The Journey of the Soul into God: Itinerarium Mentis in Deum

Chapter Seven - The Mystical Transport of the Mind in Which Rest is Given to the Intellect and through Ecstasy our Affections Passes over Totally into God

83 St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum Chapter Seven The Mystical Transport of the Mind in Which Rest is Given to the Intellect and through Ecstasy our Affection Passes over Totally into God 1. We have covered these six considerations, comparing them to the six steps by which one ascends to the throne of the true Solomon where the mind finds peace. It is here that the true person of peace rests in the quiet of the mind as in an interior Jerusalem .TheyarealsocomparedtothesixwingsoftheCherubim bywhichthemindofthetrulycontemplativepersonisfilledwith thelightofheavenlywisdom1 andcancometosoaronhigh.They are also like the first six days during which the mind needed to be trained so as to finally arrive at the Sabbath of rest. Our mind has contemplated God outside itself through and in the vestiges; within itself through and in the image; and above itself through the similitude of the divine light shining on us from above in as far as that is possible in our pilgrim state and by the exercise of our mind. Now finally when the mind has come to the sixth step, in the first and highest Principle and in the mediator between God and humanity, Jesus Christ, it finds mysteries which have no likeness among creatures and which surpass the penetrating power of the human intellect. When we have contemplated all these things, it remains for the mind to pass over and transcend not only the sensible world but the soul itself. And in this passage , Christ is the way and the door. Christ is 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.2 84 St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum 2. Anyone who turns fully to face this Mercy Seat with faith, hope, and love, devotion, admiration, joy, appreciation, praise and rejoicing, will behold Christ hanging on the Cross. Such a person celebrates the Pasch, that is, the Passover, with Christ. So, using the rod of the Cross, this person can pass over the Red Sea, moving from Egypt into the desert where the hidden manna will be tasted. This person may then rest with Christ in the tomb, as one dead to the outer world, yet experiencing, in as far as possible in this pilgrim state, what was said on the cross to the thief who was hanging there with Christ:This day you will be with me in Paradise. 3. All this was shown also to blessed Francis when, in a rapture of contemplation on the top of the mountain where I reflected on the things I have written here, a six-winged Seraph fastened to a cross appeared to him.This I myself and several others have heard about from the companion who was with him at that very place. Here he was carried out of himself in contemplation and passed over into God. And he has been set forth as the example of perfect contemplation just as he had earlier been known as the example of action, like another Jacob transformed into Israel. So it is that God invites all truly spiritual persons through Francis to this sort of passing over, more by example than by words. 4. If this passing over is to be perfect, all intellectual activities must be given up,3 and our deepest and total affection must be directed to God and transformed into God. But this is mystical and very secret, which no one knows except one who receives it. And no one receives it except one who desires it. And no one desires it but one who is penetrated to the very marrow with the fire of the Holy Spirit whom Christ has sent into the world. 85 St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum Therefore the Apostle says that the revelation of this mystical wisdom comes through the Holy Spirit.4 5. Therefore since nature is helpless in this matter, and even personal effort is of little significance, little importance should be given to investigation and much to unction; little to speech but much to interior joy; little to words or writing and all to the gift of God, namely the Holy Spirit; little or no importance should be given to the creature but all to the creative essence, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So with Dionysius we cry out to the Triune God: “O Trinity, essence beyond...