The Journey Retreat

Bagnoregio where St. Bonaventure was born in 1217

The retreat opens with a presentation on the life of Bonaventure in order to provide a context for reflection on his work. 

Each of the eight days of the retreat is then dedicated to one of the chapters of THE JOURNEY. Each day is a balance of instruction on the text, periods for reading and personal and community participation in eucharistic liturgy, morning and evening prayer. The liturgical and para-liturgical prayer is especially designed by the presenters to disclose the profound themes in a contemporary experience.

A typical day would be spent in the following manner. After morning prayer, time is provided for reading the chapter of THE JOURNEY under consideration, then, an input session on the same chapter followed by quiet time. Only the Eucharist is celebrated in the afternoon, the remaining time for reflection and quiet. Evening prayer is followed by optional sharing on the chapter of the day. 

In 2024, we conducted the final Journey Retreat in the United States at the Franciscan Renewal Center—“The Casa”—Scottsdale, AZ. And in 2025, we facilitated the very last Journey Retreat at Casa Papa Giovanni in Assisi. The retreat at “The Casa” was filmed and is available on their website free of charge. If you would like to make this Journey Retreat with St. Bonaventure, you can go to:

Spiritual Significance

La Verna

The basic theological concepts found in Saint Bonaventure’s great work are presented in clear and practical language. 

Jean Gerson (+ 1429), chancellor at the University of Paris, St. Bonaventure’s alma mater, said that the Itinerarium is “more valuable than all literature which had ever been written,” and confessed that he made the Itinerarium his “chosen reading for 30 years, without ever ceasing to obtain great fruit from it.” And more recently, Lawrence Landini OFM (+ 2005) called this writing “a religious classic, theology rooted in experience!” And Zachary Hayes OFM (+ 2014), a Bonaventurian scholar himself, said that “virtually the whole of Bonaventure’s theology is present in the few compact pages of the Itinerarium.”