FRANCISCAN MEDITATION: THE MIND'S JOURNEY INTO GOD
Keywords:
Survey of Christian Meditation, Franciscan Meditation, The Mind's Journey into God, Introspective Meditation, Meditation on the Humanity of Christ, Correlation with Contemporary ResearchAbstract
In comparison with the Orient, the West is far behind in cultivating types and techniques of meditation. Yet there are more meditative riches buried in our cultural past than we Westerners often realize. Awakened by our encounter with Oriental medita- tion-by wandering gurus with a maze of meditation techniques -we Westerners are being spurred to do some archaeological digging into our own past, to embark on a treasure hunt, as it were, in order to retrieve the spiritual wisdom buried in texts .long out of print and in monastic traditions that have been by-passed by the main thrust of Western culture.
References
Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis in Deum; cf. the crilical t cx t (If BOlla· venture's works in S. Bonauenturac Opera Omnia, cdiin studio ct cura 1'1'. Collegii a S. Bonaventura (Quaracchi, 1882'H)02). X Volumina: the Ltincrarium appears in Vol. V, 295-325.
Philothcus Boehner, Works of Saint Bonaventure, Vol. II: Saint Bonaventure's 'Itinerarium Mentis in Deum.' (Saint Bonaventure, N.Y.: The Franciscan Institute, 1965), 105.
Itinerarium, passim; cf. prol., no. 3 (V. 225).
Ewert H. Cousins, "Mandala Symbolism in the Theology of Bonaventure". University of Toronto Quarterly. 40 (1971). 185-201.
Francis of Assisi , II Cantico di Frat r Sole, c. 120; cf. Dan, 3: 52-89.
Ewert H Cousins, "The Coincidence of Opposites in the Christology of Saint Bonaventure," Franciscan Studies, ~8 (1968),
R.E.L. Masters and Jean Houston, The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968), pp. 1411-15
