Bringing Forth Christ

“This short though profoundly mystical work came from the pen of St. Bonaventure, one of the most renowned followers of St. Francis of Assisi.” — Eric Doyle, OFM

Despite its title, St. Bonaventure’s Five Feasts of the Child Jesus is a work about spiritual motherhood: the mystical birth of God’s Word in the soul, and the call of every Christian, man or woman, to become a mother of Christ. Through five feasts, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Holy Name, the Epiphany and the Presentation, the soul conceives, gives birth to, names, seeks and presents the Child Jesus.

Eric Doyle’s translation is set here in sense lines for slow, prayerful reading, with his introduction to Bonaventure and the text, a preface by André Cirino and Josef Raischl, mantras for singing, and full-color icons by Fr. William Hart McNichols.

Sisters, Poor Clares and lay retreatants who have prayed the Five Feasts in Advent and on days of recollection testify to the fruit it bears.