Among the Writings of Francis we also find an Office of the Passion of the Lord. Among all of his writings, it is the one most “filled with the mystery and the voice of Christ” (Carlo Paolazzi). It would be good to read it again, since in a few days we’ll be meditating with special intensity the Passion of Christ. The Office, in which Francis wishes to celebrate “entire mystery of Redemption” (Ezio Franceschini), is characterised by its insistent request for help from God against ones enemies.Some expressions of the fi rst psalm are emblematic: “My friends and my neighbours have drawn near and stood against me; and they that were near me stood afar off. Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me; they have set me an abomination to them; I was delivered up and came not forth”. The Office is therefore like a prayer in the midst of a struggle: the battle of Jesus against the infernal enemy at the end of his earthly life; a plea to the Father for help, so that he would assist him in that harsh battle; the exultation of creation for the victory He earned through his Paschal mystery. A struggle which is not only taken on by Jesus, but which totally implicates all of those who strive to be his disciples, especially in the hour of suffering and temptation. For example, see how Francis re-elaborates the verse: “Bring your offerings and enter into his courts”. In his prayer, this invitation turns into an incitement to fight against oneself and against sin, in an exhortation to take up the cross on ones shoulders in order to follow the footsteps of Christ, who suffered so much for us: “Bring your own bodies and bear His holy cross and follow His most holy precepts even unto the end”. Just like Christ forgave those who crucifi ed him, insulted him and spat in his face, thus whoever was committed to following him had to do. It was a diffi cult battle and Francis was aware of that. That is why he never got tired of asking assistance from on high. In his paraphrase of the Our Father, when commenting the request for the remission of sins, “as we forgive those who trespass against us”, he exclaims: “and what we do not fully forgive, do Thou, O Lord, make us fully forgive, that for Thy sake we may truly love our enemies and devoutly intercede for them with Thee; that we may render no evil for evil, but in Thee may strive to do good to all”. Francis may have composed this Office in the fi rst years of the 1220s, during a very hard time in his life. It is a text where he proposes to himself and to his brothers to meditate the example of Christ, who at the supreme moment was able to give up his own life, conquering the snares of the ancient tempter. It was a call for everyone (and for us as well) to do likewise: our faith is put to the test at the time of suffering, because – as a saying says – then do we see what kind of wood crosses are made of.