother's side [Mona Pica, a refined woman of France] had made the total gift of himself to God and his brothers and sisters the evangelical meaning of his life.

He had embedded it in a verb very dear to him: 'give back' - give back to God what he had lavishly bestowed upon him.

And the 'poor in spirit' understand this better than anyone else.

In the Sources we read:

"To those who wanted to enter the Order, the Saint taught to repudiate the world first, offering to God first the external goods, then to make the interior gift of oneself.

He did not admit to the Order except those who had divested themselves of all possessions, holding nothing absolutely, both for the word of the holy Gospel and so that personal peculence would not be a scandal' (FF 667).

And again:

"In poverty they found great joy: they did not covet riches, indeed they despised every ephemeral good, coveted by the lovers of this world.

Above all they were against money, trampling it underfoot like the dust of the road: Francis had taught them that money was worth no more than donkey dung.

They were happy in the Lord, always having nothing within themselves or among them that could in any way upset them.

The more they were separated from the world, the more they held fast to God. They advanced in the way of the cross and in the paths of righteousness" (FF 1454).

They had well understood what the Gospel means when it proclaims the Blessedness of those who give all of themselves for Christ and in Christ.

"Truly I tell you, this widow, so poor, has given more than all" (Lk 21:3).

Monday, 34th wk. in O.T. (Lk 21:1-4)

Francis considered himself 'the herald of the Great King'.

Assailed by brigands who asked him who he was, he fearlessly replied: 'I am the herald of the Great King; does this interest you?

And when he had to sit at sumptuous tables of great personages, Francis repeated:

"The Lord is pleased with poverty and especially with that which consists in becoming voluntary beggars for Christ. And I, this royal dignity that the Lord assumed for us, making himself poor in order to enrich us with his misery and to make the truly poor in spirit heirs and kings of the Kingdom of heaven, do not want to exchange it for the feud of false riches, granted to you for a moment" (FF 1127).

And when he set up the first nativity scene at Greccio, Francis stood before the manger filled with pity:

"He preaches to the people the birth of the poor King, and in naming him, he calls him by Tenderness of love, the "child of Bethlehem" (FF 1186).

And Clare echoes him in the Legend, saying:

"For if the King of kings gives himself to those who love him ardently, what can there be that he does not grant, if it is fitting, to those who pray to him with devotion?" (FF 3208).

In the Praises of God Most High we read:

"Thou art Holy, O Lord, only God, who workest wondrous things.

You are strong, You are great, You are Most High, You are Almighty King, You, Holy Father, King of Heaven and earth..." (FF 261).

Christ the King (B) (Jn 18:33b-37)

Jesus reminds us that those who are considered worthy of the future life do not take a wife or husband.

In this regard, the Sources have a very significant episode that gives us pause for thought.

"In the hermitage of the friars of Sarteano, the evil one, who always envies the spiritual progress of the sons of God, even had this presumption.

Seeing that the saint was continually attending to his sanctification, and did not neglect today's gain satisfied with that of the previous day, one night, while he was praying in his little cell, he called him three times: 'Francis, Francis.

"What do you want?"

And that one: "There is no sinner in the world who does not obtain God's mercy if he repents. But whoever causes his own death by rigorous penance will not find mercy in eternity".

The saint immediately recognised, by revelation, the cunning of the enemy, as he sought to induce him to lukewarmness [...].

Seeing that in this way he had not succeeded in hiding the snare, he prepared another, that is, a carnal stimulus [...].

As soon as the Father noticed (such a temptation), he stripped off his robe and scourged himself with extreme harshness with a piece of rope.

"Brother Donkey,' he exclaims, 'this is how you must submit, this is how you must suffer the scourge! The cassock is the Order's, it is not lawful to misappropriate it [...]".

But since he saw that with the blows of discipline the temptation would not go away [...] he went out into the garden and plunged naked into the deep snow.

Then taking the snow with his bare hands he clutched it and made seven piles of it in the shape of dummies; he then placed himself before them and began to speak to the body thus:

"Behold, this eldest is thy wife, these four, two are thy sons and two thy daughters; the other two are the servant and the maid, necessary for the service."

"Make haste, they must all be clothed because they are dying of cold. If then this manifold concern is a burden to you, serve the Lord with diligence."

"[...] and the Saint returned to his cell glorifying God" (FF 703).

"But those who will be judged worthy to have part in that other world and in the resurrection of the dead shall neither take a wife nor a husband" (Lk 20:35).

Saturday, 33rd wk. in O.T. (Lk 20:27-40)

Francis, a man of God, loved prayer in a special way, as a place of encounter with the Bridegroom, jealously guarding it from all noise.

We read in the Second Life of his well-known biographer, Celano:

"He always sought a secluded place, where he could be united not only with the Spirit, but with his individual members, to his God.

Instead, when he prayed in the woods and in solitary places, he filled the woods with groans and bathed the earth with tears.

He often dialogued aloud with his Lord: he gave an account to the Judge, pleaded with the Father, spoke to the Friend, joked amiably with the Bridegroom.

And actually, in order to offer all the fibres of his heart in manifold holocaust to God, he considered Him who is supremely One.

Often without moving his lips, he meditated long and hard within himself, and concentrating the outward powers within, he rose with the Spirit to heaven.

He was not so much a praying man as he himself was all transformed into living prayer" (FF 681-682).

"It is written: My house shall be a house of prayer" (Lk 19:46).

Friday, 33rd wk. in O.T. (Lk 19:45-48)