The Angelic Hierarchy Within the Soul: A Mystic’s Journal: Meditation Class: 'The Mind’s Journey to God' by St. Bonaventure Chapter IV; December 14, 2005

The Angelic Hierarchy Within the Soul: A Mystic’s Journal Entry December 14, 2005

Wednesday, December 14

Tonight, in meditation class, we continued our study of the Fourth Chapter of Bonaventure’s "The Mind’s Journey to God". (trans. Lawrence S. Cunningham; Franciscan Herald Press; 1979.) I have put Saint Bonaventure’s words in quotation marks. To be honest, we had a difficult time with these sections, and I am still puzzling out some of it now, as I write this. Hopefully, with the help of Bonaventure’s angels, I will succeed.

Bonaventure first discussed the Celestial Hierarchy of angels, and the nine choirs of angels according to Saint Bernard. He continues: "At this level of contemplation the first and foremost support comes from Sacred Scripture just as philosophy aided us at the previous level." This sentence indicates that mystical union has not yet fully been achieved. The study of Sacred Scripture now replaces philosophy, and brings with it mystical experience. He continues: "Scripture teaches the way of purgation, illumination, and mystical union ... " This is the schema put forth by Saint Teresa of Avila, as the three stages of the interior life. Bonaventure writes that the Laws given to Moses "purge" us, the prophets "illuminate" us, and the teaching of the Gospel "perfects" us. According to Bonaventure, the first stage brings us to "virtuous living", the second to "a clarity of intelligence", and the third "perfects us through mystical insight and the rapturous perception of wisdom".

Bonaventure then says that in the fourth level of contemplation, "we enter into the contemplation of God in our own soul as in a mirror." In this mystical experience, our own soul mirrors the Divine and the soul is purified, illuminated and perfected. Now our reflection on the three powers of the soul is "aided by the theological virtues, the spiritual senses, and by mystical encounter." In other words, this experience of the contemplation of God in the soul as in a mirror, is given to us mystically, experientially, and as the result of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love as previously discussed. Then came the beautiful sentence: "Then by the ordering operations of purification, illumination and union the Sacred Scriptures is given to us by the angels .... Thus we are led through the hierarchies and the angelic orders which are arranged in us ... " Last week, in our studies of Bonaventure’s definition of "the Heavenly Jerusalem", which descends into the soul during this fourth level of contemplation, we learned that Bonaventure was establishing an analogy between this heavenly hierarchy of the nine choirs of angels and its image in the soul.

He continues: "Overflowing with these intellectual illuminations, our soul, like a true house of God, is inhabited by Divine Wisdom." The soul now has become "the daughter, spouse and friend of God; a member, sister, and heir of Christ; a temple of the Holy Spirit, a temple founded through faith, raised up by hope, and dedicated to God through holiness of mind and body." Here, Bonaventure is again careful to remind us that it is through our own efforts that the soul is prepared for mystical ecstasy and union, which is the result of Grace. Through our richness of faith, hope, a profound love for Christ and our holiness of mind and body, the soul is prepared to receive the Graces bestowed upon it in mystical experience. Thus, we can now " ‘with all the saints comprehend’ the length of eternity, the height of majesty and the depths of divine wisdom. (cf. Eph. 3,17)"

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