For Saint Benedict

For the feast of Saint Benedict (July 11), I post again my sonnet on Bonaventure and Pope Benedict!

The Call of Christ 

Sage Benedict, Pope, Bonaventure blessed,
Joined theology with prayerful devotion:
from Creation to dazzling Consummation
drew a laser line of Christ’s manifest.  

Christ as Wisdom played a creative game
Beside Artisan God in shaping the world.
Christ to Bethlem was human love unfurled;
Jesus was the core of the eager flame. 

He the pivot for the Doctor and the Pope,
History’s peak, the beginning of the end:
Christ’s death permits all of death to be friend,
Turns dénouement into theatre of blessed hope.  

God gave seraphic minds to faith-filled teachers
So we may learn our arc as recovered creatures.  

• Jeremiah 4:1-10, 5:14,  
• John 10:36.  
• Pope Benedict XVI, General Audiences on the theology of Saint Bonaventure, March 2010 

Author: Ted Witham

Husband and father, Grandfather.Franciscan, writer and Anglican priest. View all posts by Ted Witham