Wilmar Rosales March 19, 2011

BONAVENTURE: The Journey of the Soul into God

Prologue
All illumination flows from the First Beginning as the God of Light who grants us enlightenment
to the eyes of our mind and guidance to our feet on the path of peace. 1 We embark enlightenment and
guidance from the above; the eternal Father through the divine Son, our Lord Jesus Christ whom as it
said comes every good and perfect gift.
Peace surpasses all understanding that Bonaventure longed for as he stated “I eagerly desired
this peace –I a sinner who, unworthy as I am, had become the seventh general; minister of the brother s
after the death of the most blessed father,” 2 and this I think that from his very word “unworthy”
because he was moved by divine inspiration as by the example lived by saint Francis and lead him
withdrew to Mount Alverna for a quiet place to experience what the message of peace means all
about… The journey begins when your desire wished to satisfy it as of the case of Bonaventure is to
satisfy the desire of his spirit for peace because he wanted to be like a citizen of Jerusalem. Like Francis,
who was peaceable even with those who despised peace 3 announced repeatedly as he proclaimed it
right from the start up to the end of his sermons.
In a place where there is peace was the very place where the throne of Solomon exists as God’s
place and his dwelling that can be the place of contemplation reflecting on certain ways that might
ascend to God. The vision of the six winged Seraph in the form of the Crucified 4 as the way of burning
love was a symbolic attitude and character to Bonaventure as the six levels of uplifting illuminations that
the soul is prepared by the road of contemplation to pass over to peace. The encounter of blessed
Francis with the Seraph leaved the holy marks of the passion in his body as the expression of his spirit
turn out to be apparent in his flesh that the absorption of this kind of love was inaccessible through the
way of contemplation except through the Blood of Lamb as the way. This transformation can be viewed
in the light of what Saint Paul preached: With Christ I am nailed to the cross. It is now no longer I that I
live, but Christ lives in me.
There was no other way than through the crucified Christ for anyone who does not enter by that
door, but climbs up another way, is a thief and a robber. We cannot make steps towards to pass through
divine contemplation without being a person of desire that propelled by the groaning of the heart
through the cry of prayer and turns our mind directly and intently to the ray of light through brightness
of contemplation.
Bonaventure have with him a proscription and a prescription for the readers to be gently
mirrored oneself first that examined that rays of the wisdom as it reflected in its mirror. For the feared
that it might happen, otherwise, the very act of looking on the rays directly without reflecting may end
ups to fall into a deceitful ditch of darkness.
Make a full lengthen awareness and consideration as Bonaventure directing everyone to the very
intention of the writer that to the work itself…
This is therefore basically a Franciscan path of reflection to know God in order to achieve inner
peace and harmony with God and his creation by attaining a holy and prayerful life in reflection of God’s
majesty in creation, especially a reflection of the Blessed Trinity.

1
Zachary Hayes, Works of St. Bonaventure: Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Bookmasters Manshield, Ohio, USA, 2002,
p.35.
2
Ibid, p.37.
3
Ibid, p.35.
4
Ibid, p.37.
Chapter One. The steps of the ascent into God and the speculation on God through the vestiges that
are in the universe.
Without humility we cannot know God because it allows us to acknowledge God as the First
Principle and recognize the path to draw ourselves to Him from whom alone we find happiness and
enjoy the highest good.5 Without Him, we are nothing. We cannot start rising above ourselves and
experience this spiritual ecstasy if we do not humble ourselves before Him in prayer, “the mother and
origin of the upward movement of the soul.” 6 If we pray for spiritual guidance, we are enlightened to
find the path towards God. “It is in harmony with our created condition that the universe itself, which is
outside us, might serve as a ladder to God.” 7 It is therefore necessary to be at peace to move through
these bodily and temporal vestiges. Then we can move and reflect on the everlasting image of God and
in His truth. Thus, we can rejoice in our hearts and raise our eyes to God as we stand in awe before
God’s majesty. This is the triple illumination of a single day which speaks about our gradual growth
(corporal, spiritual, divine) in Christ who is our ladder 8 in our lifetime journey. In our ascent to God, we
(our soul) must cultivate our mind, spirit, and sense of power (the three principal ways of seeing things)
so that we can truly love God with our whole mind, with our whole heart, and with our whole soul. This
way, we perceive a sense of perfect fidelity to the Law together with Christian wisdom - a lifetime
learning experience. It is therefore necessary that these three principal levels be increased to six as we
learn to perceive and understand God deeper as “alpha & omega” or “as in a mirror.”
There are six levels of power which corresponds to these six steps of ascent (depth-height,
external-internal, temporal-eternal). These six levels of innate/inborn power are: sense, imagination,
reason, understanding, intelligence, and conscience (the high point). 9 “They are deformed through sin
and reformed through grace:” originally, the human being used to enjoy the quiet of contemplation in a
paradise of pleasures. Original sin infected the mind with ignorance and the flesh with concupiscence
which bent humans in darkness and blinded them from seeing the light. With the aid of grace and
knowledge through Jesus Christ, who by God’s will, is wisdom, justice, sanctification, and redemption.
“Since Jesus is the power, wisdom and the incarnate Word of God, Jesus is the source of grace and truth.
He pours the grace of charity which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned
faith. He also taught us the knowledge of truth according to the three modes of theology (symbolic,
proper, and mystical) so that thru (1) symbolic theology, we might use sensible things correctly, through
(2) theology in the proper sense, we might deal with intelligible things correctly, and (3) thru mystical
theology, we might be drawn up to ecstatic experiences.
We must avoid sin if we are to ascend to God because sin deforms our nature. Our nature is
reformed by grace through prayer, meditation, illuminated by knowledge, influenced by justice (which
purifies), carried out in everyday “actions” (a holy lifestyle) and perfected by wisdom, until we arrive at
the high mountain where the God of gods is seen in Zion.” The supreme majesty and glory of the Creator
shines forth and is manifested in created things as our “bodily senses” make known to our “interior
senses” in a three-fold way. First, perceiving by contemplation; second, perceiving by faith; and third,
perceiving/investigating by reason. All this can be extended to the seven-fold properties of creatures
when we consider the: origin, greatness, multitude, beauty, fullness, activity, and order of all things.
1. The origin of things makes us acknowledge in awe the “power” that produces all things from
nothing, the “wisdom” that clearly distinguishes all things, and the “goodness” that richly
adorns all things;

5
Ibid, p.45.
6
Ibid, p.45.
7
Ibid, p.47.
8
Ibid, p.47.
9
Ibid, p.51.
 2. The greatness of things all point to the “immensity” of power, wisdom, and goodness of the
triune God who exists in all things by virtue of power, presence and essence;
3. The multitude of things also demonstrates the immensity of the three attributes in God;
4. The beauty of things clearly proclaims the three attributes;
5. The fullness of things also proclaims the three attributes;
6. Activity in its many forms shows by its great variety the immensity of that power, art, and
goodness which is for all things “the cause of being, the basis of understanding, and the rule
of life.”
7. The order of all things does not only clearly show in the book of creation, the primacy,
sublimity and dignity of the first principle with respect to the infinity of its power, but also
leads us to that which is first and highest, most powerful, most wise, and best:
a) The order of divine laws/precepts/judgment in scripture shows the immensity of God’s
wisdom;
b) The order of divine sacraments/graces/rewards in the body of the Church shows the
immensity of God’s goodness.

Anyone who does not respond accordingly to these signs of creation is a deaf, blind, & mute
fool. We must maintain this openness so we can delight in the great wisdom and majesty of His works in
creation.

Chapter Two. The speculation on God in the vestiges in the world of sense realities.
Our contemplation of creatures that enter our mind through bodily senses should lead us to a
higher level, to a contemplation of God because God is also present in these creatures by essence,
power, and presence.10 As we perceive this world through the five senses, and distinguish their
properties/qualities (1. some things generate; 2. some things are generated; still some govern both
called 3. spiritual substances), we eventually perceive that God is the “first cause” (the first mover) and
that the administration of this universe is performed by His ministering spirits 11 (for the sake of those
who are to inherit salvation). “Pleasure follows from the awareness of suitable objects. 12 Awareness and
delight are followed by judgment.13 The species which we became aware is a likeness generated in a
medium and then impressed on the organ itself. 14 Through that impression it leads to its source as to the
object to be known. This clearly suggests that the eternal light generates a likeness of itself. The likeness
that gives delight in its beauty, sweetness and wholesomeness is also suggests that in the first likeness
there is a first beauty, sweetness and wholesomeness 15 which is found in God. Therefore, it is only in the
likeness of God that one finds that which is by nature supremely beautiful, sweet and wholesome, and if
that likeness is united in truth, and intimacy, and in a fullness that transcends out every need, it can be
seen clearly that it is in God alone that the true fountain of delight is found.16 So it is that from all other
delights we are led to seek this one delight.”

10
Ibid, p.63.
11
Ibid, p.63.
12
Ibid, p.67.
13
Ibid, p.68.
14
Ibid, pp.69-71.
15
Ibid, p.71.
16
Ibid, p.71.
 Judgment leads us to see the eternal truth with greater certainty 17 that whatever is eternal is
either God or in God. These judgments of truth are without limits in space and time because they are
eternal. They are invisible because they are intellectual and incorporeal. They exist eternally in the
eternal Art from which and through which all beautiful things are formed, 18 and which is the form that
produces all things, the Being that sustains the form in all things, and the rule that directs all things.
Augustine shows the differences of the seven kinds of numbers that gradually ascend from all
these sensible beings to the Maker of all, so that in all things God may be seen (namely, sounding
numbers, occurring numbers, expressive numbers, sensual numbers, remembered numbers, judicial
numbers, artistic numbers). (1) Since all things are beautiful and in some way delightful, (2) since there is
no beauty or delight without proportion, and (3) since proportion resides first of all in numbers; it is
necessary that all things involve numbers. Number is the principal exemplar in the mind of the Creator,
and in creatures it is the principal vestige leading to wisdom. Number makes God known in all
creatures.19
All creatures in this world of sensible realities lead the spirit of the contemplative and wise
person to the eternal God20 so that through sensible things which they see, they may be lifted to
intelligible things which they do not see, moving from signs to that which is signified. Thus, created
beings signify the invisible things of God, so that they are “without excuse.” Thanks to God Jesus has
lifted us from darkness into the light 21 which enables us to re-enter the mirror of our mind in which
divine realities shine forth and is revealed.

Chapter Three. The speculation on God through the image imprinted on our natural powers.
As we enter into ourselves, we should try to see God through a mirror, as it were in a holy place,
namely in front of the tabernacle. It is here that the light of truth shines on the face of our mind to show
the image of the most blessed Trinity. We can see God though our self as through an image if we use the
eye of reason, to help us remember, know, understand and fervently love our self. Memory holds past
things by recall, and future things by means of foresight. The soul itself has the capacity for God and the
ability to participate in God, because:
1) Memory is similar to eternity whose undivided presentness extend to all times as it retains all
temporal things past, present, and future.
2) Memory is also formed from above by receiving and holding within itself simple forms, not by way of
senses or by sensible phantasms.
3) Memory remembers changeless truths thru a changeless light within itself .

The intellect understands the meaning of terms when it comprehends what each thing by its
definition. If we do not know the meaning of being per se, we cannot fully know the definition of any
particular substance. Our intellect does not come to full analysis unless it is aided by an understanding
of the most pure, most actual, most complete, and absolute being, which is being simply and eternally,
in which the principles of all creatures are found in their purity. Additionally, the intellect can truly
comprehend if it knows with certainty that they are true. Since the intellect cannot be deceived in the
comprehension of this fact, it also knows that this truth is unchangeable. According to Augustine, “the
light of anyone who reasons truly is enlightened by that truth and seeks to return to it.” It is therefore
clear that our intellect is united with the eternal truth itself. And if that truth were not teaching
17
Ibid, p.73.
18
Ibid, p.73.
19
Ibid, p.77. Since as it suggests number is the most evident and is closest to God because God known in all bodily
and sensible when we became aware of numeral realities.
20
Ibid, p.77.
21
Ibid, p.79.
anything, it would be impossible to grasp anything with certitude. So as long as unruly desires and sense
images do not stand as impediments, we are able to see the truth which teaches us within our self.
The power of choice is seen in (a) deliberation, (b) judgment, and (c) desire. To be able
deliberate effectively and distinguish which is better, it is necessary that one must first have that notion
of the highest good. On the second corner, we can only judge with certitude if we are familiar with
divine laws in order to arrive at a full and complete analysis. Desire is based on the idea that: “that
which moves it the most, is that which is loved the most.” And that which is loved most is to be happy;
but happiness is attained only by reaching the best and ultimate goal: therefore, human desire is
directed at nothing but the supreme Good.
“Behold therefore how close the soul is to God, and how through their
functions the memory leads to eternity, the intelligence leads to truth, and the
power of choice leads to the highest good.”

The mind that generates, the word, and love are in the soul as memory, intelligence, and will.
They are consubstantial, coequal, and coeval, and mutually interpenetrating. Therefore when the soul
reflects itself and through itself through a mirror, it rises to the consideration of the Blessed Trinity of
Father, Word, and Love; three persons that are coeternal, coequal, and consubstantial in such a way
that whatever is in one is in the others, but one is not the other and these three are one God.
When the soul reflects on its memory, intelligence, and will, it is aided by philosophy and
informs it about the Trinity:
a) Natural philosophy – deals with the cause of being and therefore points to the power of the Father.
(1) Metaphysics (essence of things) points to the Father, the First Principle
(2) Mathematics (numbers and figures) points to the image of the Father, the Son
(3) Physics (natures, powers, & diffusive operations) points to the gift of the Holy Spirit
b) Rational philosophy – deals with the basis of understanding and therefore leads to the wisdom of the
Word.
c) Moral philosophy – deals with the order of living and therefore leads to the goodness of the Holy
Spirit.
(1) Monastic – suggests the unbegottenness of the First Principle
(2) Familial – suggests the familial relation of the Son
(3) Political – suggests the liberality of the Holy Spirit

If the mind is not blinded, it can be enlightened by the infallible eternal law when it reflects on
the eternal light. This light lifts up the wise in admiration of God while the fool who rejects “faith” is
troubled and confused.

Chapter Four. The speculation on God through the image reformed by the gift of grace.
“When the human mind is distracted by many concerns, the First Principle cannot enter into the
self through memory. The mind is obscured by images of sense objects, and therefore the First Principle
cannot enter through intelligence. The mind is drawn away by ‘disordered desires’ and therefore it does
not return to itself with a desire for internal sweetness and spiritual joy. Totally immersed in matters of
the sense, the soul is unable to re-enter into itself as the image of God.”
No matter how intelligent or knowledgeable, one cannot enter into oneself to delight in the Lord
except by means of the mediation of Christ, the door. In order to come near to this door we must have
faith, hope, and love Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, who is the way, the truth and the life. With its
spiritual sense restored, it can now sing like the spouse in the Canticle of Canticles for the exercise of
contemplation in the 4th level and this level no one knows except the one who receives it because it is
mostly experience of affections than rational. By means of the theological virtues, the enjoyment of the
spiritual senses, and the ecstasy of rapture, our spirit is ordered hierarchically and the heavenly city of
Jerusalem descends upon our heart, because it has been illumined and brought to perfection. This way
our spirit is adorned with nine orderly levels when within it are found, in appropriate order, the
following: (1) relating to nature (announcing, dictating, leading), (2) relating to work (ordering,
strengthening, commanding), and (3) relating to grace (receiving, revealing and anointing). For all this,
God is seen as “all in all” when we contemplate God in our mind.
Sacred Scripture deals mainly with faith, hope and charity which are the virtues by which the
soul is reformed. They are in accord with the threefold law (law of nature, scripture & grace), as well as
the three main parts of scripture (the Mosaic Law, the Prophetic Revelation, & the Gospel Teachings
which perfects: love of God & neighbor – these two are symbolized in Jesus Christ , the one spouse of
the Church, who is both our God and our neighbor, both our Lord and our brother, both king and friend,
both the uncreated Word and the incarnate Word, both our Creator and our re-creator, both the Alpha
and the Omega). As the supreme hierarch, it is Jesus who purges, illumines & perfects his spouse, the
entire church and each sanctified soul.
From these, we come to understand that (a) we are led to divine things through the powers of
the rational soul itself, (b) we are led by the reformed faculties of the soul itself which includes the gifts
of virtues, the spiritual senses, and the mental ecstasies, (c) we are led by the hierarchic operations of
the human soul, (d) we are led by the hierarchies and hierarchic orders which are to be ordered in our
mind. Flooded by these intellectual lights our mind (like a house of God) is inhabited by divine Wisdom
grounded in faith, elevated in hope, and dedicated to God through holiness of mind and body. It is the
most sincere love of Christ which brings this about, a love which is poured forth in our hearts through
the Holy Spirit who is given to us without whom we cannot know the secret things of God.

Chapter Five. The speculation on the divine unity through God’s primary name, which is Being.
“It is possible to contemplate God not only outside ourselves (through the vestiges and enter
the court before the tabernacle) and inside ourselves (by the image and enter the holy place) but also
above ourselves (by the light that shines on our mind and enter with the High Priest into the Holy of
Holies). This is the light of eternal truth, and thus we learn to contemplate the invisible and eternal
qualities of God: the first method primarily looks on Being itself, The One Who Is (the first name of God),
The I Am Who Am from the Hebrew Scripture; the second method looks to the Christian Scripture that
identifies the plurality of persons, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, for
No one is good but God alone (good is the first name of God).
Everything is known either as non-being, or as potential being, or as actual being. If non-being
cannot be known except though being, and potential being cannot be known except through actual
being, and if being names the pure actuality of a being, it follows that being is what first comes to the
intellect, and it is being which is pure act. But this being is the divine Being, the highest being, supremely
actual and most perfect, through which all other being is known. That being therefore which is pure,
simple and absolute being is the first, the eternal, the most simple, the most actual, the most perfect,
and the supremely one being.
With pure simplicity of our mind, we will be filled with illumination of the eternal light: Being
itself is both first and last, eternal and most present, most simple and greatest, most actual and
unchangeable, most perfect and immense, supremely one and all embracing. Since it is first, it does all
things for its own sake, thus also, the first being is of necessity the final end, the beginning and the
consummation, the Alpha and the Omega. Hence, it is last precisely because it is first. It is most present
and does not cease to exist. Nothing can be thought of beyond it; nothing is greater than it; From Him,
and through Him and in Him are all things; it is supremely one and all embracing, as the most excellent,
most universal, and most sufficient cause of all essences whose power, because it is supremely unified in
its essence, is supremely infinite and multiple in its effects. It is all in all. Thus, to see Him perfectly, who
shows all good, is to be blessed!

Chapter Six. The speculation on the most blessed Trinity in its name, which is the Good.
“Good is the most basic foundation of our contemplation of the emanations. Good is said to be
self-diffusive. The supreme good is supremely self-diffusive. Supreme communication and true diffusion
of the good demands necessarily that there be a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This good cannot
be thought of unless it is thought of as “three and one” – there is true origin and true distinction. They
have personal properties and a plurality of hypostases. For we find the highest communicability
together with the property of the persons, highest consubstantiality together with plurality of
hypostases, highest conformability together with discrete personality, highest co-equality together with
order, highest co-eternity together with emanation, the highest intimacy together with mission.
The Cherubim that face each other are symbols of this, their face being turned toward the
Mercy Seat. It fulfills the words in the Gospel of John: This is eternal life, to know the only true God, and
the one whom you have sent Jesus Christ. One Cherub contemplates the essential attributes of God,
while the Other Cherub contemplates the properties of the persons. Therefore, if, with the eye of our
mind, we are able to reflect on the purity of that goodness which is the pure act of the principle that in
charity loves with a love that is free, a love that is due, and a love that is a combination of both, (the
fullest diffusion of the Word in which all things are spoken and the diffusion of the Gift in which all goods
are given), we shall be able to see that the supreme communicability of the good demands that there is
a Blessed Trinity.

Chapter Seven. The mystical transport of the mind in which rest is given to the intellect and through
ecstasy our affection passes over totally to God.
It is in contemplation of the foregoing six levels of uplifting illuminations 22 that the mind is
enabled “to pass over and transcend both the sensible world and the soul itself” towards God and thus
find peace through “Christ, the way and the door,” “the ladder and the vehicle, like the Mercy Seat
placed above the ark of God and the mystery that has been hidden from all eternity.”
This kind of perfect contemplation was the experience of Francis at Mount Alverna which the
author, Bonaventure, sought to replicate and experience the same passing over or “rapture of
contemplation” “more by example than words.”

Summation
Contemplation is mystical and secret way that directs our mind towards the awareness of the
presence of God. In Christianity the only way to God is through Jesus Christ alone.
Contemplation is embracing death to enter into darkness that silence all our cares, desires and
imaginings that is passing over to God through the crucified Christ. In the same way, Christ is our door
and ladder so that “anyone who does not enter by that door, but climbs up another way, is a thief and
robber.” That is why before we come into contemplation we humble ourselves and ask the God’s
guidance to enlightenment eyes of our mind because no matter how well-ordered our ways, we will
come up to nothing.
That is why the ascent of the poor man will depend on the helping hand of God because he
knows that without God everything is nothing even how you desire it to be. Amen.

22
Ibid, p. 37.