St. Bonaventure, whose feast Day we celebrated just recently, invites us to see the Christian life not merely as a path of obedience, but as a sacred journey – a pilgrimage of the soul returning to the Heart from which it came. The writings of other great theologians illuminate the mind, while the writings of St. Bonaventure illuminate the mind and warm the heart. Theology, for him, is not simply knowledge about God; it is the wisdom born of love, leading us into communion with the living Christ. For all who long to know God intimately and experience His strengthening presence, St Bonaventure offers practical advice and holy wisdom.
At the beginning of his classic, “The Journey of the Soul to God” he writes: “Whoever wishes to ascend to God must first avoid sin, which deforms our nature; must pray to receive reforming grace… must meditate, to receive illuminating knowledge; and must practice contemplation, to receive perfecting wisdom.”
These are not merely disciplines. They are movements of the soul as it awakens to the Divine Presence calling it home.
Turn Away from What Veils the Light
Sin is more than breaking God’s commandments; it is whatever obscures the divine image within us. It is the mist that hides the sun, the noise that drowns out the Beloved’s whisper. Every attachment rooted in selfishness, pride, fear, or desire clouds the clear mirror of the soul.
The spiritual journey begins not in striving, but in surrender – allowing all attachments of the false self to fall away so that the soul may remember its real identity as one created in the image of Divine Love.
Pray to Receive Healing Grace
Our sin fragments us in our inmost being, drawing us into darkness of heart and mind. Grace, the very inner life of God, comes and heals what is hurt and mends what is broken. It gathers up our brokenness and makes us whole again. Prayer is the opening of the heart to God where we commune with Him in sincerity and trust. In this, our hearts open up to the healing stream of His inner life. We do not achieve holiness; we receive it as gift from God when we humbly surrender ourselves to Him. Every moment of heartfelt prayer, every celebration of the Eucharist, every sacrament becomes an encounter where God gently heals what the world has wounded.
Grace is the quiet work of God, patiently reforming our fragmented selves and forming us into the likeness of Christ.
Meditate Until the Heart Begins to See
Meditation is holy remembrance in which return to the sources of our faith and reflect on their meaning for our lives. We linger with Scripture, discerning the Lord’s presence and activity in our daily lives through the lens of the sacred word. As we walk beside Jesus in the Gospels, we meditate upon His words, His silence, His compassion, His Cross, and His Resurrection. Slowly, the mind gives way to the deeper vision of the heart, and we are nourished in a deep place within us.
This is not simply acquiring knowledge. It is allowing the Light of Christ to illuminate every corner of our lives until we begin to recognize His presence in all things. The more we gaze upon Christ, the more His life is formed within us.
Rest in Contemplation
Beyond words… beyond thoughts… beyond even holy reflections… lies contemplation. Here the soul simply rests in God. It is difficult at first to simply be in God’s inner presence when we are so used to thinking and planning and worrying during our prayer time. But this is precisely what our controlling ego needs to learn. To let go of control… to let go of useless ruminating thoughts… to let go of the belief that I can control outcomes. With a bit of discipline, a desire to go deeper, and a firm belief that God is to be encountered in my inmost being, I can learn to be interiorly quiet in prayer.
Here in this still inner place is the quiet meeting of love with Love. It is the silent awareness that God is nearer to me than my own breath, waiting not to be discovered by effort but received with openness. In this sacred stillness, faith deepens into trust, hope becomes assurance, and love becomes our very way of being. The soul no longer reaches for God as though He were distant; it awakens to the One who has always been present. Here spiritual wisdom is born – not from thinking alone, but from communion.
St. Bonaventure’s own life bore witness to this journey. His profound learning flowed from prayer, his teaching from contemplation, and his charity from a heart transformed by divine love. His wisdom was not merely intellectual; it was luminous because it sprang from intimacy with Christ. May we seek his heavenly intercession and imitate the fire of his love and allow ourselves to be drawn ever more deeply into the mystery of God’s transforming love. For the soul’s true destiny is not merely to know about God, but to become radiant with His presence – for His glory and for the healing of the world.
friar Terence Bateman OFM Conv
