Holiness of Life by St. Bonaventure

[Stone]

PREFACE

“Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt teach out of Thy Law” (Ps. xciii, 12.) I hold that only the man taught by the Holy Spirit and imbued with His blessed unction is to be considered wise. The Prophet David lays down the same principle; he alone is really happy and wise whose mind the Lord has made learned in the Law. “The Law of God,” David notes elsewhere (Ps. xviii, 8), is the only law “without fault” and irreproachable. It alone has the secret of “converting souls” to the way of salvation. To read the Law does not suffice. We only discover its wealth of meaning and reap the fruits of its profound learning through devout and affectionate meditation.

Conscientiously, “in Spirit and in truth” (1 Thess. i, 5.), are we to seek this meaning. We must beg the Holy Spirit, with ardent longing, to give us these fruits. The Holy Ghost alone knows how to bring to light the sweetness hidden away under the rugged exterior of the words of the Law. We must go to the Holy Ghost for interior guidance.

The Law of the Lord teaches us the way to live, what is to be done, avoided, believed, prayed for, longed for and feared. It teaches how to live the blameless and spotless life, how to keep one’s promises, and how to be sincerely contrite for one’s failings. The Law of the Lord teaches contempt for earthly things and a loathing for all things of the flesh. Finally, it explains how with our whole heart, whole soul, and whole mind we are to be converted to Jesus Christ (Matt, xxii, 37.)

Compared with the doctrine of God’s Law, worldly wisdom is vain and foolish. “As long as a man does not fear or love God, no matter how great his reputation for wisdom may be,” says St. Bernard, “I shall never consider him wise” (S. Bern. Serm. 73 de Diversis.) I would remind you that many forget what they hear, but these are not numbered among the wise. The truly wise man acts, and does zealously what the Law prescribes. The doer is the wise and the happy man. “Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt teach him out of Thy Law.”

You asked me, Reverend Mother dear to me and devoted to God, to outline from the poor treasures of my heart some little thing that for the time being would be a help to devotion and would bring some light to your soul. Really, it is I who need such help, particularly as my life is not a shining example to others. Inwardly, I am not burning with tender devotion. Further, I have scarcely the knowledge necessary to do what you ask. Nevertheless, out of regard for your repeatedly expressed wishes, and anxious to oblige you, I have done what you so earnestly prayed of me.

Let me, however, beg of Your Beatitude, dear most holy Mother, not to think so much of what I have written, as of my good and kind intentions. Please look for the truths of which I speak rather than for beauty of expression. Where I do not come up to your expectations, pardon me, and put my shortcomings down, please, to lack of time and stress of business.