"None can be made blessed unless he ascend above himself, not by the ascent of his body but by that of his heart. But we cannot be raised above ourselves except by a higher power raising us up. For howsoever the interior steps are disposed, nothing is accomplished unless it is accompanied by divine aid." (Bonaventure, The Mind's Road to God 1.1). In The Mind's Road to God, Bonaventure argues that when one contemplates God in the mind, he must ascend the steps on the road to God. The steps involve one seeing: .
"God outside [oneself] through His traces and in His traces, within [oneself] by His image and in His image, above [oneself] by the likeness of the divine light shining down upon us and in that light, in so far as is possible in this life and the exercise of our mind" (Bonaventure, The Mind's Road to God 7.1). .
Bonaventure also names a few essential traits that one is able to perceive about God once one reaches above oneself toward the divine light. Two of these traits that .
God possesses is ever present and being eternal. I shall argue that the Trinity is present because it is eternal. If one wonders about the essential traits of God with an open and pure mind, one is able to see that if God is eternal, then He is present. As such, the trait, eternal, is defined as not being confined to any time. For Bonaventure:.
"Being is last because it is first. For since it is first, it produces all things for its own sake alone; and therefore it must be the very end, the beginning and the consummation, the alpha and the omega" (Bonaventure, The Mind's Road to God 5.7).
God is not bounded by any time; therefore, God is eternal. Now, the trait of being present, is defined as either existing now or not having an existence in the past or future. According to Bonaventure, "For since [God] is eternal, it does not come from another; nor does it cease to be nor pass from one thing to another, and therefore has no past nor future but only present being" (Bonaventure, The Mind's Road to God 5.