The Soul's Journey into God expresses the Franciscan awareness of the presence of God in create: the physical

universe and the soul are seen as mirrors reflecting God and as rungs in a ladder leading to God. Bonaventure expresses here, in his own way, Francis's joy in the sacrality and the sacramentality of creation, and, in so doing, captures an essential element in Franciscan spirituality. Echoing Francis, Bonaventure says: "Let us place our first step in the ascent at the bottom, presenting to ourselves the whole material world as a mirror through which we may pass over to God, the supreme Craftsman."

He considers "the magnitude of things, in the mass of their length, width and depth, in their great power extending in length, width and depth as appears in the diffusion of light, in the efficiency of their operations which are internal, continuous and diffused, as appears in the operation of fire." Seen in this panoramic sweep, the magnitude of things "clearly manifests the immensity of the power, wisdom and goodness of the triune God, who by his power, presence and essence exists uncircumscribed in all things." We can look upon any object in creation and trace it back to its archetype in the divine mind; and since it flowed from the divine mind out of the dynamic fecundity of the inner Trinitarian life, we can see it reflecting the power, wisdom and goodness of God as moments of inner dynamism ago God. The movement of creatures out from God and their return to God is the central focus of Bonaventure's entire vision. He says further that "Creatures are shadows, echoes and pictures of that first, most powerful, most wise and most perfect Principle... they are vestiges, representations, spectacles proposed to us and signs divinely given so that we can see God." "These creatures, I say, are exemplars or rather exemplifications presented to souls still untrained and immersed in sensible things so that through sensible things which they see they will be carried over to intelligible things which they do not see as through signs to what is signified." Although the complex theoretical structure stands behind Bonaventure's meditation on creation, it contains a point of convergence with Francis's Canticle in the simple experience of religious awe awakened in us by the wonder of creation. Seen with the eye of contemplation, creatures are vestiges, that is, the very footprints of God; they are roads leading to God, ladders which we can climb to God; they are signs divinely given so that we can see God - shadows, echoes, pictures, statues, representations of God; creation is a book in which we can read God, a mirror in which the divine light shines in various colors.

"By praying in this way, we receive light to discern the steps of the ascent to God. in relation to our position in creation, the universe itself is a ladder by which we can ascend into God. Som excreted things are vests, others images, some are material, others spiritual; some are temporal, others everlasting; some are outside us, others within us. In order to contemplate the First Principle, who is most spiritual, eternal and above us, we must pass through his vestiges, which are material, temporal and outside us." Lead me Lord in your path, and I will enter in your truth. let my heart rejoice that it may fear your name. psalm 85:11 "In the initial state of creation, man was made fit for the quiet of contemplation, and therefore God placed him in a paradise of delights (Genesis 2:15) Since we must ascend Jacob's ladder before we descend it, let us place our first step in the ascent at the bottom, presenting to ourselves sty whole material world as a mirror through which we may pass over to God, the supreme Craftsman. "The Creator's Supreme power, wisdom and benevolence shine forth in created things, as the bodily sense convey this to the interior senses in three ways, For the bodily senses assist the intellect when it investigates rationally, believes faithfully or contemplates intellectually. In contemplation, it considers the actual existence of things; in believing, the habitual course of things; and in reasoning, the potential excellence of things. Therefore open your eyes, alert the ears of your spirit, open your lips and apply your heart so that in all creatures you may see, hear, praise, love and worship, glorify and honor your God lest the whole world rise against you. The whole world can enter into the human soul throng the doors of the senses by the three operations mentioned above. We can gather that all the creatures of the sense world lead the mind of the contemplative and size man to the eternal God. For the creatures are shadows, echoes and pictures of that first, most powerful, most wise and most perfect Principle, of the eternal Source, Light and Fulness, of that efficient, exemplary and ordering Ar. They are vestiges, representations, spectacles proposed to us and signs divinely given so that we can see God. These creatures, I say, are exemplars or rather exemplifications presented to souls still untrained and immersed in sensible things so that through sensible things which they are they will be carried over to intelligible things which they do not see as through signs to what is signified. The creatures of the sense world signify the invisible attributes of God, partly because God is the origin, exemplar and end of every creature, and every effect is the sign of its cause, the exemplification of its exemplar and the path to the end, to which it leads: for every creature is by its nature a kind of effigy and likeness of the eternal Wisdom From all this we can gather that from the creation of the world the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made. and so those who do

not wish to heed these things, and to know, bless and love God in all of them are without excuse; for they are unwilling to be transported out of darkness into the marvelous light of God. Romans 1:20 "But you, my friend, concerning mystical visions, with your journey more firmly determined, leave behind your sense and intellectual activities, sensible and invisible things, all no being and being; and in this state of unknowing be restored, insofar as is possible to unity with him who is above all essence and knowledge. For transcending yourself and all things by the immeasurable and absolute ecstasy of a pure mind, leaving behind all things and freed from all things you will ascend to the super essential ray of the divine darkness.

John of the Cross This he did when he became man, lifting man up in the beauty of God, and so lifting up all creatures in him In this raising up in the Sons incarnation and in the glory of his resurrection according to the flesh, the Father gave creatures not just a partial beauty; we can say that the entirely clothed them in beauty and dignity. -St. John of the Cross.