Friday, July 22, 2011

St. Bonaventure's "Itinerarium Mentis ad Deum" (Part 3)



Here is the conclusion of St. Bonaventure's masterwork of mystical theology "Itinerarium Mentis ad Deum (the Journey of the Mind to God)."   St. Bonaventure's description of mystical encounter with God must finally conclude with Fire, death and holy silence.  This is taken from the chapter entitled "On The Mental And Mystical Excess, In Which, Rest Is Given To The Intellect, By An Affection Passing-Over Wholly Into God Through Excess:"


"Moreover if you seek, in what manner these things occur [fiant], interrogate grace, not doctrine, desire, not understanding [intellectum]; the groan of praying, not the study of reading; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man, darkness, not brightness [claritatem]; not light, but the Fire totally inflaming, transferring one into God both by its excessive unctions and by its most ardent affections.  Which Fire indeed is God, and His forge is in Jerusalem, and Christ ignites [accendit] this in the fervor, of His most ardent Passion, which He alone truly perceived, who said: My soul has chosen suspense, and my bones death.  He who loves [diligit] this death can see God, because it is indubitably true: No man will see Me and live.    Therefore let us die and step into the darkness, let us impose silence upon our cares [sollicitudinibus], and concupiscences and phantasms; let us pass-over together with Christ Crucified from this world to the Father, that, by showing us the Father, we may say with Phillip: It suffices for us; let us hear with Paul: My grace is sufficient for you; let us exult with David saying: My flesh and my heart failed, God of my heart and my portion: God forever.  Blessed be the Lord forever, and every people shall say: Fiat, Fiat.  Amen"

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