Latin Readings with Fr. Foster

Experience 1, Readings 4

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BONAVENTVRA SERAPHICVS [1221-1274 post Chr.]
St. Bonaventure gives us several examples of using adjectives as nouns.

mundus in multorum cordibus floret
The world flourishes in the hearts of many (persons)


He quotes St. Gregory (in Moralibus), who also uses adjectives as nouns. Beware of the nueter plural, which looks like it's a feminine subject, but it's not.

sunt nonnulli, qui vitam suam negligunt,
dum transitoria appetunt, et aeterna non intelligunt, vel intellecta contemnunt

There are some (people), who neglect their own life
while they seek transitory (things) and they do not understand eternal (things), or they scorn (things) having been understood


Bonaventure quoting St. Gregory again (super Ezechielem).

quanto mens humana minus aeterna intelligit, tanto dulcius in temporalibus requiescit.
How much less the human mind understands eternal (things), so does it rest sweet in temporal (things).


A final quote from Bonaventure on how many earthly people are blinded.

sicut bonum non amatur, nisi cognoscatur, ita malum non deviatur, nisi intelligatur.
As the good (thing) is not loved, unless it is known, so the bad (thing) is not avoided, unless it is understood.


First Experience Latin - Fr. Reginald Foster

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