On the Mental and Mystical Excess, in Which Rest is Given to the Intellect

CHAPTER VII – ON THE MENTAL AND MYSTICAL EXCESS, 

IN WHICH REST IS GIVEN TO THE INTELLECT,  BY AN 
AFFECTION PASSING WHOLLY INTO GOD THROUGH EXCESS

1. Therefore with these six considerations having run out as the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true Pacifier rests in a pacifying mind as if in the interior of Jerusalem; as if also by six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative is able to be driven above by a full brightening of supernal wisdom; as if also on the first six days, in which the mind has to be exercised, to arrive at last to the sabbath of quiet; afterwhich our mind has surveyed God outside of Himself through vestiges and in vestiges, within Himself through image and in image, above Himself through a similitude of the divine light glittering above us and in that light itself, according to that which is possible according to the state of the way and the exercise of our mind; when one arrives so far on the sixth step to this, that in the First and Most High Principle and the Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, one gazes upon those things the like of which can in nowise be discovered among creatures, and which exceed every perspicacity of the human intellect: it follows, that this (mind) by gazing transcends and passes over not only this sensible world, but also its very self; in which transit Christ is the Way and the Gate, Christ is the Stair and the Vehicle as the propitiatory located above the ark of God and the Sacrament hidden from the ages.

2. Towards which propitiatory he who looks at it with a full conversion of face, by looking at him suspended upon the Cross through faith, hope and charity, devotion, admiration, exsultation, appreciation, praise and jubilation; makes the Passover, that is the transit, together with Him, to pass over the Red Sea through the rod of the Cross, from Egypt entering the desert, where he tastes the hidden bread, and rests together with Christ upon the funeral mound as if exteriorly dead, sensing, nevertheless, as much as is possible according to the state of the way, that there is said to the thief handing on a cross with Christ: Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.

3. Which also has been shown to blessed Francis, when in an excess of contemplation on the exalted mountaing – where those things, which have been written, he treated with his mind – there appeared the Seraph of six wings fastened upon a cross, as I and many others have heard about in the same place from his companion, who was with him at that time; where he passed over into God through an excess of contemplation; and has been placed as an example of perfect contemplation; as first he had been of action, as if another Jacob and Israel, so that God may invite all truly spiritual men through him to a transit of this kind and an excess of the mind more by example than by word.

4. Moreover in this transit, if one be perfect, it is proper that all intellectual activities be relinquished, and the whole apex of affection be transfered and transformed into God. However this is mystical and most secret, bacause no one knows it, except him who accepts it, nor does he accept it unless he be one who desires it, nor does he desire it unless he be one whom the fire of the Holy Spirit, which Chirst sent upon earth, inflammes to the marrow of his bones. And for that reason the Apostle says, that this mystical wisdom has been revealed by the Holy Spirit.

5. Therefore since for this reason there can be nothing by nature, a limited amount by industry, a little by investigation, and much by unction; little must be given to the tounge, and most to internal gladness; little must be given by word and by writing, and the whole by a gift of God, that is by the Holy Spirit; little or nothing must be given to the creature, and the whole to the creative Essence, to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, by saying with (St.) Dionysius (the Areopagite) to God the Trinity: “O Trinity superessential and super-God and super-best of the Christians, inspector of Godly-wisdom, direct us into the super-unknown and super-shining and most sublime vertex of mytical speech; where the new and absolute and ineffable (because they are super-shining) mysteries of theology are hidden secretely in the greatest obscurity of the silence that teaches a super-splendant darkness, because it is the most super-manifest, and that in which everything glitters, and (which) super-fulfills invisible intellects with the splendors of invisible super-goods”. This to God. However to his friend these things are written, said together with the former: “Moreover you, O friend, concerning mystical visions, having been strengthened on the journey, desert both the senses and the intellectual activities, both sensibles and invisibles and everything not a being and a being, and unknowingly restore (yourself) to the unity, as is possible, of Him, who is above every essence and knowledge. For indeed deserting all things and absolved from all, you do ascend by yourself and by (that which is) unboundable by all and by an absolute excess of pure mind, to the super-essential ray of divine shadows”.

6. Moreover if you seek, in what manner these things occur, interrogate grace, not doctrine, desire, not understanding; the groan of praying, not the study of reading; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man, darkness, not brightness; not light, but the fire totally inflamming, transfering one into God both by its excessive unctions and by its most ardent affections. Who indeed is the God of fire, and whose forge is in Jerusalem, and Christ ignites this in the fervor, of His most ardent Passion, which He alone truly perceived, who said: My soul has chosen suspense, and my bones death. He who loves this death can see God, because it is indubitably true: No man will see Me and live. Therefore let us die and step into the darkness, let us put on silence with its cares, and concupiscences and phantasms; let us pass over together with Christ Crucified from this world to the Father, that, by showing us the Father, we may say with Phillip: It suffices for us; let us hear with Paul: My grace is sufficient for you; let us exult with David saying: My flesh and my heart failed, God of my heart and my portion God forever. Blessed be the Lord forever, and let every people say: Fiat, Fiat. Amen. Here ends The Journey of the Mind into God by Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio; translated from the Quarrachi Edition of the Opera Omnia S. Bonaventurae. This document was derived from the text file version available from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College. Edited slightly to correct a couple of typos, and to remove the in-text Latin citations.

from Journey of the Mind into God by Saint Bonaventure

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