Known as the Seraphic Doctor because of his profound reflections on the six-winged angel, the stigmata, and the mysticism of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Bonaventure closes his great work on mystical union with God--Itinerarium mentis in Deum-- indicating the supernatural depth of interior union reached by the soul with God.
"If you now yearn to know how (mystical communion with God) happens, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not the intellect; the groaning of prayer, not the study of the letter; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness not clarity; not light but the fire that inflames everything and transport to God with strong unctions and ardent affections. ... We enter therefore into darkness, we silence worries, the passions and illusions; we pass with Christ Crucified from this world to the Father, so that, after having seen him, we say with Philip: that is enough for me" (Ibid., VII, 6).
"If you now yearn to know how (mystical communion with God) happens, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not the intellect; the groaning of prayer, not the study of the letter; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness not clarity; not light but the fire that inflames everything and transport to God with strong unctions and ardent affections. ... We enter therefore into darkness, we silence worries, the passions and illusions; we pass with Christ Crucified from this world to the Father, so that, after having seen him, we say with Philip: that is enough for me" (Ibid., VII, 6).
(This thought was taken from Pope Benedict XVI's Wednesday Audience of 10 March 2010 http://zenit.org/article-28599?l=english.)
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