Sunday, July 15, 2018

St. Bonaventure: The seventh prodigy —All Sodomites Died When Our Lord Was Born

The Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, explained that one of the MIRACLES at the Birth of Jesus was the death of all Sodomites  for the restoration of chastity on earth.

St. Bonaventure speaking in a sermon at the Portiuncula about the miracles that took place simultaneously with the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ said:

 “Seventh prodigy: All sodomites—men and women—died all over the earth, as Saint Jerome said in his commentary on the psalm ‘The light was born for the just.’ This made it clear that He was born to reform nature and promote chastity.” (St. Bonaventure, Sermon XXI—In Nativitate Domini)


Saint Bonaventure mentioned St Jerome because it is a common tradition held by the Fathers of the Church that at the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, all the sodomites of the world miraculously dropped dead.



Even from just a Medical Perspective it is love to oppose Homosexual Acts

The Deliverance Novena from vice of homosexuality



Prayer:

Thou hast entered, O Bonaventure, into the joy of thy Lord, and what must thy happiness be now, since, as thou thyself didst say: "By how much a man loves God on earth, by so much does he rejoice in Him in heaven (Bonav. De perfectione vitae, ad Sorores, viii)?" If the great St. Anselm, from whom thou didst borrow that word, added, that love is proportioned to knowledge (Anselm. Proslogion, xxvi.), O thou, who wast at the same time a prince of sacred science and the doctor of love, show us how all light, in the order of grace and of nature, is intended to lead us to love. God is hidden in everything (Bonav. De redutione artium ad theologiam); Christ is the centre of every science (Illuminationes Eccl., i); and the fruit of each of them is to build up faith, to honour God, to regulate our life, and to lead to divine union by charity, without which all knowledge is vain (De reduct. artium ad theolog). For, as thou didst say (Itinerarium mentis in Deum, iii), all the sciences have their fixed and infallible rules, which come down to our soul as so many reflections of the eternal law; and our soul, surrounded and penetrated with such brightness, is led, of her own accord, unless she is blind, to contemplate that eternal light. Wonderful light, reflected from the mountains of our fatherland into the furthermost valleys of our exile! In the eyes of the Seraphic Father Francis the world was truly noble, so that he called, as thou tellest us, even the lowest creatures by the name of brothers and sisters (Legenda St. Francisei, viii); in every beauty he discerned the Sovereign Beauty; by the traces left in creation by its Author he found his Beloved everywhere, and he made of them a ladder whereby to ascend to Him (Ibid. ix).

Do thou, too, O my soul, open thine eyes, bend thine ear, unlock thy lips, and prepare thy heart, that in every creature thou mayest see thy God, hear Him, praise Him, love Him, and honour Him, lest the whole universe rise up against thee for not rejoicing in the works of His hands. Then from the world beneath thee, which has but the shadow of God and His presence, inasmuch as He is everywhere, pass on to thyself, His image by nature, reformed in Christ the Bridegroom. From the image rise to the truth of the first Beginning, in unity of Essence and trinity of Persons, that thou mayest attain the repose of that sacred night where both the shadow and the image are forgotten in an all-absorbing love. But first of all thou must know that the mirror of the external world will avail thee little, unless the interior mirror of thy soul be purified and bright, unless thy desire be aided by prayer and contemplation in order to kindle love. Know that here, reading without unction, speculation without devotion, labour without piety, knowledge without charity, intelligence without humility, study without grace, are nothing; and when at length, rising gradually by prayer, holiness of life, and the contemplation of truth, thou shalt have reached the mountain where the God of gods reveals himself (Bonav. Itinerar. mentis in Deum, i), taught by the powerlessness of thy sight here on earth to endure splendours of which nature was too feeble to give thee an indication, let thy blind intelligence remain asleep, pass beyond it in Christ, Who is the gate and the way, question no longer the master but the Bridegroom, not man but God, not the light but the all-consuming fire; pass from this world with Christ to the Father, Who will be shown to thee, and then say with Philip: It is enough for us (Ibid. vii)."

O Seraphic Doctor, lead us by this sublime ascent, of which every line of thy works discloses the secrets, the toils, the beauties, and the dangers. In the pursuit of that Divine Wisdom, which even in its feeblest reflections, no one can behold without ecstasy, guard us against mistaking for an end the satisfaction felt from the scanty rays sent down to us to draw us from the confusion of nothingness even to Itself. If these rays which proceed from the eternal Beauty be withdrawn from their focus and perverted from their object, there will be nothing but delusion, deception, vain knowledge, or false pleasures. Indeed, the more lofty the knowledge and the nearer it approaches to God as the object of speculative theory, the more in a certain sense is error to be feared. If a man in his progress towards true wisdom, which is possessed and relished for its own sake, is drawn aside by the charms of knowledge, and rests therein, thou, O Bonaventure, hesitatest not to compare such knowledge to a vile deceiver, who would withdraw the affections of the king's son from his noble betrothed to fix them upon herself (Illuminationes Eccl., ii.). Such an insult to an august queen would be equally grievous whether offered by a servant or by a lady of honour. Hence thou didst declare that the passage from science to wisdom is dangerous, unless holiness intervene (Ibid)." Help us to cross the perilous pass; let science ever be to us a means of attaining sanctity and acquiring greater love.

Thou hast still, O Bonaventure, the same thoughts in the light of God. Witness the predilection thou hast more than once shown in our time, for those centres, where, in spite of the fever of activity which must needs keep in motion every force of nature, divine contemplation is still appreciated as the better part, as the only end and aim of all knowledge. Deign to continue thy protection of thy devout and grateful clients. Defend, as heretofore, the life and prerogatives of all religious Orders which are now so persecuted. To thy own Franciscan family be still a cause of increase both in numbers and in sanctity; bless the labours undertaken by it, to the joy of all the world, to bring to light as they deserve thy history and thy works. Bring back the East a third time to unity and life, and that forever. May the whole Church be warmed by thy rays; may the divine fire thou didst so effectually nurture, enkindle the earth anew!


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