Vigils Reading – St Bonaventure

THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE

From “The Tree of Life” by St Bonaventure

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You, soul devoted to God, whoever you are, run with living desire to this

Fountain of life and light and with the innermost power of your heart cry out to

him: “O inaccessible beauty of the most high God and the pure brightness of

the eternal light, life vivifying all life, light illumining every light, and keeping

in perpetual splendour a thousand times a thousand lights brilliantly shining

before the throne of your Divinity since the primeval dawn! O eternal and

inaccessible, clear and sweet stream from the fountain hidden from the eyes of

all mortals, whose depth is without bottom, whose height is without limit,

whose breadth cannot be bounded, whose purity cannot be disturbed.“

From this Fountain flows the stream of the oil of gladness, which

gladdens the city of God, and the powerful fiery torrent, the torrent, I say, of the

pleasure of God, from which the guests at the heavenly banquet drink to joyful

inebriation and sing without ceasing hymns of jubilation.

Anoint us with this sacred oil and refresh with the longed-for waters of

this torrent the thirsting throat of our parched hearts so that amid shouts of joy

and thanksgiving we may sing to you a canticle of praise, proving by experience

that with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we will see light…

Believing, hoping and loving with my whole heart, with my whole mind

and with my whole strength, may I be carried to you, beloved Jesus, as to the

goal of all things, because you alone are sufficient, you alone are good and

pleasing to those who seek you and love your name. “For you, my good Jesus,

are the redeemer of the lost, the Saviour of the redeemed, the hope of exiles, the

strength of laborers, the sweet solace of anguished spirits, the crown and

imperial dignity of the triumphant, the unique reward and joy of all the

citizens of heaven, the renowned offspring of the supreme God and the sublime

fruit of the virginal womb, the abundant fountain of all graces, of whose

fullness we have all received.“