CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII.
Visits to Monasteries— Writings on the Religious Life.
'' Vagando per diversas terras, vix vel raro propter multas occupationes habui opportunitatem scribendi modicum,"'
THESE days devoted to contemplation on the solitary heights of Mount Alvernia passed very quickly, and even in that holy place, the burden of government which St. Bonaventure had to bear, did not leave him free from innumerable anxieties and cares.
He had soon therefore to relinquish the pious solemnities and the sweet meditations of his sojourn on the sacred mountain for journeys to visit the different houses of his beloved and ever increasing Order.
Since the time of St. Francis, these visits had been regarded as a powerful means of maintaining fervour and discipline, and the Saint always regarded them as some of his most important duties.
After his
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visit to Mount Alvernia, he continued them with the same zeal as before.
He made these journeys on foot, always absorbed in contemplation, in meditation, and in prayer, unless when busied about the needs of his brethren.
In each house he was welcomed as an angel from Heaven, who had been sent to bring men consolation and love.
He inquired strictly into everything, and especially into the spiritual state of his children ; and great was his joy when he found them walking with a firm step in the paths of selfdenial and charity, while any forgetfulness of their sublime vocation caused him bitter grief.
This he would reprove, but with so. great tenderness, that more than once, in the Chapters, some of the elder brothers reproached him with his lenity, which they thought to be injurious to the public good.
But he never could resolve to quench the still smoking flax, and where he saw any hope of return, he showed pity to the weakness of his erring children, as a tender mother compassionates the sorrow of her only son.
But when he saw that the evil was inveterate, and that his fatherly remonstrances and fervent exhortations availed nothing, he did not hesitate
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to have recourse to more severe remedies, and to punish the guilty.
In his visits to the different houses, he liked to converse separately with each brother, in order the better to discern the hidden needs of each.
He knew at the cost of what sacrifices, what struggles, what daily bitternesses, the difficult edifice of religious perfection is built up, and all his desire was to alleviate the pain of his dear children.
When a young religious asked him by what means he could best preserve himself in his
Order, from sin, and increase merits for eternal life, the good Superior replied, ""O my son, if you wish to remain in the religious life without sin, remember the six precepts which I give you, and let them always be present to your thoughts : they are taken from the writings and examples of the holy Fathers.
"J. Be always faithful in prayer and in the reading of holy books; and in order that you may not neglect this duty, visit the church night and day, and love your cell above all.
Never let yourself be seen out of it or the church, passing your time with others in idleness in the
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streets and roads; but when the office or repast is finished, or when you have fulfilled your duties in obedience to your Superiors, return at once to your cell, without raising your eyes, and there return to your own thoughts.
"TI. Watch well that you may preserve honesty in your heart and in all your senses.
To this end, avoid too great intimacy with anyone, but live in such a manner with all the world that no one may have occasion to remark anything singular or extraordinary in your conduct.
"III. Keep a strict watch over your tongue, and when you are with others, speak only of necessary things, and in answer to inquiries.
Praise no one, and blame neither those who are absent, nor those to whom you speak, even though others should have set you the example.
"TV. Above all things, be careful never to repeat what you have heard from others, unless for the purpose of edification.
"WV. Often call to mind the recollection of the benefits of God, and of your own sins; the bliss of heaven, and the pains of hell.
Think often also of all who are in tribulation and misery in this world.
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"VI. Faithfully keep yourself from judging anyone, either in your heart or by your words ; judge only yourself.
Observe these rules, and you will save your soul."
Sometimes he was asked to help souls, by means of written counsels, to advance more rapidly in the way of perfection, and he was never known to refuse such a request.
If he delayed his answer to such an appeal, his conscience gave him no peace till the sacred debt which, in his charity, he felt he owed his children had been duly paid.
In the letter which is here given, the Saint seems to have effaced his position as Superior, and to speak only in the character of a kind and loving brother:
, "Bonaventura Bagnaria to his well-beloved in Jesus Christ, to his Brother in the Lord, to him who, having cast off the old man, desires to live for Jesus Christ, and to die to the world.
You entreated me with most earnest prayers, my dear son in the Lord, when we were living under the same roof, to visit you after your departure, by a letter of encouragement.
Such a petition, I own, heaps burning coals on my
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head.
But your great humility, by its loving perseverance, has conquered my inflexible pride, and I have promised to satisfy your desire, though it would have been more in order for me to receive from you, that which I have now pledged myself to give.
However, since the incessant urgency of your love has forced me to be insensible on this point, I am going to try, as far as I am able, to do what you ask of me, not, however, confining myself to write to you on any special matter, but contenting myself with such simple thoughts as I have collected for my own use, and many of which are already well known to you."
Then after giving in detail a suite of pious instructions for the higher walks of the way of perfection, he concludes thus :
"Tf I have told you these things, my dearly beloved, it is not because I thought you had need to be so instructed, but I had gathered them together for my own benefit, and seeing my own inconstancy, and how little I can depend on my own courage, I determined to communicate them to you as to a faithful helper, in the hope that, if by my idleness and the negligence
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which increases with age, I should relax in any point, your magnanimity and the fervour of your solicitude would set me right.
I am the more confirmed in this assurance, that I know how all your wishes are the same as mine, and that you will take pleasure in the simple thoughts which I have suggested to you.
So, my wellbeloved in the Lord, receive them with the same charity which has led me to address them to you.
Apply yourself to act upon them, and encourage yourself in such practices by the habitual thought of Heaven.
The trouble which it costs to practise these things does not seem in truth to bring joy, but sadness; but in the end it will bring you in much peace the fruits of justice; and even at present your attempt at such practice will be full of sweetness to your soul, and will give it a taste for piety, filling it with abundant strength in our Lord
Jesus Christ, to Whom I hope that your fervent prayers will recommend the dryness of my soul and the feebleness of my devotion."
The greater part of the time that he governed his Order was spent by St. Bonaventure in 'visiting its different houses; for, in order to
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remedy all evils, it was necessary that he should particularly inquire into the state of all.
Moreover, as he had under his care many houses too distant to visit and encourage with his own voice, he had to find time to instruct and edify by means of his pen, the many brethren at the further extremity of the world, who were ever looking with longing eyes, to receive counsel and encouragement from their venerated Superior.
In one of the books written at this time he says: "I also desire, when writing or reading on different subjects, to employ my time in a useful manner, to fill my memory with holy thoughts, to render my intelligence capable of penetrating more clearly the interior secrets of the spiritual life, to excite my will to walk in virtue and to burn with devotional ardour, to remove from my body the means of indulging in dissipation, to overcome by hard toil my negligences and my sins, that so I may be able to recall, and thus save from oblivion, the subject on which I have been meditating ".
To his arduous cares for the novices and religious under his government, St. Bonaventure added another which was still more important.
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When he was called, while still young, to govern the great family of St. Francis, he found himself in the face of many serious difficulties, and thus his own experience had taught him the value of good Superiors and the difficulty of finding any who are endowed with all the virtues required for such a post.
The agitations which had troubled the Order since the death of St. Francis had all arisen in consequence of the weakness or pride of its Chiefs.
He therefore made it a special work to benefit his Community by endeavouring to form in it men who should be capable of maintaining it in the full dignity of its providential mission.
It was with this end in view that he wrote the important work entitled Zhe Six Wings of the Seraphim.
These "six wings" he calls the six principal virtues that a Superior ought to possess.
'' A Superior is needed," he says, "to teach them what is necessary and profitable for their salvation and their progress: what they ought to avoid, what they ought to love, what they ought to do, what they ought to hope, what they ought to fear, what they ought to choose, of less or more, of good or evil.
. A Superior is
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necessary to exercise them in the practice of virtues, to hinder them from falling into sin, and to correct them for their faults."
And again:
"Those who command, need, in order the better to fulfil the duties of their office, to be submitted to other Superiors, rising by degrees to the Sovereign Pontiff, who holds the place of Jesus
Christ in the government of the Church militant.
"The first wing of the director of souls, which is zeal for justice, does not allow him to bear,
_ without interior pain, any evil in himself or in others.
. This zeal, like scarlet twice dyed, shines with a double radiance of love—the love of God and the love of men. ..
.« "The second wing of the Superior is brotherly tenderness.
Love to God kindles zeal for justice, and love to man produces compassion.
If it is necessary to scourge vice with a rod, it is also necessary to support weakness with a sustaining staff.
And there is a weakness of the body and a weakness of the spirit.
The infirm in body need the remedies of medical science: for them the rigour of the discipline must be relaxed, they must be exempted from Io
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work, assisted in their offices, to them unlimited humanity must be shown, for they are being scourged by the Lord.
A good Superior is a father to his brethren, and not their master and lord.
He treats them as a good physician, and not as a tyrant—not as vile animals or as slaves,— but as children who are called to share with him the heirship of Heaven, 'There are three sorts of spiritual weakness.
The first represents those who suffer from want of devotion and the violence of temptations.
The second class consists of those who have good will and piety, but who lose courage at the first alarm, and sometimes give way to despair.
'The third is made up of all those who are subject to imperfections, who falter in the practice of virtue, and are at times subject to the fever of the passions.
It is necessary to remove from those who suffer from these spiritual infirmities, all occasion of scandal, to strengthen them by encouraging exhortations, to abstain from reproving them too severely, to bear their defects with patience, and never to impose on them burdens which are too great for their strength.
** Patience is the ¢kivd wing of the Superior.
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In the same way that the roof of the Tabernacle protected and kept pure and bright all that it contained, defending its contents from dust, rain, and wind, so also the Superiors who wish faithfully to defend their children against the tempests of sin, must be ready themselves to receive the violence of the attacks of all adversaries.
Three things make patience necessary for those who govern : first, the many occupations which their position involves ; second, the small progress made by those under them; ¢#ird, the ingratitude of those who cause them the most anxiety.
They '. need patience to enable them to answer with modesty, reflection, and goodness ; patience to remain peaceful and avoid revenge; patience to resist enmuz and a distaste for work.
"The fourth wing is an exemplary life.
The Superior ought, in the first place, to share the common life in food, clothes, and labours ; he ought to practise humility in his own person, in his intercourse with his inferiors, and in his use of temporal things.
He should be grave in his demeanour, showing no frivolity in his exterior acts, in his affections, in his designs, or in his resolutions.
These three points demand his
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special attention, if he desires to be an example to his inferiors.
"The fifth wing is a clear and circumspect discernment, and an attentive and serious consideration of things.
Four points require the special vigilance of the Superior: jrs¢, how to direct his subordinates in the state which they have adopted, so that the good may persevere in well-doing ; second, how to redress and correct those who are fallen and those who are wandering from the right way ; ¢#zrd, how he ought to manage the exterior affairs which demand his care, in order that due order may be maintained ;
Jourth, how he ought to keep and to conduct himself in the midst of all these anxieties and cares.
Such are the points on which a Superior has to exercise his discernment.
"The sixth and last wing is devotion to God ; for it is by devotion that zeal for justice is kindled, that compassionate tenderness penetrates the heart, that patience is confirmed, that a good example is given, and that discernment becomes glorious.
Such devotion must be common, special, and continual.
Common devotion is applied to the Divine Offices ;
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special, devotion to private prayers; and constant devotion is applied to all our actions.
This devotion requires the uninterrupted thought of the Presence of God in the heart, an incessant endeavour to please Him in every action and in every word, and the care to precede every action by prayer, at least mental, so as to provide against evil, and to receive every benefit with thanksgivings and praises to God.