Let his images draw you to have deeper communion with the God of creation. Also, learn about st. francis and his life. This book is the essence of francisican life in a theology.

This book comprises much of the great Saints works, and gives readers a glimpse at the different topics the Saint dealt with. I found the Tree Of Life section very deep and mystical, and explains how to have an intimate prayer relationship to God. Excellent overall book.

This private revelation written by Venerable Mary of Agreda in the mid 1600's as revealed by the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God and the Queen of Creation is a blessing for all that read it.It reveals God's intention for Mary from the beginning of creation in the same instant that the Son of the Father would become the God-Man,Jesus Christ.It reveals the hidden earthly life of Holy Mary and the Holy Family from Mary's Immaculate Conception in St Anne and by St Joachim to her Coronation in Heaven as its Queen.It's revelation concerning the Trinity,creation,Lucifer's downfall,man's downfall,the Old Testament,the Life of Christ,Mary and St Joseph,of hell and purgatory,of the earthy possession and power of Satan and his demons,of Christ's Passion and death,of the interpretation and meaning of St John's Revelation and other Mysteries of God and Mary--- are without equal in private revelation.The ultimate goodness that this book reveals from The Queen of Mercy and Grace,is the tremendous power God has bestowed on The Mother of Mankind as sinful man's Intercessor to Christ thru her distribution of God's mercy and grace.Thus thru Her Human Perfectness as the Mother of God,She has become the Gateway to Heaven for individual man-if only he recognizes her as his Queen of Heaven and sincerely asks for Her Mercy and for his personal salvation.This writing has gained all of the approbations of the many Religious Orders,Congregations,Princes and Popes of The Roman Catholic Church.

I feel the book is more valuable than the bible in many ways. The bible gospels have conflicts in them, and were written many years after the fact. This book has to be factual and was and is very etifing and enhancing for me to read and reread. While some people shy away from this type of private revalations I find it rewarding. Many would not and do not take the effort to read this type of material. Knowing about the author helps a lot in appreciating the work. Truly it is one of the greatest books ever written. The other private revelation books do not provide factual and interesting information. They visualize and speculate in their mind, while the Mystical City leaves not doubt of authority and integrity.

Taken from the Legenda Sancti Francisci and edited, with a preface, by Henry Edward Cardinal Manning. The life of a Saint, written by a Saint, speaks to the heart with a vital power which no work of merely natural genius can command. It has a twofold operation of the Spirit of God with it, both in the subject and in the writer. Among uninspired books there are few that breathe more sensibly the love of God than this famous work. "There is a light and a sweetness about it which is not of this world," says Cardinal Manning. St. Thomas writes about finding St. Bonaventure in his cell writing this work in ecstasy, and drawing back from the door exclaiming, "Let us leave a Saint to work for a Saint." St. Bonaventure conveys a picture of St. Francis through his miracles (including turning water into wine, raising people from the dead, commanding water to flow from bare rock and even curing the author of a childhood illness), his sayings (even the animals were exulted at the sound of his voice) and his holy life that renders an indelible impression of a man totally transformed in God and by God. In short, St. Bonaventure presents the life of a man who was like a seraph - an angel in human form - for no other word but "angel" can truly describe the beloved St. Francis of Assisi.

St. Bonaventure, cured of a childhood illness by St. Francis, writes a vivid biography of St. Francis.

I think because it is written by a great Saint, this biography perceptively considers St. Francis through his spirituality above all. It is not the most complete memoir of anecdotes about St. Francis' life, but a compendium of anecdotes about St. Francis is not St. Bonaventure's purpose.

St. Francis is perceived through his faith in God; in going from Gospel to life and life to Gospel. He is portrayed as the man who gave all to attain the pearl of great price. He was all of these things.

As far as biographies go, this one can be classified as not only a chronicle of St. Francis' life, but also spiritual reading which will edify the reader and draw him or her closer to Christ.

As St. Francis said, "What a man is in the eyes of God, that he is and no more." St. Bonaventure portrays this truth of St. Francis exeedingly well. Buy this book and, perhaps, it will assist you in going from the Gospel to life and life to the Gospel.

I recently wrote this book as a doctoral dissertation at the Gregorian University in Rome. It was rewarded a "pluma gregoriana" on May 13, 1997. My thesis moderator, Charles A. Bernard, S.J., had this to say about it: "This book is important, clear, and of notable merit for spirituality." One of the defense judges, John Navone, S.J., wrote the following: "This is an original work that masterfully treats a topic of perennial interest for both spiritual and systematic theologians. It offers a healthy antidote to contemporary tendencies to eliminate the cognitive or doctrinal constituents from considerations of religious experience in general and from considerations of Christian experience in particular. Father Carpenter's work reminds us that the mindless approach to God is not the Christian approach. . . Fr. Carpenter's intelligent use of Bernard Lonergan's transcendental method contextualizes his study within the mainstream of contemporary theology."

This book belongs in every seminary. A perfect guide to how one combines the intellectual pursuit of theology with deep spirituality. This thesis should be carefully studied and highlighted liberally as it is a book one can pick up again and again, leaving the session closer to God each time. A masterpiece for every Catholic student!

Ilia Delio's book offers an incredible journey into the major themes of Saint Bonaventure's theology. Delio is able to take his often complex and mystical medieval theology and present it to the reader in a way that is not only digestible, but enjoyable.

I found that this Thirteenth century Franciscan friar has much to offer us in the dawning of the Twenty-First century. In a world that is struggling to find God, Bonaventure lays out the inter-relatedness between God, creation and humanity. And all of this inter-connectedness is good!

More importantly, Delio's book is not just for the student. I found myself being led to a prayerful reflection throughout her book. It stirs the soul to respond because what Bonaventure offers resonates deep within the reader.

This book provides a wonderful opportunity to meditate on the mystery of God's love for us as found in Christ on the cross.

If you are interested in understanding Franciscanism, this is a "must have" book.

This is the book for any one truly interested in a good introduction to Franciscan Christology. Fr. Zachary Hayes, O.F.M., as always, has done a spectacular job of translating these sermons of Bonaventure and has provided an excellent introduction and commentary. As the commentaries are at the end of the sermons as end notes, it's a little difficult to go back and forth in the text, but the quality of commentary makes it a worthwhile struggle. In "Christ, the One Teacher of All" you will learn the importance of the Incarnation in its revelation of eternal and temporal truth. Like the ladder in Jacob's dream, Christ serves to unite heaven and earth so that man might learn of God and then of himself and creation in relation to the highest truth. This is just a small taste of the wisdom that can be gained from contemplation of these sermons of St. Bonaventure. Be prepared to read this book many, many times. Your mind will unlock profound truths of the Incarnation of our dear Lord Jesus every time you take up this text.

This book is for anyone who is serious about pursuing holiness. Bonaventure provides beautiful insights into living our lives in the very image and likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a mere scholary work of speculation on the spiritual life, but the living experience of one who conformed his entire life to Christ, one burning to be united to his Beloved Lord. Besides the excellence of the wisdom contained in this work, Bonaventure is a master of literary style. The imagery in this work is nothing short of spectacular. The translator of this work of the Seraphic Doctor has done a splendid job, and the endnotes and commentary are most helpful. Pax et Bonum.

In this short book Bonaventure traces out the spiritual ascent which leads to the vision of God, dividing the journey into six stages.

The first step after accepting Christ is to turn to God, completely. "Divine help", writes Bonaventure, "comes to those who seek it from their hearts humbly and devoutly; and this means to sigh for it in this vale of tears, aided only by fervent prayer. Thus prayer is the mother and source of ascent in God". The importance of prayer lies in that it opens the doors to grace, without which the ascent cannot be completed. Apart from prayer and humility before God, Bonaventure also exhorts the aspirant to live a holy life. For sin deforms nature, and becomes an obstacle on the way. The next stage is reflection. Apart from contemplating scripture, Bonaventure adjures the way-farer to reflect over what is outside of himself, namely the world of the senses. Being an image of God, its contemplation is support to reaching the end of the journey; for in the world "there are traces", writes Bonaventure, "in which we can see the reflection of our God". But God is not only found outside, he is also found within, and his traces can be seen in the natural powers He has bestowed upon humans. Memory is one such example. Through reflection over what is within the soul rises closer to God. Since nothing is greater than the human mind except its Creator, the mind yearns for its Source, longing for its Origin. If the individual receives grace, he will see the affinity to what is inside of him to what is above, ie. God. However reflection is not the highest state. The mind does not simply wish to know, but also to see; vision is the culmination of the ascent. Bonaventure elaborates upon this theme in the last chapter. The mystical vision requires an abandoning of all formal attachments. Because the peak-mystical experience is a "union" with the One, every things that binds, attaches, and separates must be removed. Reflection, which is the activity of the intelligence, must also halt, for ideas are delimited and cannot comprehend nor enclose the Infinite. Furthermore, reflection is itself a distraction from the experience. The peak-experience is supra-intellectual. Its founational elements: "grace", "desire", and "the cry of prayer" are the first steps of the journey without which the end cannot be reached. Bonaventure contends that ultimately the peak-experience is inexpressible, which "no man knoweth but he that received it". But what he does say is that it is an experience of superluminous darkness.

Mystics throughout the ages have described their encounters with "the One" in terms of an encounter with either complete light or darkness. Interestingly, Plotinus, whom Bonaventure considered to have never completed the journey, claimed to have undergone the peak mystical experience through which he too was witness to the Divine Light.

Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery is a beautiful and haunting place to visit, and the book captures much of that beauty in plentiful photographs. But if you are looking for a history of Bonaventure, this volume is a light weight. Most of the facts are there, but their arrangement is haphazard, with little logical sequence. I was looking for some background informaiton on the original colonial plantation and the family that owned it, but found mostly information on various tombs, markers and headstones.

As the subtitle sugests, it's purpose wasn't as much to provide an in-depth look into the Bonaventure Cemetery, but to provide the reader with a visual guide through Bonaventure's past. It achieves its purpose very well.

This book even includes lost relics, such as photos of the complete statue/grave of Gracie Watson, who's had her nose lost for years. I bought this book because of such things as that. I was much more satisfied because it was the historic photos such as the Gracie grave photos that I was interested in more with the text coming in second. The only major complaint is that it's way too short...

Father Paul Rout's small study of these two seminal figures in Chrisitanity leaves the reader feeling that more is needed. It is a short and fragmented study which may have amounted to something if more time and effort were put into the scholarship.

It seems to be an outline for what could be a great study. However, the current work amounts to rehashed lecture notes.

Rout's book is simply the *best* summary of the lives, thoughts, and actions of Francis of Assisi and his second-generation disciple and expositor, Bonaventure. With clarity and agility, Rout traces the lives of both men, showing the former's charismatic personality and the latter's scholarly excellence and how both used their gifts in spreading the good news of God's love in Jesus Christ to the people of their time. Since Bonaventure is the systematic theologian and was the most significant early Franciscan to give shape to Francis' wisdom, Rout concentrates on his writings and thoughts a great deal, but in no way excludes the life of Francis nor its profound impact on people to this very day. Rout's final chapter on Francis encounter with the Sultan as the basis for modern ecumenical dialogue is excellent. There is simply nothing about this book not to like. It is short and to the point, doesn't get lost in theological jargon, is accessible to anyone, and is profound in its reflections on the experience of God these two had and how it relates to living a Christian life today. As an admirer of both, I highly recommend this book to anyone else who does, and who believes there is more to medieval theology than Thomas Aquinas!!

Every page of this easy-to-read book is inspiring and worth taking a highlighter to! I loved the prayers and quotes that were included; they showed the sensitivity and compassion of these two wonderful saints. A beautiful book for sure!