Lord,
you endowed St. John of the Cross
with a spirit of self-denial and love of the cross.
By following his example
may we come to the eternal vision of your glory.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Lord,
you endowed St. John of the Cross
with a spirit of self-denial and love of the cross.
By following his example
may we come to the eternal vision of your glory.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The bible was the book he cherished most of all; he loved to withdraw to hidden parts of the monastery with his bible. The Gospels, chiefly helped him to enter into intimacy with the three Persons of the Trinity. He so fully understood that in His Son the Father had spoken and revealed everything and that hidden in Christ were all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. There was no need for him, therefore, when he was in Lisbon to accompany a group of friars on a visit to the famed stigmatic who lived in that city; he had his Bible, and he remained reading and reflecting upon it along the shore of the sea while his companions went off to satisfy their curiosity.
This story is incredible to us moderns but completely understandable if you’ve read his theology.
"Faith darkens and empties the intellect of all its natural understanding and thereby prepares it for union with the divine wisdom.
"Hope empties and withdraws the memory from all creature possessions, for as St. Paul says, hope is for that which is not possessed. [Rom. 8:24] It withdraws the memory from what can be possessed and fixes it on that for which it hopes. Hence, only hope in God prepares the memory perfectly for union with Him.
"Charity also empties and annihilates the affections and appetites of the will of whatever is not God and centers them on Him alone. Thus charity prepares the will and unites it with God through love."
From "The Dark Night"-Book II Chapter 21: 11.
I feel like a catholic "pagan". Not once in my 12 years of catholic school education, was this saint's name ever mentioned. I had heard of him in recent years but read nothing until you posted this thread.
Thank you! JMJ333 for enlightening my mind with the story of John of the Cross, and my senses with Dali's Christ. What a beautiful exit to a life of self-sacrifice and devotion to our Savior.
That picture takes my breath away every time I see it!
2. The Dark Night, in John as well as other mystics, is decidedly NOT a stage of life brought about by external suffering (as the writer seems to think), neither is it the normal sadnesses we all go through, nor the ups and downs of living, nor is it depression, nor is it even an aridity in prayer. It is not an emotional privation.
It is a distinct and unique stage in which all consolation and sense of Presence is explicitly removed (usually suddenly) and can continue for years, then just as suddenly cease.
John makes all this clear.
Also, the Orthodox mystics know little (I won't say none) of a Dark Night, since their dogmatic and liturgical culture is focused on the Taborite Light and the Resurrection.
Having said that, I love them all, from John to Madame Guyon to Eckhart to Theophan the Recluse to Symeon the New Theologian to protestants like Rees Howells and Frank Laubach.
