The Itinerary of the Mind into God
St. Bonaventure


Prologue


1. In the beginning I call upon the First Beginning whence all enlightenment flows as from the Father of Lights from Whom is every good gift and every perfect gift. I call upon the Eternal Father through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that through the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of that same Lord Jesus Christ, and through that of blessed Francis, our guide and father, He may enlighten the eyes of our mind to guide our feet into the way of that peace which surpasses all understanding.
This is the peace which our Lord Jesus Christ preached to and which He gave to us. This message of peace our father Francis ever repeated, announcing peace at the beginning and at the and of every sermon, making every greeting a wish for peace, every prayer a sigh for ecstatic peace, like a citizen of that Jerusalem about which the Man of Peace, who was peaceable with those that hated peace, exhorts us concerning it; Pray ye for the things that are to the peace of Jerusalem. For he knew indeed that only in peace was fixed the throne of Salomon, as it is written: In peace is his place and his abode is in Sion.

2. Inspired by the example of our blessed father, Francis, I sought after this peace with yearning soul - sinner that I am and all unworthy, yet seventh successor as Minister to all the brethren in the place of the blessed father after his death. It happened that, thirty-three years after the death of the Saint, about the time of his passing, moved by a divine impulse, I withdrew to Mount Alverno as to a place of quiet, there to satisfy the yearning of my soul for peace. While I abode there, pondering on certain spiritual ascents to God, there occurred to me, among other things, that miracle which in this very place had happened to the blessed Francis - the vision he received of the winged seraph in the form of the Crucified. As I reflected on this marvel, it immediately seemed to me that this vision suggested the uplifting of Saint Francis in contemplation and that it pointed out the way by which that state of contemplation can be reached.

3. The six wings of the seraph can he rightly understood as signifying the six uplifting illuminations by which the soul is disposed, as if by certain grades or steps, to pass over to peace through the exstatic transports of Christian wisdom. The road to this peace is through nothing else than a most ardent love of the Crucified, the love which so transformed Paul into Christ when he was rapt to the third heaven that he declared: With Christ I am nailed to the Cross. It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. And this love so absorbed the soul of Francis too that his spirit shone through his flesh the last two years of his life, when he bore the most holy marks of the Passion in his body.
The figure of the six wings of the Seraph, therefore, brings to mind the six steps of illumination which begin with creatures and lead up to God, whom no one rightly enters save through the Crucified. For he who enters not by the door, but climbs up another way, is a thief and a robber. But if anyone enter by this door, he shall go in and out, and shall find pastures. For this reason Saint John writes in the.Apocalypse: Blessed are they who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and that by the gates they may enter into the city. That is to say, no one can enter by contemplation into the heavenly Jerusalem unless he enters through the blood of the Lamb as through a door. For no one is in any way disposed for divine contemplations thar lead to spiritual transports unless, like the prophet Daniel, he is also a man of desires. Now such desires are enkindled in us in two ways: through the outcries of prayer, which makes us groan from anguish of heart, and through the refulgence of speculation by which our mind most directly and intently turns itself toward the rays of light.

4. Wherefore, it is to groans of prayer through Christ Crucified, in whose blood we are cleansed from the filth of vices, that I first of all invite the reader. Otherwise he may come to think that mere reading will suffice without unction, speculation without devotion, investigation without admiration, observation without exultation, industry without piety, knowledge without love, understanding without humility, study without divine grace, the mirror without divinely inspired wisdom.
To those, therefore, who are already disposed by divine grace, to the humble and pious, to the contrite and devout, to those who are anointed with the oil of gladness, to the lovers of divine wisdom and to those inflamed with a desire for it, to those who wish to give themselves to glorifying, admiring, and even savoring God - to those I propose the following considerations. At the same time, I wish to warn them that the mirror of the external world put before them is of little or no avail unless the mirror of our soul has been cleansed and polished. First, then, O man of God, arouse in yourself remorse of conscience before you raise your eyes to the rays of divine Wisdom reflected in its mirrors, lest perchance from the very beholding of these rays you fall into more perilous pit of darkness.

5. I have thought it well to divide this tract into seven chapters and have prefixed a title to each for the easier understanding of the matter therein. I entreat the reader to weigh the intention of the writer rather than the work, the meaning of the words rather than the uncultivated style, the truth rather than the adornment, and the exercise of the affections rather than the instruction of the mind. He who would achieve this ought not to run hurriedly through these considerations, but rather take his time and mull them slowly.