"Wisdom From St. Bonaventure"
Self-conscious prayer is not necessarily the best or the only form of prayer. To be praying, you don't need to know you are praying! How else could the Apostle Paul tell us to pray without ceasing? Paul was not naive or unaware of practical demands. He was, quite simply, mature in his spirituality. He was a "contemplative charismatic": Life and religion were synthesized; he had the vision of the whole. St. Bonaventure, building on the Franciscan
experience of the Incarnation, saw the "traces" or "footprints" of God everywhere. The "journey of the mind to God" was to learn how to see the unity of all being, how to listen to the hidden God and how to read the footprints that were everywhere evident. The result was a life of gratitude and reverence and simple joy - a Franciscan spirituality. Thus Bonaventure, like most great saints, combined a highly contemplative personality with very active and effective ministry in secular and practical affairs.
Fr. Richard Rohr in Catholic Charismatic, "To Be and to Let Be: The Life of Reverence"
These words of Fr. Rohr's take me to Archbishop Tutu. I'm fully fascinated and drawn by the juxtaposition of all these men: St. Bonaventure, St. Francis, Desmond Tutu, Richard Rohr.
How does Love hold it all?
What is conveyed in the contemplation of all four?
What joy exists in each of them? In us?
How do our interior lives manifest in exterior ways?
What expression shows our gratitude?
What do our actions convey?
How does my prayerful life manifest in practical and secular affairs?
Peace, Happy Contemplating!
Melissa
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