Ave Maria Meditations
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
