Friday, August 19, 2005

Prayer of St. Bonaventure To Mother Mary


When we follow her we do not lose the way;
when we pray to her we do not despair;
when we think of her we do not go astray.

When she holds us we do not fall;
when she guides us we do not grow weary.

O Mary,
your maternal heart embraces sinners
despised by the whole world
and does not abandon them
till they are reconciled
to their Judge.

Source: 101 Inspirational Stories of The Rosary


To be honest with you, this is the first time I've heard of St. Bonaventure. So, I googled his name and found the following information on Catholic Online:

St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Feast day-July 15)

St. Bonaventure, known as "the seraphic doctor," was born at Bagnorea in Tuscany, in 1221. He received the name of Bonaventure in consequence of an exclamation of St. Francis of Assisi, when, in response to the pleading of the child's mother, the saint prayed for John's recovery from a dangerous illness, and, foreseeing the future greatness of the little John, cried out "O Buona ventura"-O good fortune!

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Catholic Encyclopedia has different information:

Nothing is known of Bonaventure's parents save their names: Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritella. How his baptismal name of John came to be changed to that of Bonaventure is not clear. An attempt has been made to trace the latter name to the exclamation of St. Francis, O buona ventura, when Bonaventure was brought as an infant to him to be cured of a dangerous illness. This derivation is highly improbable; it seems based on a late fifteenth-century legend. Bonaventure himself tells us (Legenda S. Francisci Prolog.) that while yet a child he was preserved from death through the intercession of St. Francis, but there is no evidence that this cure took place during the lifetime of St. Francis or that the name Bonaventure originated in any prophetical words of St. Francis. It was certainly borne by others before the Seraphic Doctor.

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I like his prayer very much.
 

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