St John of the Cross - Memorial

It is perhaps the best time now to meditate on the life of the greatest Saint of Carmel, who at the pick of his religious leadership and popularity preferred following Christ by choosing 'to suffer and to be looked down upon' instead of obtaining temporal rewards for his service to Christ. By meditating upon this example of extraordinary holiness we can better understand what does it really mean to love God above ourselves.

Storms clouds began to break over John's head when the Father General, Nicolas Doria, convened an Extraordinary Chapter in June 1590. John had a premonition that things would go badly for him. When one of the Segovian nuns said that she was sure he would return to them as their Provincial, he replied and with certainty, 'I shall be thrown into a corner like an old rag'. One source of disagreement went as back as 1581 at the Chapter at Almodovar del Campo. John had come into conflict (yes, even saints do this sometimes!) with Fr Ferome Gracian who had been a favourite and close collaborator of St Teresa. Gracian wanted the friars to be more active in the apostolate, whereas John insisted that they should be primarily contemplative, from which their apostolate would flow. He did not want their contemplative vocation to take second place and perhaps be squeezed out. This tension between the active and contemplative aspects of the Carmelite friar's life had a long history. The Order traces its origin back to the time of the Crusades, when some of the crusaders decided to settle in the Holy Land, on Mount Carmel, where Elija and Elisha had founded a 'school of prophets', living a life of community and contemplation. Ever since, Carmelites have looked on two great prophets as their spiritual forebears. When the Muslims defeated the crusaders and drove them out of the Holy Land, the friars fled to the West, where they took up an active apostolate, sometimes to the detriment of their contemplative base.
At the Madrid Chapter the problem was more a clash of personalities between Gracian, who represented the moderates and Doria who wanted more control. Although Teresa had not taken personality to Doria, a Genoese who had been a banker before entering the Discalced, she had prized Doria's organisational skills, but he was rigid and authoritarian. The younger Gracian had a brilliant mind, a distinguished scholar and organiser , and had a much more pleasing and charming manner, although his impetuosity and rashness made him powerful enemies - including Doria. Now, Doria put forward some proposals with which John adamantly disagreed. Doria changed the government of the Order, concentrating all power in the hands of a permanent committee. He also wanted to take revenge against the formidable Mother Ann of Jesus, who, supported by John of the Cross, opposed his plans for the nuns and wanted to seek papal approbation for their constitutions. In addition, he wanted to expel Gracian from the Order, seeing him as a dangerous rival to his own power. John of the Cross had already warned Gracian that this might happen. He had been horrified when Gracian had proposed that Doria should succeed him as Provincial: he was elected only by two votes. Now, he felt that Gracian was being unfairly treated, and said so. Although many of the other friars privately agreed with him, they were too cowed by Doria's dictatorial manner to speak out.

The moving story of St John of the Cross last years marked by his heroic love of God and the neighbour is to be continued.
Credit: on the basis of CTS little book 'John of the Cross' by Jennifer Moorcroft

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Dark Night and Living Flame of Love - the stages of spiritual journey to God in Poetry of St John of the Cross

 St John of the Cross is not only mystical Doctor of the Church but also a poet who describes the steps followed by the soul on the way to reach God through classical purgative, illuminative and unitive way. In the first, purgative stage, the soul escapes from the dark night of the senses, annihilating the self through denials and practice of detachments. The next stage allows the soul to see and feel the presence of God and grow in the knowledge and love of the Creator. In the final stage, the soul is consumed in love of God which culminates in mystical union (esposo) when soul becomes one with God and experiences perfect peace and beatitude. The steps of spiritual growth are not easy but full of pain, darkness, aridity and annihilation of self. To get through this journey the seed of love of God must be planted and nourished in the heart of man from the beginning and this is absolutely vital to endure pains of spiritual development. St John describes the experiences of purgative way, or passive night of the soul, and gives the advice to those who are called to make this journey in his books, 'Dark Night of the Soul' and 'Ascend to Mt Carmel'. However, in his poetry, in particular in two poems, "Dark Night" and "Living Flame of Love", we find beautiful, nutshell-description of mystical experiences of the soul reaching to God:

DARK NIGHT - (Songs of the soul delighted at having reached the high state of perfection, the union with God, by way of spiritual negation.)

On a darkened night,

Anxious, by love inflamed,

-- O happy chance! --

Unnoticed, I took flight,

My house at last at peace and quiet.

Safe, disguised by the night,

By the secret ladder I took flight,

-- O happy chance! --

Cloaked by darkness, I scaled the height,

My house at last at peace and quiet.

On that blessed night,

In secret, and seen by none,

None in sight,

I saw with no other guide or light,

But the one burning in my heart bright.

This guide, this light,

Brighter than the midday sun,

Led me to the waiting One

I knew so well -- my delight!

To a place with none in sight.

O night! O guide!

O night more loving than the dawn!

O night that joined

The lover with the Beloved;

Transformed, the lover into the Beloved drawn!

Upon my flowered breast,

For him alone kept fair,

There he slept

There I caressed,

There the cedars gave us air.

I drank the turret's cool air

Spreading playfully his hair.

And his hand, so serene,

Cut my throat. Drained

Of senses, I dropped unaware.

Lost to myself and yet remaining,

Inclined so only the Beloved I spy.

All has ceased, all rests,

Even my cares, even I;

Lost among the lilies, there I die.

THE LIVING FLAME OF LOVE - (Songs that the soul sings in her intimate union with God, her beloved Bridegroom.)

O Love's living flame,

Tenderly you wound

My soul's deepest center!

Since you no longer evade me,

Will you, please, at last conclude:

Rend the veil of this sweet encounter!

O cautery so tender!

O pampered wound!

O soft hand! O touch so delicately strange,

Tasting of eternal life

And canceling all debts!

Killing, death into life you change!

O lamps of fiery lure,

In whose shining transparence

The deep cavern of the senses,

Blind and obscure,

Warmth and light, with strange flares,

Gives with the lover's caresses!

How tame and loving

Your memory rises in my breast,

Where secretly only you live,

And in your fragrant breathing,

Full of goodness and grace,

How delicately in love you make me feel!

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Week of St John of the Cross

Vain cares and necessary solicitudes - continued

It is especially on the subject of vain cares and desires, that we may profitably remember the sublime maxims of St John of the Cross on renouncement of one's self and temporal goods; for as one of the holy Fathers has said, the desire of earthly things is still more hurtful to the soul than their enjoyment.
1. To enjoy all, take emjoyment in nothing.
2. To attain to know all, desire to know nothing.
3. To obtain possession of all, wish to possess nothing.
4. To attain to being all, desire to be nothing.
5. To arrive at that which you do not relish, proceed by that which displeases you.
6. To acquire that which you do not know, go by the way do not know.
7. To attain that which you do not possess, traverse that which you do not possess.
8. To become that which you are not, pass by that which you are not.

Means by which not to impede the All.

1. When you stop at something, you cease to give yourself up to the All.
2. For to proceed from all to the All, you must renounce yourself wholly in all.
3. And when you attain the possession of All, you must possess it without desiring anything;
4. For if you desire to have anything at all, you have not purely your treasure in God.
Endeavour to arrive at this state where all creatures shall be of no importance whatever to you, nor you to them; in order that, in the forgetfulness of all things, you may be alone with your God, in the secret of your retreat.
He who does not allow himself to be carried away by his desires, will take his flight as lightly as the bird, who has not lost a single feather.

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Week of St John of the Cross

Vain cares and necessary solicitudes

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The third cause of distractions is, first, unnecessary cares and desires. The distractions that come from this source are much more grievous than those caused by vain thoughts; these have their origin in the mind, and affects less the will; but cares take hold of the heart, draw away the will and entirely divert its attention from God. The soul that allows herself to be drawn away by temporal cares, endures the sufferings of a rude slavery. The pains and anguish of this soul increase in direct proportion to the disorderly desires which she seeks to satisfy. He who possesses the science of renouncement, is safe from solicitudes at the hour of prayer, as well as when not engaged in this holy exercise; without loss of time he gathers with great ease abundant spiritual riches. He who is ignorant of this sublime science, exhausts himself by useless efforts to escape from the net in which he is held captive, and in spite of all his care, can scarcely turn away his thoughts from the sad object of his affections for an instant. If the spiritual man perceives that these vain cares are springing up in his heart, he ought at once to suppress this first movement and reflect that his whole endeavor must be to love God above all things, and to renounce himself.

more to come...

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St John of the Cross

God is always good.

What John had foreseen came to pass.


Doria saw his prestige and the reverence in which so many held him for his spiritual stature as a threat to his own authority and he left the Chapter a simple friar, stripped of any post. There were even plans to send him to Mexico, although this never materialised. Instead, he was sent to a remote friary at La Penuela. For John, it was a relief no longer to have all his administrative tasks, and to pursue the life of prayer for which he always yearned, whatever his outward activity over the previous years. As he remarked of those years, when he spent his journeys praying, singing psalms, 'I am well, but my soul lags far behind'. The letter he wrote to Mother Anne of Jesus shortly after the Chapter shows his state of mind: '[God] has arranged this that we may show it by our actions...this is not evil or harmful, neither for me nor for anyone. It is in my favour since, being freed and relieved from the care of souls, I can, if I want and with God's help, enjoy peace, solitude, and the delightful fruit of forgetfulness of self and of all things.' He made the most of the nature he so loved a Penuela, going for hours into the countryside to pray and be alone with his Beloved. Even so, he was not out of contact with the many people whom he had directed, and continued to guide them by letter. Even so, he would not have been human if he had not felt hurt by the antagonism and even hatred of which he had been the butt at the Chapter. A he wrote to Anne of Penalosa, he liked Penuela very much: 'The vastness of the desert is a great help to the soul and the body, although the soul fares very poorly. The Lord must desire that it have its spiritual desert.' He described his simple life to her, which suited him so much: 'This morning we have already returned from gathering our chick-peas, and so the mornings go by. On another day we shall thresh them. It is nice to handle these mute creatures, better than being badly handled by living ones.'

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St John of the Cross

Today we will continue to meditate on the life of St John of the Cross who at the pick of his religious leadership and popularity preferred to follow in the food-steps of Christ by choosing 'to suffer and to be looked down upon' instead of obtaining temporal rewards for his service to Christ. By meditating upon this example of extraordinary holiness we can better understand what does it really mean to love God above ourselves.

Storms clouds began to break over John's head when the Father General, Nicolas Doria, convened an Extraordinary Chapter in June 1590. John had a premonition that things would go badly for him. When one of the Segovian nuns said that she was sure he would return to them as their Provincial, he replied and with certainty, 'I shall be thrown into a corner like an old rag'. One source of disagreement went as back as 1581 at the Chapter at Almodovar del Campo. John had come into conflict (yes, even saints do this sometimes!) with Fr Gerome Gracian who had been a favourite and close collaborator of St Teresa. Gracian wanted the friars to be more active in the apostolate, whereas John insisted that they should be primarily contemplative, from which their apostolate would flow. He did not want their contemplative vocation to take second place and perhaps be squeezed out. This tension between the active and contemplative aspects of the Carmelite friar's life had a long history. The Order traces its origin back to the time of the Crusades, when some of the crusaders decided to settle in the Holy Land, on Mount Carmel, where Elijah and Elisha had founded a 'school of prophets', living a life of community and contemplation. Ever since, Carmelites have looked on two great prophets as their spiritual forebears. When the Muslims defeated the crusaders and drove them out of the Holy Land, the friars fled to the West, where they took up an active apostolate, sometimes to the detriment of their contemplative base.
At the Madrid Chapter the problem was more a clash of personalities between Gracian, who represented the moderates and Doria who wanted more control. Although Teresa had not taken personally to Doria, a Genoese who had been a banker before entering the Discalced, she had prized Doria's organisational skills, but he was rigid and authoritarian. The younger Gracian had a brilliant mind, a distinguished scholar and organiser , and had a much more pleasing and charming manner, although his impetuosity and rashness made him powerful enemies - including Doria. Now, Doria put forward some proposals with which John adamantly disagreed. Doria changed the government of the Order, concentrating all power in the hands of a permanent committee. He also wanted to take revenge against the formidable Mother Ann of Jesus, who, supported by John of the Cross, opposed his plans for the nuns and wanted to seek papal approbation for their constitutions. In addition, he wanted to expel Gracian from the Order, seeing him as a dangerous rival to his own power. John of the Cross had already warned Gracian that this might happen. He had been horrified when Gracian had proposed that Doria should succeed him as Provincial: he was elected only by two votes. Now, he felt that Gracian was being unfairly treated, and said so. Although many of the other friars privately agreed with him, they were too cowed by Doria's dictatorial manner to speak out.

The moving story of St John of the Cross last years marked by his heroic love of God and the neighbour is to be continued.
Credit: on the basis of little book 'John of the Cross' by Jennifer Moorcroft

Read whole post......

St John of the Cross

There are many Saints who proved their love of God through examples of heroic virtue. St John of the Cross is one of them.

He wrote the most beautiful poems describing soul search for His beloved. It is good to think of him during the month of the Sacred Heart, the beautiful symbol of God's love for us. We will focus today on the period of St John's life that began when he was elected the prior of Discalced friars in Baez. It happened just after Discalced were finally set up as a separate Province. He was the Prior there for two years and after that he was appointed Prior to the Granada foundation of Los Martires. He was far away from his beloved Castile and he felt his isolation deeply. This feeling of isolation was increased after Saint Teresa died the same year. He had reached however, that state of inner freedom when he could truly be himself and not to be forced into a mould of other's making. As Prior and an official in his Order now, he himself had a status that afforded him some dignity, but he refused to be judged by such standards. A high ranking official would be brought to him and be greeted by John just as he was. As he said to one visitor who expressed his surprise, 'After all, I am the son of a weaver'. Later on, his brother Francisco was often with him. Francisco remained what he always was, a poor workman, and John would introduce him with great pride as the greatest treasure he had on earth. To John, earthly rank or attainment did not matter. What did matter was that they were all children of God, and as such, deserving of his respect and love, whatever their rank or lack of it. The Order met for their second Chapter in 1583 and John was reaching the peak of his religious leadership. He was elected 2nd definitor and Vicar Provincial. He completed at that time his major writings, The Spiritual Canticle and the Dark Night of the Soul. From 1585, for the next three years he was almost constantly on the road in his role as Vicar Apostolic, attending chapters, visiting the various foundations, founding new convents and friaries. At one such foundation, that of Cordoba, he nearly lost his life. A stone wall that was being built fell on the cell in which he was working, and the workmen scrabbled frantically to dig him out, fearing he was dead. However, they found him crouched in a corner under a statue of Our Lady that had fallen above him, laughing and saying that it was she who had saved him. To his delight, in 1588 he was appointed prior of the Segovia friary, which meant that he was back in his beloved Castile. A new friary was still being built away from the dampness of the nearby river, so John joined in with the building work. These were to be the last happy moments in his life. He was back in Castile and nearer to his beloved brother who was able to visit him more often. To his brother he revealed an experience he had. Praying before a picture of Christ carrying his cross one day, he heard an inner voice calling his name, and responded inwardly, 'Here I am'. The voice asked him then what reward he would like for all he had done and all he had have suffered. John's response was, 'To suffer and to be looked down upon.' He told this to his brother so that when Francis saw him having trials he would not be distressed, knowing that it was what he desired and that they God's will for him. The time of serious trials was coming for John to prove his love of God and neighbour. God was willing to give him a chance to become a great saint.

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