JULY 14 – ST. BONAVENTURE.

SANCTITY and learning raised Bonaventure to the Church’s highest honors, and from a child he was the companion of Saints. Yet at heart he was ever the poor Franciscan friar, and practised and taught humility and mortification. St. Francis gave him his name; for, having miraculously cured him of a mortal sickness, he prophetically exclaimed of the child, “O bona ventura!” good luck. He is known also as the “Seraphic Doctor,” from the fervor of divine love which breathes in his writings. He was the friend of St. Thomas Aquinas, who asked him one day whence he drew his great learning. He replied by pointing to his crucifix. At another time, St. Thomas found him in ecstasy while writing the life of St. Francis, and exclaimed, “Let us leave a Saint to write of a Saint.” They received the Doctor’s cap together. He was the guest and adviser of St. Louis, and the director of St. Isabella, the king’s sister. At the age of thirty-five, he was made general of his Order; and only escaped another dignity, the Archbishopric of York, by dint of tears and entreaties. Gregory X appointed him Cardinal Bishop of Albano. When the Saint heard of the Pope’s resolve to create him a Cardinal, he quietly made his escape from Italy. But Gregory sent him a summons to return to Rome. On his way, he stopped to rest himself at a convent of his Order near Florence; and there two Papal messengers, sent to meet him with the Cardinal’s hat, found him washing the dishes. The Saint desired them to hang the hat on a bush that was near, and take a walk in the garden until he had finished what he was about. Then taking up the hat with unfeigned sorrow, he joined the messengers, and paid them the respect due to their character. He sat at the Pontiff’s right hand, and spoke first at the Council of Lyons. His piety and eloquence won over the Greeks to Catholic union, and then his strength failed. He died while the Council was sitting, and was buried by the assembled bishops, A.D. 1274.

REFLECTION: “The fear of God,” says St. Bonaventure, “forbids a man to give his heart to transitory things, which are the true seeds of sin.”

WORD OF THE DAY

EXTRAORDINARY MINISTER. The person who, in case of necessity, is permitted or specially delegated to administer one of the sacraments. Baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist may have extraordinary ministers. Thus baptism is to be ordinarily administered by a priest or deacon, but in emergency any person who has reached the age of reason may validly confer the sacrament. The ordinary minister of confirmation is a bishop, but for special pastoral reasons simple priests may confirm. When they do, their power derives from the papal authorization, which the Holy See actuates in them in virtue of their priestly ordination; it is not a mere extrasacramental delegation. And the ordinary minister of Communion is a priest or deacon, but in cases of real necessity, which have been broadly interpreted since the Second Vatican Council, lay persons and religious may be authorized by a bishop to distribute the Holy Eucharist.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

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