{"id":2451,"date":"2026-03-04T00:24:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/?page_id=2451"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:54:34","slug":"st-bonaventures-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/?page_id=2451","title":{"rendered":"St. Bonaventure\u00b4s Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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St. Bonaventure\u00b4s Wisdom

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Mary Esther Stewart is a Secular Franciscan living in Flagstaff, Arizona and a member of San Francisco de As\u00eds Parish. She retired from education after 40 years of teaching and administration. She is a grandmother, an artist, a gardener, and a lover of St. Bonaventure. She published an introductory volume to the saint entitled: Meet Our Brother Bonaventure<\/i>. She has also published articles and given presentations on Franciscan topics. Esther volunteered her services for our Journey into God Retreat, traveling with us across the globe for several years.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Go to: Wisdom to Ponder<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

Go to: Three Minute Wisdom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u2026.We can feed each other on our Journey and keep this wonderful Franciscan spirituality alive among us.<\/p>\n

Why Bonaventure?<\/p>\n

In a recent commentary that I\u2019ve been reading, the author demonstrates how Bonaventure was such a pivotal person for his day.  In the \u201cdark ages,\u201d folks must have chugged down the highway of life with business as usual on a daily basis, survival being primary.  But in the 13th century, with the resurgence of Aristotle and the interpretation of his work by Averroes, the effect on Western thinking could have taken some serious turns.  Folks hit a fork in the road.  Maybe it was like the technology explosion for us.  Bonaventure, with the help of his friends, was able to integrate the best of Plato, Aristotle and Augustine into a view of Christianity that is positive, holistic, and psychologically sound.  He gave structure to Francis\u2019 spirituality and dealt with the issues of his day, all of which is pertinent and beneficial to us in century 21!  Positive, holistic and psychologically sound are pretty convincing to me.  So why not Bonaventure?<\/p>\n

And a thought for the season:<\/p>\n

In chapter V of the Itinerarium<\/i> we read about God as Being.  God is a happy being and diffuses His\/Her love in a three-way, Trinitarian relationship.  There was no need for God to create.  But He did.  We share in God\u2019s being, but it is not necessary.  And if creation was not necessary, the Incarnation was not necessary either.  I look at my Christmas crib in my living room and I say to myself, \u201cNone of this had to be.  But it did \u2018be,\u2019 it was, and it is.\u201d  It causes me to live in awe. \u201cGod so loved the world . . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Esther Stewart OFS<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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St. Bonaventure\u00b4s Wisdom Mary Esther Stewart is a Secular Franciscan living in Flagstaff, Arizona and a member of San Francisco de As\u00eds Parish. She retired from education after 40 years of teaching and administration. She is a grandmother, an artist, a gardener, and a lover of St. Bonaventure. She published an introductory volume to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2451","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2451"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3993,"href":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2451\/revisions\/3993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/assisijourney.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}