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opens his heart to us and enables us to appropriate the boundless mystery of his love and mercy:%u201cI take from the bowels of the Lord what is lacking to me, for his bowels overflow with mercythrough the holes through which they stream. Those who crucified him pierced his hands and feet,they pierced his side with a lance. And through those holes I can taste wild honey and oil from therocks of flint, that is, I can taste and see that the Lord is good%u2026 A lance passed through his souleven to the region of his heart. No longer is he unable to take pity on my weakness. The woundsinflicted on his body have disclosed to us the secrets of his heart; they enable us to contemplatethe great mystery of his compassion%u201d. [92]105. This theme reappears especially in William of Saint-Thierry, who invites us to enter into theheart of Jesus, who feeds us from his own breast. [93] This is not surprising if we recall that forWilliam, %u201cthe art of arts is the art of love%u2026 Love is awakened by the Creator of nature, and is apower of the soul that leads it, as if by its natural gravity, to its proper place and end%u201d. [94] Thatproper place, where love reigns in fullness, is the heart of Christ: %u201cLord, where do you lead thosewhom you embrace and clasp to your heart? Your heart, Jesus, is the sweet manna of yourdivinity that you hold within the golden jar of your soul (cf. Heb 9:4), and that surpasses allknowledge. Happy those who, having plunged into those depths, have been hidden by you in therecess of your heart%u201d. [95]106. Saint Bonaventure unites these two spiritual currents. He presents the heart of Christ as thesource of the sacraments and of grace, and urges that our contemplation of that heart become arelationship between friends, a personal encounter of love.107. Bonaventure makes us appreciate first the beauty of the grace and the sacraments flowingfrom the fountain of life that is the wounded side of the Lord. %u201cIn order that from the side of Christsleeping on the cross, the Church might be formed and the Scripture fulfilled that says: %u2018They shalllook upon him whom they pierced%u2019, one of the soldiers struck him with a lance and opened hisside. This was permitted by divine Providence so that, in the blood and water flowing from thatwound, the price of our salvation might flow from the hidden wellspring of his heart, enabling theChurch%u2019s sacraments to confer the life of grace and thus to be, for those who live in Christ, like acup filled from the living fount springing up to life eternal%u201d. [96]108. Bonaventure then asks us to take another step, in order that our access to grace not be seenas a kind of magic or neo-platonic emanation, but rather as a direct relationship with Christ, adwelling in his heart, so that whoever drinks from that source becomes a friend of Christ, a lovingheart. %u201cRise up, then, O soul who are a friend of Christ, and be the dove that nests in the cleft inthe rock; be the sparrow that finds a home and constantly watches over it; be the turtledove thathides the offspring of its chaste love in that most holy cleft%u201d. [97]THE SPREAD OF DEVOTION TO THE HEART OF CHRIST24