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Who is St. John of the Cross?
St. John of the Cross is a Doctor of the Church, recognized as a great voice on prayer. His poetry is considered among the best in the Spanish language. He lived a life of heroic virtue and extreme austerity, even from his youth. As a priest, he was a tender father and faithful friend to the men and women who knew him. We too can come to know him.
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Prayer
Consolation & Desolation
Aridity
Suffering & Mortification
Many people think St. John of the Cross is relentlessly negative, the enemy of pleasure and happiness. It is true that he lived a live of intense asceticism. Yet, he was a joyful, sympathetic, and loving father to those who knew him. We cannot understand his spirituality without understanding how mortifications are the way to real joy.
Night of Sense
The dark night is perhaps the most well-known expression from the writings of St. John of the Cross. But there also are a lot of misunderstandings about what he meant by this. The night is a metaphor for purification. In the night of sense, we must address attachments to things of the senses. This is hard work, but we don't do it alone. God helps us to progress.
Night of Spirit
In the night of sense, we primarily address attachments to external things. The night of spirit brings us into the purifying darkness that primarily addresses attachments in the intellect, will, and memory. This purification is the hardest to endure. As with the night of sense, there are both active and passive aspects: there are the efforts we make, and we experience the direct action of grace. We approach our goal, union with God, only through these passages..
Mount Carmel
A Taste of Theology
A Sip of Psychology
St. John of the Cross is known as the Mystical Doctor, because he is the Church's greatest teacher on how to pray. Prayer is not just saying words to God. Prayer is meant to be a permanent state of mind and heart. Every renewal in the Church is preceded by a renewal of prayer among the faithful. Be part of that renewal.
In this life we will have both joys and pains. We know that the Christian path is not to simply seek joy and avoid pain. St. John of the Cross offers profound insights on how consolation and desolation show the condition of your soul, so you can more clearly see the way forward.
Souls earnestly seeking God and practicing the daily discpline of mental prayer will come to the point where their own efforts start to diminish in importance. This dryness can be disturbing. But it could be the threshold of deeper prayer.
Carmelite spirituality has it roots in the Old Testament and has endured through the centuries, continuing to enrich the world in every age. What is Carmelite spirituality? And who are the men and women who have preserved and taught this great tradition?
St. John of the Cross is recognized as a poet and mystic. But he also was a theologian of great distinction. The University of Salamanca, where he received his theological education, was renowned throughout Europe. The Dominican professors taught him from the works of Aquinas and others, and St. John was a brilliant and dedicated student. To understand his teachings, we must have a little knowledge of the theology behind them.
Modern people have been brought up with an essentially Freudian understanding of the psyche: ego and id, the fume and fret of conscious activity, and the dark and often threatening shadows of the unconscious mind. But this mechanical model can tell us nothing about how to live. We need the sense of self that St. John of the Cross explains. He learned from Aquinas, Augustine, and Aristotle, and he shows us how to be not only healthy but also holy.
You do very well, O soul, to seek Him ever as one hidden, for you exalt God immensely and approach very near Him when you consider Him higher and deeper than anything you can reach.
St. John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 1.12