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.
– Saint
Bonaventure
Saint
Bonaventure's patronage:
against intestinal problems; Bagnoregio, Italy; Cochiti Indian
Pueblo; and Saint Bonaventure University, New York.
