San Bonaventura phrases, quotes from the prayers and aphorisms of the thought of the Saint who in life was a Franciscan friar, cardinal and teacher of philosophy and theology at the Sorbonne university in Paris. Born in Bagnoregio in 1221, a small Italian town in the province of Viterbo in Lazio, he died in Lyon in 1274.
Quotes of San Bonaventura
- Bliss is nothing but the enjoyment of the highest good; the highest good is above us; therefore no one can attain bliss if he does not rise above himself, not with the body but with the heart.
- Hope is to fly
- The works of Christ do not go back, do not fail, but progress.
- But we cannot rise above ourselves, without a superior force that raises us. In fact, no matter how many internal steps you plan, if you do not accompany divine help.
- The love that you will witness for God will be great considering that you are not worthy of it; bigger, remembering the vastness of his grace; infinite to the thought of the immensity of God.
- Now the help of God is granted to those who ask for it with a humble and devoted heart: this is precisely sighing in this valley of tears, that is, with fervent prayer.
- The man, since he is strong and presides over the woman, represents the highest part of reason, instead the woman the lower part. And this because of virility on the one hand, and weakness and fragility on the other.
- Prayer is the mother and origin of all spiritual elevation.
Aphorisms of San Bonaventura
- O soul, so what do you think is the divine consolation? Certainly, o soul, that sweetness is so great and so suave consolation that only in the heart does it appear that it is divine consolation, of course, o anema, this sweetness is so great and so much suave delusion that, only in the heart feeling, do you think what it is divine consolation.
- By praying, we are already enlightened to know the degrees of ascent to God. In fact, according to the state and condition in which we find ourselves, all reality is a ladder to ascend to God.
Recommended readings- Phrases of St. Dominic of Guzman: biography
- Phrases of Santa Gemma Galgani: quotes and aphorisms
- Phrases of Saint Anthony of Padua: quotes, aphorisms
- Phrases of San Filippo Neri: famous aphorisms from the writings
- Phrases of San Camillo de Lellis: quotes and thoughts
- The hatred of falsehood is inherent in the soul; but every hatred arises from love, therefore the love of truth and especially of that truth for which the soul was made is much more rooted in the soul.
- According to his original nature, man was created capable of contemplative quiet, so much so that he was placed in a paradise of delights (Gn. 2, 15). But then he turned away from the true light towards the changing good and so culpably lowered himself and all his genus by means of original sin which infected human nature in two ways, that is, the mind with ignorance, the flesh with concupiscence .
- Matter is the principle of all limitations.
- The blinded and disheartened man sits in the darkness and cannot see the celestial light if grace with justice against concupiscence and science combined with wisdom against ignorance do not help him. All this becomes possible through Jesus Christ who was made up of God for us wisdom and justice,
sanctification and redemption (1Cor. 1, 30).
- The man, since he is strong and presides over the woman, represents the highest part of reason, instead the woman the lower part. And this because of virility on the one hand, and weakness and fragility on the other.
- He is the power and wisdom of God, the incarnate Word full of grace and truth, author of grace and truth: that is, which infuses the grace of that charity which, coming from a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith, brings the soul right to the threefold gaze described above: it gives it the science of truth according to the three species of theology, that is, the symbolic, the proper, and the mystical, so that with the symbolic we use sensible things rightly; with that properly said we use intelligible rightly; with mysticism we are elevated to supermental ecstasies.
Phrases of San Bonaventura
- Contemplation cannot be reached except through perspicacious meditation, holy conduct, devout prayer.
- Whoever wants to go up must avoid the sin that deforms nature, get used to the natural faculties mentioned above in reforming grace with the exercise of prayer; then to justice that purifies with conduct, and finally to wisdom that makes perfect and this with contemplation.
- Grace is the foundation of the righteousness of the will and the clear illumination of reason.
- As no one can come to wisdom except through grace, justice, science, so contemplation can only be achieved with perspicacious meditation, holy conduct, devout prayer.
- Feeling penetrates where intelligence does not arrive.
- Since then grace is the foundation of the righteousness of the will and the clear illumination of reason, the first thing we must do is to pray; then to live holy; finally to pay attention to objects that reflect the truth. Thus, step by step, we will ascend to the exalted mountain where we can see the God of gods, in Zion (Ps. 83, 8).
- Constant commitment to small things is a great and heroic virtue.
