Introduction: The Franciscan Family began the celebration of eight centenary of the birth of St. Bonaventure all over the world. The four general ministers through their circulars invited the Friars to reflect on the great role that St. Bonaventure played in reforming the Order. After St. Francis of Assisi he is the central and most important figure in the Franciscan world. There are many schools and universities dedicated to him for a serious research in Philosophy and Theology. He was born in 1217 and joined the Franciscan family in 1245, having already graduated with an Arts degree. In doing so he was influenced by Alexander of Hales who, because of his attraction to Franciscan spirituality, had previously made the transition from the world of academics to that of the cloister. Bonaventure was a Master of Theology in Paris in 1255; in 1257 he was elected Minister General; and the year 1272 saw him as Cardinal Bishop of Albano with responsibility for the preparation of the Council of Lyon, during which he died on July 15th, 1274.
St. Bonaventure is known for his writing as well as teaching and he mostly concentrated on the human person with strong and deep desires, which are both intelligence and affection seeking out and enjoying the beauty of all things. At the same time, Bonaventure sees this desiring person as someone who accepts the demands of the journey because of an intuition that what lies ahead has meaning. The human person knows that underlying the many and various ways by which the world is manifested, there is a unique and constant presence from which everything comes and to which everything returns. For Bonaventure, Jesus Christ represents the center point of the potential union of all things (Christocentrism), because in him everything has its origins and its fulfillment. In Christ, human desire also finds the path to the answers it seeks and longs for.
St. Bonaventure is recognised and accepted in the Order and the Universal Church as a man of God and spiritual Guide and this confirmed through his ascetical and devotional writings, which are popular among the four Franciscan Families. Through his writings he invites the readers to approach God in faith to find and experience Him as God who cares. He communicates through his writings to increase daily our Love for God, directing our affections towards the life of Christ and contemplating his humanity. The spiritual thoughts and inspirations are based on the Word of God, which the Seraphic Doctor loved and believed in very much. St. Bonaventure taught through word and examples that in the spiritual life, love of cannot be limited only to words and emotions but needs to be practiced every moment in faith. Without an ordered ascetical process, the human soul will find it difficult to find the necessary quiet and tranquility that allows it to hear, see, taste, smell, and touch the mystery of God. For Bonaventure, it is not a question of “conquering” God, but of “allowing oneself to be found” — by being open to the unimaginable surprise of an encounter with God.
St. Bonaventure today reminds Clergy, religious and Laity the need of having “spiritual master” in our spiritual life and journey in order to help others in the process of journeying towards an experience of God. In order to undertake this spiritual journey one needs to make oneself available to spiritual formation, which is found in deep personal experience of Christ, the great spiritual guide. The Spiritual traditions in the Catholic Church through the extraordinary examples of holy men and women should be used as effective means to attain the true spiritual growth in ones personal as well as in communitarian life. As a man of God, St. Bonaventure experienced the desire for God as a source of wonder and spiritual love, and he expressed this through a passionate dialogue with the culture of his time4. His teaching is undergirded by a twofold truth: the human person has been created in order to arrive at Divine Wisdom, to taste the wisdom of God — but it is only by means of intelligence, and through the truths of wisdom, that this can happen. St. Bonaventure teaches that a human person needs to be continuously and constantly on the spiritual path with the accompaniment of Jesus Christ and spiritual masters to guide our journey.
St. Bonaventure offers two basic strategies to all those who are committed to spiritual growth of oneself and others in a world dominated by scientific and technological knowledge that is hugely powerful, expansive, and seemingly indifferent to God. Bonaventure proposes that we have to constantly engage positively in dialogue with others and respecting others and their gifts as the manifestation of God’s love towards the Human person.
Finally, Bonaventure was given responsibility for the Order, being elected Minister General in 1257, and remaining in office until his death (1274). This shows the great esteem in which the friars held him. They considered him to be an irreplaceable gift to the life of the Order during a period of extraordinarily rapid expansion. He was an instrument in bringing the friars in connection with the life and ideals of Francis of Assisi. He encouraged the friars to live out their religious calling in being faithful to the teaching and exampled of Francis. He insisted that the Ideals of Francis should be practiced in order to grow in the spirituality and holiness. The Life of Francis was proposed in a manner positive in order to encourage the brothers to live the vocation in communion with the others, rather than of conflict and disorder. He strongly proposed to the Friars the life of Poverty, humility, loyalty to daily commitments, the life of prayer and fraternity, and a simple and modest style of life, all made up a summons to an Order that was at risk of going astray because of the prestige and power that the friars had acquired within the Church and society. In this sense, it was hugely important for Bonaventure to rewrite the life of Francis: without this model of beauty in which the mystical love of God shines through, and without a generous commitment to the world in communion with the “Poor Christ”, the friars would have found it difficult to live an authentic life of minority.
St. Bonaventure while encouraging the friars to live a good quality of Franciscan life, he also insisted that the friars should be ready to serve the intellectual and pastoral needs of the Church. He called the friars to undertake studies to be at the service of the faithful to enlighten them with divine wisdom and goodness. They could respond to the demands of the times and of the Gospel in a manner that would be humble, but also competent. But he recommended that the friars must build up an active relationship with the Gospel in order evangelise people to live the Ideals of Gospel. By rooting themselves in the Gospel the friars would be open to the needs of the society and capable of communication a message of peace, forgiveness and love. The presence of the friars in the church should be inspiring, motivating, informed intelligence and strong commitment to the apostolate. The sons of St. Francis should be the salt and light of the earth in all season in the church and world at large.
The Capuchin Province of St. Bonaventure, Maharashtra celebrates its Patron feast, let us pray for the friars and their apostolate. The Capuchin Friars of Maharashtra are working at Kirol, Mandvi and two friars as principals of Diocesan schools in Bombay Diocese.
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