Bringing Forth Christ, Five Feasts of the Child Jesus by St. Bonaventure

During Advent, our sisters were re-acquainted with St. Bonventure’s Five Feasts of the Child Jesus. The following weekend, fifty-one people, religious and laity, read, reflected on and prayed the Five Feasts. It gives me great satisfaction to know that more than one hundred people have become familiar with this document on spiritual motherhood, which, when embraced, changes the manner in which a person, who contemplates the Incarnate Word, will celebrate the feasts of Annunciation, Nativity, Holy Name of Jesus, Epiphany, and Presentation. Our Poor Clare monastery was in a process with a facilitator who suggested that we name the significant events of the past year. Close to the top of the list was last December’s retreat on the Five Feasts. Since then, when other communities asked me to do something for a day of recollection or a directed retreat, I used the Five Feasts and it always has appeal. I thought that when one has the inspiration to do something with a work such as the Five Feasts and then creates a way of presenting it which involves a lot of labor and also the joy of sharing, it is good to know about the fruit it produces.