Final Illumination: Chapter VII of 'A Mind's Journey to God'

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Final Illumination: Chapter VII. of St. Bonaventure’s A Mind’s Journey to God. Meditation Class. A Mystic’s Journal Entry: February 24, 2006

Friday, February 24

This past Wednesday night, we finished most of the last Chapter of Bonaventure’s A Mind’s Journey to God. I had cancelled meditation class for several weeks, because of illness.

In our studies of Chapter VI, a few weeks ago, we decided that Saint Bonaventure’s slim volume was written as a teaching tool for the religious. In essence, it is an outline of our philosophic and mystical journey.

The last exercise we were given, in Chapter VI, was to image the Blessed Trinity as a unity in our minds.

Chapter VII. is the final chapter of Saint Bonaventure’s work, and in it he speaks of Mystical Ecstacy, the seventh and final step in the mind’s journey to God. The full title to this last chapter is: On the Mental and Mystical Ecstasy in Which Rest is Given to the Mind and Completely Transports the Affections to God.

In this final chapter, Bonaventure gives us the seventh and final step to Illumination. In the first five steps: “The human mind, within the limits of its powers (and given our pilgrim state) has considered God outside the mind through his traces and in his traces; within the mind through images and in images; above the mind through the splendor of divine light shining upon us and in that light.” In the sixth step, we beheld, in Our Lord, that “which absolutely exceeds the mind’s capacities.” In considering God through his traces in the world, or through images or forms of any sort - we are still using the mind. In this seventh level of contemplation: “It now remains for the mind, speculating on these things, to go beyond the world of the senses, and indeed, to go beyond itself.”

Here, Bonaventure is speaking of the Ecstasy of Divine, transforming Mystical Union.

Bonaventure continues with the remarkable words: “Whoever ... turns his face directly to the One hanging on the Cross makes the Pasch (i.e. the Crossing Over)... crosses the Red Sea leaving Egypt for the desert where he tastes the hidden manna, and with Christ, he lies in the tomb, dead to the world, seeing, however, according to his condition in life, the truth of what he said on the Cross to the Good thief: “This day you will be with me in Paradise”(Lk. 23, 43).”


In this experience of true Mystical Union, it is a Crossing Over, where the seas mystically and miraculously part so that we can taste, experience the hidden manna of Divinity. The mind that we are most familiar with is now replaced with the Divine Light of the soul and the Divine Light of God. It is like standing in two living Flames of luminescent, radiant Light of extraordinary brilliance that cannot be described. We also know that in some mysterious way, we are this vibrant and wondrous Light - and even from within the experience will marvel at what we are experiencing. We are the Light Itself, indistinguishable from It, and we know that this Light is pure Divinity and that we have stood, in being and consciousness, in the higher part of the Soul, our true Self - and also within God’s Own Divinity. This living and extraordinary Light does not exist on earth, and makes all earthly light seem pale and flat. And we also, in those moments, realize that this Light is all that truly Exists or has ever truly Existed. We have the sense that we have spent our entire life waiting for this experience - and afterwards, we know that we have seen Divinity in It’s purest form, and also our true Self and glimpsed it’s Truth. There are no words to truly express the experience, no words that I know. It is like standing in a thousand luminous, living suns that surround and fill you - and are you. The wonder of the experience - is inexpressible.

and with Christ, he lies in the tomb, dead to the world. In my experience, this remarkable comparison by St. Bonaventure in true in two ways. Viewed from the outside, by others, those in this transforming union of Saint Teresa of Avila, can appear dead. The skin becomes as pale as parchment, the lips blue; the pulse and breathing almost non-existent. One cannot move or come out of true ecstasy at will; it is not even like the deepest contemplation in that sense.

As experienced by the person in ecstacy: the world is not seen or heard, except perhaps for brief intervals - and then only partially, as from a vast distance, even if the physical eyes are open. The Light that we now are, and are enveloped by, obscures the physical world. Nor does the person in this ecstatic state wish to experience the world. Bonaventure’s reference, “This day you will be with me in Paradise”(Lk. 23, 43) says it very well. Simply stated: nothing in the physical world could compare to the wonder and bliss of the experience. It is a taste of manna, as Bonaventure mentions earlier - and also of Heaven while still on earth.

Bonaventure continues saying that his teacher, St. Francis of Assisi, first had the vision of the six-winged Seraph on the top of the same Italian mountain as Bonaventure. “On that mountain rapt out of himself and carried off to God, Francis became the perfect model of contemplation as he had been the model of action ... Thus, all spiritual men are invited by God through the example of Francis rather than by any word, to the same passing over and to the same ecstacy of soul”.

Thus, all spiritual men are invited by God through the example of Francis rather than by any word. Here, Bonaventure tells us that God has shown us, in the example of St. Francis, that all human beings are capable of this same experience. All humans share the same human vehicle, therefore, we all can achieve what St. Francis achieved. And that God Himself invites us to join mystically with Him in this manner.

Bonaventure continues: “For this ecstasy to be perfect all intellectual operations must cease and the pinnacle of love must be embraced and transformed in God.”


For this ecstasy to be perfect all intellectual operations must cease. Here Bonaventure is reminding us that our intellectual studies, our mental contemplations are very needed and useful on the spiritual path - but in the experience of the transforming union, all intellectual operations cease. In the experience of this highest ecstasy, or Mystical Union, all thoughts are taken from us, replaced by the experience itself. However, if we wish to fully experience the transformation offered to us, we must not impose thoughts on it, nor wish to reenter the world while still in its Divine Grasp. In other words, in this experience of ecstasy, we must keep the mind clear, free of thought.

and the pinnacle of love must be embraced and transformed in God. This aspect of the Divine Love defines the Mystical Union of the third stage of Saint Teresa of Avila’s schema. It is this presence of God’s Immense and Deep Love while in ecstasy that tells us that we have achieved Mystical Union. Lesser ecstasies do not contain this aspect of Love, this presence of Love that fills our very being, makes our hearts burn as though it were a furnace. In this phrase, Bonaventure is also telling us that in Mystical Union all intellectual operations cease, and a Presence of Divine Love fills us, as a way of judging whether we have attained Mystical Union. There are many levels and forms of ecstasy, leading up to the Mystical Union of the third stage of the Interior Life.

must be embraced and transformed in God. Here, Bonaventure tells us that the Love we are given in the transforming Union can transform our own love, our own hearts. If we embrace the Love given to us in the experience, and allow it to fill us: God’s Love will, in the future, flow effortlessly through us to all other beings.

Bonaventure then says: “Nature is impotent, as is personal effort, in this ascent.” A few paragraphs later, he adds: “If you wonder how all this can be done, ask for grace, not theology”. In this final stage of the mind’s journey to God, we must put all our other studies and efforts aside, save to look with confidence and hope and joy directly to God, as did St. Francis in La Verna: “Do not look to creatures but to the Creative Force: Father, Son and Holy Spirit”.