St Bonaventure

In the eternal Kingdom, every good gift and every perfect gift comes down in plenty and abundance from the Father of Lights, through Jesus Christ; for he is the one who can do all things and renews everything. He is an aura of the might of God and a pure outpouring of the glory of the Almighty; therefore, nothing that is sullied enters into this Font of Light.

It is a fact that all desires tend to happiness, which is “a perfect state consisting in the simultaneous presence of all goods.” No one reaches this state except through a final union with him who is the foundation and the origin of goods, both natural and supernatural, both bodily and spiritual, both temporal and eternal. He it is who says of himself: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End!” As all things are brought forth through the Word eternally uttered, so through the Word made flesh all things are restored, impelled and achieved. Hence, he is truly and properly called Jesus; for there is no other name under heaven given to us by which we must be saved.

By believing, hoping, loving, with my whole heart and with my whole soul, and with my whole mind, and with my whole strength may I be carried to you, O beloved Jesus, Goal of all; for you alone are all-sufficient, you alone do save. You alone are good and delightful to those who seek you and love your name. For you, O my good Jesus, are the Redeemer of the lost, the Saviour of the redeemed, the hope of exiles, the strength of labourers, the sweet consolation of anguished minds, the crown and imperial canopy of the triumphant, the only reward and joy of all the citizens of heaven the glorious offspring of the highest God, the sublime fruit of the virginal womb, the abundant fountain of all graces, of whose fullness we have all received.