Christ Is Everything
St. Bonaventure – Feast Day July 15“If you learn everything except Christ, you learn nothing.
If you learn nothing except Christ, you learn everything.” – St. Bonaventure.Saint Bonaventure devoted his life to spread the love of Christ through his writings and sermons. He His theological works about the Gospel of Luke reveal St. Bonaventure’s strong devotion to St. Joseph.
The 13th Century friar wrote about St. Joseph’s incredible strength, humility, and, most important, the fact that he was chosen by God to fulfill the most crucial role in the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
He emphasized that St. Joseph was a mighty man of integrity, noting that Luke’s gospel declares Joseph as a “righteous man.” He further interprets Joseph as a descendant of David linking that lineage to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. He notes as the Guardian of the Holy Family, it is Joseph that is the teacher of Jesus. Therefore, as guardian and protector of the Holy Family we need to revere Joseph as such.
In his sermons, St. Bonaventure, connected the gifts of the Holy Spirit to St. Joseph, defining that as head of the Holy Family it specifically took great piety, wisdom, and fortitude to guard them from evil. He would preach that after the Blessed Mother we need to look to Joseph to intercede for us for he took in God the Son as his own.
