Holy Saturday, a day of silent waiting, was for Francis and Clare an occasion of special unity with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who lived all the mysteries of redemption with Him.

Like Francis, Clare participated "in symbiosis" with Christ in his Passion.

In contemplation she was given to experience the Paschal Mystery of the Bridegroom, knowing the depth of His martyrdom.

Motionless and beside herself since Holy Thursday, she arrived at Holy Saturday with an unspeakable 'Christ-like unity'.

We read in the Sources valuable passages in this regard:

"Then coming the night after Friday, the devout daughter lit a candle and with a nod, not words, reminded her Mother of the command of St Francis.

In fact, the Saint had ordered her not to let a single day pass without food.

And as she stood before her, Clare, as if returning from another place, uttered these words:

"What need is there of the candle? Is it not day?".

"Mother," she replies, "the day has passed and another night has returned.

And to her Clare said:

"Blessed be this sleep, dearest daughter; for, after having so longed for it, it has been given to me as a gift.

But beware of telling anyone about this sleep as long as I live in this body'" (FF 3217).

At the moment of her farewell, as 'Altera-Maria' she lived with her heart always at the foot of the cross and in faith, amidst the tears of her desolate daughters.

And turning to her soul she said:

"Go, safe," he says to her, "for you have a good escort on the journey. Go, for He who created you, has sanctified you, and always looking upon you as a mother his son, has loved you with tender love".

"And you, Lord," she added, "be blessed, who created me".

Asked by one of the sisters to whom she was speaking, she replied:

"I speak to my blessed soul "*.

And now that glorious escort was not far off.

Turning in fact to a daughter, he asks her:

"Do you see the King of glory, whom I see, O daughter?

Clare was now close to passing from this world to the Father, when one of her daughters, on whom the Spirit of the Lord rested, saw, with the eyes of the body, this beatifying vision:

"Pierced indeed by the dart of deep sorrow, she turns her gaze towards the door of the house: and behold, a host of virgins in white robes enters, and all have garlands of gold on their heads.

One more resplendent than the others advances among them, from whose crown, which appears at the top like a pierced thurible, radiates such splendour that the darkness of the night within the walls of the house is turned into daylight.

She approaches the little bed where the Bride of the Son lies and, bending over her with tender love, gives her a most sweet embrace.

The virgins spread out a pallium of marvellous beauty and, all serving in competition, clothed Clare's body and adorned her thalamus" (FF 3253).

The Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus, She who had lived with the poor woman on Holy Saturday, had come to take her to her glorious, crucified and risen Son.

A dawning full of expectation, and pregnant - in the power of the Spirit.

«Do not be afraid, you; for I know that you seek Jesus, the crucified. He is not here [...]» (Mt 28:5-6a).

«Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?» (Mk 16:3).

«The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again» (Lk 24:7).

* It is the night between the Friday and Saturday before Clare's death, that is, the night between 8 and 9 August 1253.

Holy Saturday - Easter Vigil (Mt 28,1-10); (Mk 16,1-7); (Lk 24,1-12).

The Passion of the Lord narrated by the evangelist John, brings to our attention the arrest and betrayal of the Son of God, his being brought before the high priests Annas and Caiaphas.

The latter uttered that crude expression:

«It is fitting that one man should die for the people» (Jn 18:14).

He is then led to Pilate's praetorium where he is handed over to the chief priests and guards to be crucified.

Drama of Love of our God for the man He loves!

Francis spent Good Friday uniting himself to the Lord's Passion, identifying with it.

Fasting, consistent with what Jesus says in the Gospel [when the Bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast] was certainly observed on that day by all the brothers and sisters of San Damiano.

In the Regola non bollata (1221), Francis expresses himself thus:

"The holy Lent, on the other hand, which begins on the Epiphany and lasts uninterruptedly for forty days, that which the Lord consecrated with his holy fast, those who voluntarily fast it may be blessed by the Lord, and those who do not want to may not be obliged. But the other, until the Lord's Resurrection, let them fast.

At other times they should not be obliged to fast, except on Fridays" (FF 84).

So too Clare and her sisters were faithful to the fast, especially the Mother:

"As long as he was in health, in fact, he fasted on bread and water during the Great Lent and the Lent of Saint Martin the bishop, enjoying only on Sundays a little wine, if he had any [...]" (FF 3194).

The sisters, concerned for her health, deplored with tears those daily deaths to which she subjected herself, until Francis ordered her not to let a day pass without eating at least an ounce and a half of bread.

The union with the Passion of Christ was lived first of all interiorly, but the body also mourned for the Spouse betrayed, vilified and killed for the salvation of many.

Francis mourned the Lord's Passion, filling the woods with tears and groans, while Clare, in the monastery, took part in Christ's martyrdom with her whole self in continuous prayer.

In the Vita seconda of Celano, regarding the last moments of the Poverello's life, the following is reported:

"He spent the few days remaining to him in a hymn of praise, inviting his beloved companions* to praise Christ with him. He then, as he was able, burst into this psalm:

"With my voice I cried out to the Lord, with my voice I asked the Lord for help".

She also invited all creatures to the praise of God, and with certain verses, which she had once composed, she exhorted them to divine love. Even death, terrible and hateful to all, exhorted praise, and going to her joyfully, invited her to be his guest:

'Welcome, my sister death!' " (FF 809).

And again:

"She then turned to the doctor*: 'Take courage, Brother Doctor, tell me that death is imminent: for me it will be the door of life!'

And to the brothers:

"When you see me reduced to the extreme, lay me down naked on the earth, as you saw me the day before yesterday, and after I am dead, let me lie like this for as long as it takes me to comfortably walk a mile".

Finally his hour came, and all the mysteries of Christ having been fulfilled in him, he happily flew away to God" (FF 810).

Clare, in love with her Lord and a little plant of the Seraphic Father, also spent Holy Thursday and the whole of Friday among the wounds of Christ:

"All that night and for the whole of the following day she remained as if absorbed, so out of herself that, with her eyes absent, always fixed on a single vision, she seemed to be nailed to Christ and completely insensible.

Return to her several times a familiar daughter, to see if by chance she desires anything, and always find her motionless in the same position' (FF 3217).

Love for Christ crucified was for Clare and Francis the source of every reason for living, of every gesture made in the sign of the cross, which blossomed on Easter morning.

* Brother Angelo and Brother Leo.

* The doctor: Bongiovanni, a native of Arezzo according to various sources, or perhaps of Assisi, son of Marangone Cristiano.

Good Friday «Passion of the Lord» (Jn 18:1-19:42)

«Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end» (Jn 13:1).

The washing of the feet done by Jesus to his own was a school of life for Francis. He understood the profound meaning of that gesture to the full, reproducing it on his journey.

The Poor Man of Assisi all his life washed the feet of his brothers and the neighbour he met, always ready to serve and help anyone in need.

Francis not only loved the Eucharist, but he himself lived in a Eucharistic manner, making his body and blood bread for his brothers and sisters and caring for them.

Scanning the Sources we realise how much emphasis and Eucharistic solicitude covered his days.

How ardour and evangelical penetration ran through his bare existence as a friar, who always returned to God and his brothers what he had freely received.

Francis' last days also clearly set out his gaze towards the Lord's Supper.

We read in the Sources:

"While the brothers were shedding bitter tears and lamenting in despair, he had bread brought, blessed it, broke it and gave each one a piece to eat.

He also wanted the book of the Gospels and asked that the Gospel according to John be read to him, from the passage that begins:

«Before the feast of Easter», etc.

He recalled at that moment the Most Holy Supper, which the Lord had celebrated with his disciples for the last time, and he did all this precisely in venerable memory of that supper and to show how much tenderness of love he bore the brothers" (FF 808).

Clare too had great devotion to the Holy Supper of the Lord, living the paschal mystery in unity with her Bridegroom.

"The day of the Most Holy Supper had once come, in which the Lord loved his own to the end.

Towards evening, as the agony of Christ approached, Clare shut herself, sad and afflicted, in the secret of her cell. And accompanying the Lord in prayer, her sad soul to the point of death became imbued with the anguished sadness of Him, and her memory, little by little, became fully filled with the capture and all the mockery: so that she fell back on the bed" (FF 3217).

And the Sources record his intense love for the Eucharist saying:

"When she was about to receive the Body of the Lord, she first shed hot tears and, approaching then with trembling, feared Him who is hidden in the Sacrament no less than the Sovereign of heaven and earth" (FF 3210).

Francis and Clare made the Eucharist the place of learning in the art of living.

Holy Thursday «Lord's Supper»  (Jn 13:1-15)

«What you want to give me and I will give it to you» (Mt 26:15). So Judas.

Money [thirty silver coins was the price for a slave] counted more than betraying Christ!

Francis gave to the poor what he had; for the rest he felt abhorred, knowing what it often produces.

He wrote several Rules, and experimented with them before laying down the final one.

In one of them he expresses his rejection of money thus:

"Let us be careful, we who have left everything, not to lose the kingdom of heaven for so little. And if we happen to find money, let us pay no more attention to it than to the dust" (FF 1439).

In fact, he transmitted his passion for poverty to the brothers, reminding them that money lends itself well to betrayal.

Once Francis was travelling with one of his companions in Apulia. 'Near Bari, on the road, they found a large bag.

His companion, seeing it swollen and seemingly full of money, invited him to collect it and distribute it to the poor.

But the Poverello refused, seeing in it a deception of the devil: to give alms to others' money, after having stolen it secretly.

Since the friar occasionally returned to the subject, harassing the man of God, the saint agreed to return to the place, but not to do what the friar claimed, but to reveal the devilish deception.

The Sources tell us:

"He returned, in the company of the friar and a young man, whom he met on the road, near the holster [bag] and commanded them to pick it up from the ground.

The friar began, in astonishment, to tremble, because the diabolic prodigy was already present.

Nevertheless he cast out hesitation, making himself strong with the command of holy obedience, and stretched out his hand towards the purse.

And lo and behold: a large snake jumps out, which immediately disappears along with the bag.

'Thus was the deceit of the devil revealed and the fraudulent cunning of the enemy discovered.

'Money,' the Saint then said to his companion, 'for the servants of God, is nothing else, O brother, but a demon and a poisonous serpent' " (FF 1124).

Francis often exhorted his friars not to betray Our Lady Poverty by handing her over for a few coins.

Holy Wednesday  (Mt 26:14-25)

Jesus' agitation over the imminent betrayal-delivery of Judas had caused questioning, pain and sadness in the disciple He loved and in all His intimates.

Francis (like John) was indeed 'the one Jesus loved', as he lived with his head reclining on the heart of Christ, feeling all the pulsations and twitches of his being handed over to his tormentors.

The morsel dipped and given to Judas Iscariot had caused Francis to place himself before the Cross, contemplating it.

Looking at it, he loved to call himself "a new madman", referring to St Paul, to the madness of the Cross (cf. 1 Cor 1:18-25).

The Poverello's madness consisted in wanting to live according to the Gospel, as Christ had outlined it.

According to some accounts he used to repeat: 'Love is not loved'. This was the cry that resounded in his heart and on his lips.

"Once he went alone near the church of Santa Maria della

Portiuncula, weeping and lamenting in a loud voice.

A pious man, hearing this, assumed that he was suffering from some illness or sorrow and, moved by compassion, asked him why he was weeping so.

Francis said:

"I weep for the passion of my Lord. For love of him I should not be ashamed to go moaning aloud for all the world".

Then the devout man also joined in Francis' lamentations.

Often, on rising from prayer, his eyes seemed to be full of blood, so reddened were they from weeping.

And he did not confine himself to tears, but, in memory of the sufferings of Christ, abstained from eating and drinking" (FF 1413).

In the soul of Francis, that morsel dipped and given to Judas was enough to abstain from all food, such was the pain and bitterness in Christ, delivered from human gain.

Clare of Assisi, who also understood the Passion of Jesus, continually meditated on the mysteries of the Cross.

"The Crucified beloved returns the lover, and she who is so inflamed with love for the mystery of the Cross, is by virtue of the Cross made luminous by signs and miracles.

For when he traced the sign of the life-giving Cross on the sick, he prodigiously removed sickness from them" (FF 3218).

«Having dipped the morsel therefore, he took it and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot» (Jn 13:26)

Holy Tuesday  (Jn 13:21-33.36-38)

The supper at Bethany is one of the most beautiful and moving passages in John's Gospel.

Mary sprinkles Jesus' feet with a pound of highly perfumed spikenard oil, which Jesus accepts as a foreshadowing of his burial. Onlookers are scandalised by the 'waste'.

Francis of Assisi, thinking of the Passion and death of Jesus, mourned the unloved Love in every way; in every place and person.

He recognised him especially in the poor and derelict, in the lepers kept on the margins of society - and among them he poured out the perfume of Charity without which we are only tinkling cymbals.

The Sources help us look for and spot episodes that depict this washing of Jesus' feet and perfuming them in the abandoned and rejected.

"Loving every form of humility, she moved in with the lepers, staying with them and serving them all with great care.

He washed their feet, bandaged sores, removed the rot from sores and cleansed them of purulence.

He would also, driven by admirable devotion, kiss their festering wounds, he who would soon become the Good Samaritan of the Gospel" (FF 1045).

The Minim sprinkled with compassion and love the feet of those wounded by life and anointed them with the oil of consolation.

His thoughtful humility was evidenced by the way he placed himself at everyone's feet.

"One day mounted on a donkey, because weak and infirm he could not go on foot, he crossed the field of a farmer, who was working.

The latter ran up to him and asked him thoughtfully if he was Brother Francis. He humbly replied that he was the one he was looking for:

"See," said the peasant, "that you are as good as everyone says you are, for many have confidence in you. That is why I urge you never to behave differently from what you hope".

Francis, at these words, dismounted from the donkey and, prostrating himself before the farmer, several times kissed his feet humbly thanking him that he had deigned to admonish him" (FF 726).

Standing at the feet of every creature, the Poverello exhaled "the waste" of that charity, the preventer and healer of all evil.

So was Clare, sprinkling the special ointment of Love that aims to heal and resurrect those who lie in human forgetfulness.

The «feet» in the Franciscan path, are a place of encounter, of loving exchange, of nakedness that all awaits from every creature of good will.

The feet of the humble, of the poor, of the sick were for Francis and Clare the crucified feet of the Son of God, nailed to the cross so that we might all walk towards one another.

«Mary then took a pound of genuine spikenard perfume of great value, anointed the feet of Jesus and dried his feet with her hair. Now the House was filled with the fragrance of the perfume» (Jn 12:3)

Holy Monday  (Jn 12:1-11)

Jesus is sold by Judas to the chief priests, abandoned by the disciples, and disowned by Peter.

In this context Christ celebrates Easter.

Previously the Son of God, already suffering the betrayal and abandonment of which many would be guilty, had wept over the City stoning the prophets sent to it.

One night Francis had a dream that almost recalled Jesus' lament over Jerusalem.

Christ had wept over the holy city, which was responsible for killing prophets (and stoning those sent to it) whose price would be a house left deserted.

The Unity betrayed and vilified would have generated squalor and abandonment: «Jerusalem Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you did not want to [...]» (Mt 23:37).

The saint therefore "saw a little black hen, like a domesticated dove, with feet and feet covered with feathers.

She had a great many chicks, which, no matter how much they circled around her, could not all gather under her wings.

When she awoke, the man of God resumed his thoughts and personally explained the vision.

"The hen," he commented, "is me, small in stature and dark in complexion, and I must unite to the innocence of life a simplicity of a dove: a virtue, which the rarer it is in the world, the more swiftly it rises to heaven.

The chicks are the friars, grown in numbers and grace, whom the strength of Francis is unable to protect from the disturbance of men and the attacks of malignant tongues'" (FF 610).

This is why the Minim placed the Order under the protection of the Church, since for him following Christ meant walking in the footsteps of the Bride of the Lord.

The Poverello had special solicitude for his brothers, striving to keep them in the bond of unity, for which Christ became the sacrificial Lamb, sacrificed for the salvation of all the people.

Indeed, in the Letter to the Faithful, he expresses himself thus:

"The will of his Father was this, that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave us and was born for us, should offer himself, through his own blood, as a sacrifice and victim on the altar of the cross, not for himself, since through him all things were created, but in atonement for our sins, leaving us the example so that we might follow in his footsteps" (FF 184).

In love with Christ in everything, even in the infirmities that afflicted him, Francis wished to follow the Lord's poverty and example.

"So vivid was his love for the salvation of souls, and his thirst to win them to God, that, no longer having the strength to walk, he went about the country riding a donkey.

Often the brethren, with gentle insistence, invited him to restore his infirm and too weak body a little, with medical care, but he, who had his spirit continually turned to heaven, declined the invitation each time, since he only wished to be untied from his body to be with Christ" (FF 490).

So he used his "brother donkey", borrowed for the journey to La Verna and his return through Borgo San Sepolcro, united in the meekness they shared.

«Take, eat; this, my body» (Mt 26:26c)

[Palm Sunday. Passion of the Lord]

Today's Johannine passage emphasises the sentence of the priest Caiaphas addressed to the Jews and pronounced concerning the imminent death of Jesus:

"You understand nothing, nor do you consider that it is fitting for you that one man should die for the people and not the whole nation perish!" (Jn 11:49-50).

Thus alluding to Christ's sacrifice as a ransom for many.

An act of love that the Gospel passage links to the motivation that Jesus himself drew from the beautiful climate of fraternity lived in the hearth of Bethany.

Francis always had Unity at heart and consumed himself for it, considering it precisely the motor and stimulus for the salvation of all humanity, the Church and, in his own small way, the communities of his brothers.

He cherished the spirit of synergy and mutual understanding, precisely because of this: the fragrance and momentum of communion had to come out of it.

For this reason he could not stand detraction, the enemy of concord.

In the Sources, Celano emphasises the shrewdness of the brothers in establishing a pact among themselves to avoid anything that might harm the honour of others. He further adds:

"For what is the detractor if not the gall of men, the ferment of wickedness, the dishonour of the world? What is the double-tongued man if not the scandal of the Order, the poison of the religious cloister, the disintegration of unity?

Alas, the earth abounds with poisonous animals and it is impossible for an honest person to escape the bites of the envious!

They promise rewards to delinquents and destroy innocence, and sometimes give the palm to falsehood.

'Behold, when one cannot live on his own honesty, he gains food and clothing by ravaging the honesty of others' (FF 769).

As his offspring grew, Francis pondered, with concern, how the young plant could be preserved and progress tightly bound in the bond of unity.

"He saw, even then, that many, like wolves, raged against the little flock - old men hardened to evil - driven to harm the new.

He also foresaw that difficulties might arise among the children themselves to the detriment of peace and unity, and he was troubled by the thought that, as often happens among the elect, there would be some who are proud in their carnal mentality, ready to quarrel and easy to scandal" (FF 609).

The defenceless Assisian, in the footsteps of Jesus, was concerned to give all of himself for the cause of the unity dear to Christ, in the Order and in the whole Church.

All in the sense of the Cross lived in the most sacred and personal concealment.

Saturday 5th wk. in Lent  (Jn 11:45-56)