St Bonaventure on Nurturing Children from the Sacred Heart

Here is a flower plucked from Saint Bonaventure (Lignum vitae, 29-30. 47: Opera omnia 8, 79) for you parents on this feast of the Sacred Heart:

It was a divine decree that permitted one of the soldiers to open his
sacred side with a lance. This was done so that the Church might be
formed from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death on the
cross, and so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: They shall look on
him whom they pierced. The blood and water which poured out at that
moment were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret
abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the
sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while
for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water
welling up to life everlasting.

Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove that nests in a hole
in the cliff, keeping watch at the entrance like the sparrow that finds a
home. There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your
chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, draw water from the wells
of your Savior; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise,
dividing into four rivers, inundating devout hearts, watering the
whole earth and making it fertile.

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