Into the Void

Reflect

A central aspect of St. Bonaventure’s metaphysics was the metaphor of “fountain fullness.” This can be briefly summarized as love and goodness, at the core of reality, flowing from the Trinity into our world. This component of reality can be difficult to believe or trust when our hearts and minds become absorbed by unexplainable darkness. Without “spiritual bypassing” or tritely explaining suffering, faith can move us to open our eyes to see love and light trickling into our world amid the brokenness we are experiencing.

Pray

I don’t know why the world is on fire, why pain exists, why tragedy strikes.
I don’t know the path ahead, why it bends and breaks, why it climbs then descends 
into desert nothingness, across tumultuous seas,
spitting us out, like Jonah, into foreign lands we fled.
Sometimes it feels we’re destined for disappointment,
born to be broken, again and again.
Yet through it all I believe in goodness, in grace, in love, in you,
this perpetual fount flowing fully from the core
into creation, into my life, bursting through cracks I can’t explain.

Act

Meditate upon Bonaventure’s idea of fountain fullness whenever you feel lost or overwhelmed. Where do you see love and goodness still rising up into your life?