Video – Retreat – 4 of 5 – the 5th & 6th Wings “Journey of the Mind to God”

Ave Maria!

Fr. James Dominic Rooney, O.P. gives the fourth of five talks for the retreat on St. Bonaventure's "The Journey of the Mind to God" which relates St. Francis' ascent up Mt. Alverna where he encountered the Crucified Christ to our own journey to God. In this talk we reach the top of Mt. Alverna and enter the Night of Darkness as we encounter God. This is represented by Bonaventure as the the two top wings of the six winged seraph that point inward like the wings on top to the Ark of the Covenant. By going inward, in love, we meet and know the unknowable God.

- CONF 392

More notes below.

For the other talks in the conference:

https://airmaria.com/category/air-maria-shows/conferences/journey-to-god-2017/

E-text of "Journey of the Mind to God" (different translation than Fr. Rooney uses):

http://web.sbu.edu/theology/bychkov/itinerarium_oleg.pdf

Mother of Redeemer Retreat Center:

http://www.maryschildren.com/

Rough notes taken during the talk:

Talk 4 - 5th and 6th Wings Top of Mt. Alverna the Night of Darkness Refereed to in the talk: The Triple Way - https://academyoftheimmaculate.com/tr...

4:00 Referring to the Ark of the Covenant of the two cherubim with wings pointed inward on top of the arc The sacrifice on the arc took place in a dark room and this is what you enter into now Arc is lost

8:00 Asking a question what is God? God is pure being, pure Act, complete perfection, who had the power to bring all the created things into existence. God has the creative power within him. God is the source of all perfection in the world We only share in his perfection Cannot put God into a particular category

12:00 Chocolate bars are good but they're not perfect thus I can I have too many of them Create things have their imperfections but turning to God we cannot find badness God knows all truth of the universe the physical universe and does not change. He cannot be conceived through anything else. He is nothing but being, He is completely one

15:30 Old Testament name for God is, "He Who is" Two interpretations of what that means. 1. God telling Moses that He is not going to tell him His name. 2. God is being itself

He is not just a loving God, but love itself. But we have no idea what it's like to be this kind of being. It is beyond our comprehension

This plunges us into darkness in regard to understanding him.

He is the sphere whose center is everywhere but his circumference is nowhere.

Happiness is beholding God in all of this mystery face-to-face. Then we will know what he is.

20:00 St Thomas was always asking who is God as a kid as a youth St Thomas had a vision that was so beautiful and Powerful that he could not write any more of his Summa

22:35 6th High wing

You cannot really answer the question who is God. You cannot use the intellect but must use love.

This wing is about knowing the three persons Father, Son, Spirit via love.

God is pure goodness he is the best, the highest good

Bonaventure said that you can prove that God is three persons by his goodness. Is he the best father the perfect of the like the father on earth looks perfected? The Father, Son, Holy Spirit are not what God is, but who God is.

You get to this highest level you cannot do it by knowing him but by loving him. The virtue of faith is not because you understand but because you accept the authority from someone else, like a teacher. We may not understand, but we do have the knowledge based on the belief in the authority of others. What we are doing in faith is sharing God's knowledge of himself.

Beneath the wings of the two cherubim on the ark is the Cross. We know God through Jesus Christ, man made in the perfect image of God. The apparent contradictions in God are resolved in Christ.

33:20 Exercise tonight: in our room meditate on the Infinity of God not so much on the properties of God but resting in the one God In front of the Eucharist contemplate that God is in the Eucharist but also all around me and in me

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