Homily #090714 ( 09min) Play – Bonaventure means good venture and it was a name given to St Bonaventure by St Francis when he cured him of illness when he was only babe. The true goodness of any venture rests on how centered it is on the love of God.
Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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St. Bonaventure, 1217-1274. Seraphic Doctor, Feast July 15th.

It is said that St. Bonaventure was healed from a childhood disease through the prayers of Saint Francis of Assisi. He later joined the Order of Friars Minor at age 22 and studied theology and philosophy in Paris. This saint was a friend of Saint Thomas Aquinas. St. Bonaventure became General of the Franciscan Order at the age of 35 and later was named Bishop of Albano, Italy.  When he was named a Cardinal, the story is that when the red hat of a cardinal was delivered to him, he was washing dishes at the time and told the courier to just hang it on a nearby tree! He spoke at the Council of Lyons, but died before its close. He has been declared one of the 33 Doctors of the Church.

A CANTICLE LIKE THAT OF MARY: Let us sing to Our Lady, the glorious Virgin Mary: let us bless her in hymns and praises. The name of Our Lady is omnipotent after that of God: she hath cast the chariot of Pharaoh and his army into the sea. Thy right hand, O Lady, is magnified in strength: because in the multitude of thy mercies thou hast prostrated mine adversaries. Thou hast delivered me, O Lady, from the mouth of the lion: and as the mother her new-born infant hast thou received me. O my most dear Lady: like the hen, cover me with thy wonderful protection. I am all thine: and all my things are thine, Virgin blessed above all. I will place thee as a seal upon my heart: because thy love is strong as death.

Glory be to the Father, etc.

Mary seeks for those who approach her devoutly and with reverence, for such she loves, nourishes, and adopts as her children.

– Saint Bonaventure

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Christ on the Cross
bows His head,
waiting for you,
that He may kiss you;
He stretches out His arms,
that He may embrace you;
His hands are open,
that He may enrich you;
His body is spread out,
that He may give
Himself totally;
his feet are nailed,
that He may stay there;
His side is open for you,
that He may let you enter there.

+St. Bonaventure

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For more information on some of St. Bonaventure’s writings, see:

The Sense of Marian Coredemption in
St. Bonaventure and Blessed John Duns Scotus

 by Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, FI, STD:

http://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/heart_mary/marian_coredemption_fehlner.htm

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Homily #110715 ( 09min) Play – Fr. Dominic preaches on the holiness of St. Bonaventure and how he rebuilt the Franciscan Order after the many changes and disputes within and regarding the order after St. Francis’ death.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Bonaventure – Feast – Form: OF
Readings:
1st: wis 8:2-7, 16-18
Resp: psa 16:5-5, 7-8, 9, 11
2nd: 1co 2:6-13
Gsp: mat 5:13-19

Audio (MP3)

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On Living for ‘something greater”: But if you wish to know how these things come about, ask for grace not instruction; desire not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not diligent reading; the Spouse not the teacher; God not man; darkness not clarity; not light but the fire that totally inflames and carries us into God by ecstatic unctions and burning affections.

This fire is God, and his furnace is in Jerusalem and Christ enkindles it in the heat of his burning passion, which only he truly perceives who says: My soul chooses hanging and my bones death. Whoever loves this death can see God because it is true beyond doubt that man will not see Him and live. 

Let us, then, die and enter into the darkness; let us impose silence upon our cares, our desires and our imaginings. With Christ crucified let us pass out of this world to the Father   so that when the Father is shown to us, we may say with Philip:     It is enough for us. Let us hear with Paul: My grace is sufficient for you. Let us rejoice with David saying: My flesh and my heart have grown faint; You are the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever.

Blessed be the Lord forever and all the people will say: Let it be; let it be... Amen.

+St. Bonaventure

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If you would suffer patiently the adversities and miseries of this life, be a man of prayer.  If you would gain power and strength to overcome the temptations of the enemy, be a man of prayer.

If you would mortify your will with all its affections and lusts, be a man of prayer. If you would understand the cunning devices of Satan, and defend yourself against his deceits, be a man of prayer.

If you would live joyfully, and with sweetness walk in the path of penitence and sorrow, be a man of prayer. If you would drive out the troublesome gnats of vain thoughts and cares from your soul, be a man of prayer.

If you would sustain your soul with the richness of devotion, and kept it ever full of good thoughts and desires, be a man of prayer. If you would strengthen and confirm your heart in the pilgrimage with God, be a man of prayer.

Lastly, if you would root out from your soul every vice and in their place plant the virtues, be a man of prayer, for in this is obtained the unction and grace of the Holy Spirit who teaches all things.

And besides all this, if you would climb to the height of contemplation, and delight in the sweet embraces of the Bridegroom, exercise yourself in prayer, for this is the way by which the soul mounts up to contemplation and to the taste of heavenly things.

You see, then, of how great virtue and power is prayer, and for proof of all that has been said (to say nothing of Holy Scripture) let this now be sufficient assurance that we have seen and heard, and see, day by day, many simple persons who have attained to all these things above mentioned and to others greater, through the exercise of prayer.

+ St. Bonaventure

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Let us do penance and suffer with Christ :

Although the cross especially before Christ’s passion was in itself a horrible thing, it is nevertheless something to be sought after because it is the source of life. All men seek and long for eternal life. There is no one steeped in sin who would not say that he desires and seeks eternal life. Yet these men do not seek it the way they should because they want to have it along with their vices and the defilements of their sins.

Dear Friends, that is not the way to eternal life. The way to eternal life is through Christ, through the cross, through battle and victory over our enemies. Viewed on the surface of things the cross strikes us with terror, but viewed in proper perspective it is desirable. Viewed superficially the cross appears as the tree of death, but to one who views it in depth the mystery of the cross shines forth as the tree of life because of him who hung upon it. Since it is the source of life it gives life by infusing grace. In the epistle to the Romans we read: The wages of sin is death; the gift of God is eternal life. The cross is the tree of life-giving grace which makes us new men in Christ and brings us to repentance.

What kind of wood is it that has the power to bring man from a barren desert to a verdant garden, from death to life? It is the wood of Christ’s cross. Why did the Son of God suffer for men and not for angels? Because man is capable of doing penance, an angel is not. For man it is the wood which bears fruit through the moisture it receives from water, that is, the grace that brings one to do penance.

Therefore, because the cross is a tree of life-giving grace, let us who have died so many times by reason of our sins long for that tree do penance and suffer with Christ. Christ suffered in the flesh; therefore, arm yourselves with the same mentality, says Saint Peter. Unless we do penance how shall we be able to give an answer to Christ on judgment day?

If then you wish to bear spiritual fruit you must die in the flesh. In his Gospel John cites the words of Christ: Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. To share the fruit of the tree of life with Christ who was crucified and died, we must be crucified with him.

Dear friends, whoever wished to find the Lord finds him on the cross. Consequently to forsake the cross is to abandon the Lord as well. He who longs ardently, and desires the cross and the Lord, finds the Lord there, not empty-handed but laden with abundant graces.

From a Sermon of Saint Bonaventure, bishop

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Homily #130714 ( 18min) Play The “second founder” of the Franciscans, St. Bonaventure led the ever growing order with great holiness and profound prudence. He became bishop, cardinal, and was declared a saint and doctor of the Church. He stressed not only the importance of learning with the intellect, but of loving with the heart, and so gained the title of the “Seraphic Doctor”.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church – 3rd Cl – Form: EF, In Medio Ecclesiae
Readings: 
1st: 2ti 4:1-8
Gsp: mat 5:13-19

Audio (MP3)

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Prayers from St. Bonaventure

(Franciscan Doctor of the Church, Feast Day is July 15th):

Pierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, and with true, calm and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with entire love and longing for Thee, may yearn for Thee and for thy courts, may long to be dissolved and to be with Thee.

Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the Bread of Angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and super substantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delightful taste. May my heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, Whom the angels desire to look upon, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of Thy savor; may it ever thirst for Thee, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the fullness of the house of God; may it ever compass Thee, seek Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, come up to Thee, meditate on Thee, speak of Thee, and do all for the praise and glory of Thy name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, with perseverance to the end; and be Thou alone ever my hope, my entire confidence, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession, my treasure; in Whom may my mind and my heart be ever fixed and firm and rooted immovably. Amen.

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O most sweet Jesus, the treachery of my sins would forbid  my entering Your Heart.  But since an inconceivable charity enlarged Your Heart, and sine You, who alone are holy, can purify what is defiled, cleanse me from my faults, O good Jesus, and deliver me from my sins.  When I am purified by You, I can approach You, O purest One, and enter and abide in Your Heart all the days of my life, to know and to do what You wish me to do.

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Homily #140715n ( 09min) Play – Today the Franciscans celebrate the Feast of St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor. To illumine today’s Gospel, Fr. Mattias quotes St. Bonaventure that the savor of the salt is contemplation and devotion. These the Seraphic Doctor calls the sixth and most important “Wing of the Seraph.” Father finishes by looking at more detail to St. Bonaventure’s teaching on this most important part of the spiritual life.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. Bonaventure – Feast – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: wis 8:2-7, 16-18
Resp: psa 16:5-5, 7-8, 9, 11
2nd: 1co 2:6-13
Gsp: mat 5:13-19

Audio (MP3)

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