Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop & Doctor of the Church

Today's Mass Readings

St. Bonaventure, whose Memorial we celebrate today, was born in Northern Italy, in 13th Century Europe, during the High Middle Ages. He is a very different person from St. Kateri Tekakwitha, whose Memorial was celebrated yesterday. Yet, both of these holy people have at least one thing in common: their love and devotion to the Lord Jesus.

Giovanni di Fidanza was named “Bonaventura” by St. Francis himself, according to one account. It means “good fortune,” a well-wish in Italian. Perhaps his name was fitting later on when he served as the Minister General of the Order that St. Francis founded: “good luck!” Not yet 40 years after the Poverello’s death, the Order was splintering because of internal conflicts. They asked, ‘how do we structure a religious life based on the spirit of St. Francis?’ Because he was able to settle disagreements and establish a structure, Bonaventure is considered the second founder of the Franciscan Order.

One could take a deep dive into Bonaventure’s life, works, and thoughts. He produced a monumental body of work in theology and philosophy. According to one summary, “The end or goal of Bonaventure’s theology is the return or ‘reductio’ of all things to God, and his understanding of the ‘reductio’ is decidedly Christocentric.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2e, v.2, p.489) Our Lord Jesus Christ was his goal in thought as well as in prayer.

Bonaventure wrote a prayer that appears in my daily Roman Missal under “Prayers After Mass.” It hadn’t really appealed to me because of its mushy-gushy language and over-the-top piety. It comes right after a prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas, his contemporary, which is poetic but very methodical and modest in comparison. Their prayers probably reflect their approach to theology! But now that I have looked into Bonaventure’s life, I can appreciate his prayer and read through it with perhaps a small percentage of that desire that was in St. Bonaventure.

For Today: The first sentence of St. Bonaventure’s prayer after communion:

O sweetest Lord Jesus Christ, I implore Thee, pierce the very marrow of my soul with the delightful, health-giving dart of Thy love, with true, tranquil, holy, apostolic charity, so that my whole soul may ever languish and faint for love of Thee and for desire of Thee alone.

Reflection by Br. Luke Kral, OSB