#december14stjohnofthecross

Our Morning Offering – 14 December – The Memorial of St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

O King of Gentleness By St John of the Cross

O blessed Jesus, give me stillness of soul in You. Let Your mighty calmness reign in me. Rule me, O King of Gentleness, King of Peace.

Saint of the Day – 14 December – St John of the Cross OCD (1542-1591)

John is a saint because his life was a heroic effort to live up to his name:  “of the Cross.” The folly of the cross came to full realisation in time.   “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34b) is the story of John’s life. The Paschal Mystery—through death to life—strongly marks John as reformer, mystic-poet and theologian-priest.

Ordained a Carmelite priest in 1567 at age 25, John met Teresa of Avila and like her, vowed himself to the primitive Rule of the Carmelites.   As partner with Teresa and in his own right, John engaged in the work of reform and came to experience the price of reform – increasing opposition, misunderstanding, persecution, imprisonment.   He came to know the cross acutely—to experience the dying of Jesus—as he sat month after month in his dark, damp, narrow cell with only his God.

Yet, the paradox!   In this dying of imprisonment John came to life, uttering poetry.   In the darkness of the dungeon, John’s spirit came into the Light.   There are many mystics, many poets – John is unique as mystic-poet, expressing in his prison-cross the ecstasy of mystical union with God in the Spiritual Canticle.

Thought for the Day – 14 December – The Memorial of St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

Traces of the Divine Beauty in Creation From The Spiritual Canticle by Saint John of the Cross

“Created things in themselves, as Saint Augustine declares, give testimony to God’s grandeur and excellence.   For God created all things with remarkable ease and brevity and in them He left some trace of who He is, not only in giving all things being from nothing but even by endowing them, with innumerable graces and qualities, making them beautiful in a wonderful order and unfailing dependence on one another.  All of this He did through His own wisdom, the Word, His only begotten Son by whom He created them.

Saint Paul says:  The Son of God is the splendour of His glory and the image of His substance.   It should be known that only with this figure, His Son, did God look at all things, that is, He communicated to them their natural being and many natural graces and gifts and made them complete and perfect, as is said in Genesis:  God looked at all things that He made, and they were very good.   To look and behold that they were very good, was to make them very good in the Word, his Son.

Not only by looking at them did He communicate natural being and graces, as we said but also with this image of His Son alone, He clothed them in beauty by imparting to them supernatural being.   This He did when He became man and elevated human nature in the beauty of God and consequently all creatures, since in human nature He was united with them all.

Accordingly, the Son of God proclaimed:  If I be lifted up from the earth, I will elevate all things to me.   And in this elevation of all things through the incarnation of His Son and through the glory of His resurrection according to the flesh, the Father did not merely beautify creatures partially but rather, we can say, clothed them wholly in beauty and dignity.”

“Lord I am not worthy but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

St John of the Cross, Pray for Us!

Quotes of the Day – 14 December – The Memorial of St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

“If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.”

“The road is narrow. He who wishes to travel it more easily must cast off all things and use the cross as his cane. In other words, he must be truly resolved to suffer willingly for the love of God in all things.”

“Live in the world, as if only God and your soul were in it, then your heart will never be made captive, by any earthly thing.”

“O you souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if you knew how pleasing to God is suffering and how much it helps in acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in anything; but you would rather look upon it, as a great happiness to bear the Cross of the Lord.”

It is a matter of real sorrow when God has given us strength to break stronger fetters, those of vanity and sin, that we neglect our own progress and the attainment of such great blessings, because we will not detach ourselves from trifles. Not only do we not advance, we fall back. For it is well known, that on the spiritual road, not to go on overcoming self, is to go backwards and not to increase our gain, is to lose. As wood can never be transformed into fire, if one necessary degree of heat is missing, so the soul, that has even one imperfection, can never be perfectly transformed in God.

“Happiness is not a destination, it’s a method of travel.”

“We must dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures – however deep we dig, we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.”

“At the end of your life, you will be judged by your love.”

“Now that I no longer desire all, I have it all, without desire.”

St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

Saint of the Day – 14 December – (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church – Carmelite monk and Priest, Religious Founder, Writer, Poet, Mystic, Apostle of Contemplative Prayer.   Also known as • Doctor of Mystical Theology • John della Croce • John de la Croix • John de la Cruz.   Patronages – • contemplative life, contemplatives• mystical theology, mystics• Spanish poets• World Youth Day 2011• Segovia, Spain• Ta’ Xbiex, Malta.   Attributes – eagle, Crucifix, Cross, Carmelite habit.    John of the Cross is known for his writings.   Both his poetry and his studies on the growth of the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature and one of the peaks of all Spanish literature.   He was canonised as a saint in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII.   He is one of the thirty-six Doctors of the Church, added by Pope Pius XI in 1926.   His works are • Ascent of Mount Carmel • Dark Night of the Soul, Book 1 • Dark Night of the Soul, Book 2 • A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ.

St John was born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez into a converso family (descendents of Jewish converts to Christianity) in Fontiveros, near Ávila, a town of around 2,000 people.  John’s father had been disowned by his wealthy Spanish family when he married a poor weaver rather than a woman of equal economic status.   Living in poverty proved to be too much for him and he died shortly after John was born.   John spent much of his youth in an orphanage, where he was clothed, fed and given an elementary education.   At the age of 17, he found a job in a hospital and was accepted into a Jesuit college.   In 1563 he entered the Carmelite Order.   Eventually he enrolled in another university, where he did so well that he was asked to teach a class and to help settle disputes.

Ordained a Carmelite priest in 1567 at age 25, John met Teresa of Avila and, like her, vowed himself to the primitive Rule of the Carmelites.   As partner with Teresa and in his own right, John engaged in the work of reform and came to experience the price of reform:  increasing opposition, misunderstanding, persecution, imprisonment.    John was caught up in a misunderstanding and imprisoned at Toledo, Spain.   During those months of darkness in that little cell, John could have become bitter, revengeful, or filled with despair.   But instead, he kept himself open to God’s action, for no prison could separate him from God’s all-embracing love.   During this time he had many beautiful experiences and encounters with God in prayer.   He came to know the cross acutely—to experience the dying of Jesus—as he sat month after month in his dark, damp, narrow cell with only his God.

Yet, the paradox!   In this dying of imprisonment John came to life, uttering poetry.   In the darkness of the dungeon, John’s spirit came into the Light.   There are many mystics, many poets-  John is unique as mystic-poet, expressing in his prison-cross the ecstasy of mystical union with God in the Spiritual Canticle. 

But as agony leads to ecstasy, so John had his Ascent to Mt Carmel, as he named it in his prose masterpiece.   As man-Christian-Carmelite, he experienced in himself this purifying ascent;  as spiritual director, he sensed it in others;  as psychologist-theologian, he described and analysed it in his prose writings.   His prose works are outstanding in underscoring the cost of discipleship, the path of union with God:  rigorous discipline, abandonment, purification.   Uniquely and strongly John underlines the gospel paradox: The cross leads to resurrection, agony to ecstasy, darkness to light, abandonment to possession, denial to self to union with God.   If you want to save your life, you must lose it.   John is truly “of the Cross.”   He died at 49—a life short, but full.    AND his reforms of the “Discalced” Carmelites revitalised the Order.   He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI on 24 August 1926.

Diego de Sanabria – Saint John of the Cross

Image above – El Greco‘s landscape of Toledo depicts the priory in which John was held captive, just below the old Muslim alcázar and perched on the banks of the Tajo on high cliffs

Quotes of the Day – 14 December – The Memorial of St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

“In giving us His Son, His only Word, He spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word – and He has no more to say… because what He spoke before to the prophets in parts, He has now spoken all at once by giving us the ALL Who is His Son.”

“If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.”

“At the end of your life, you will be judged by your love.”

St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

Thought for the Day – 14 December – The Memorial of St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

In his life and writings, John of the Cross has a crucial word for us today.   We tend to be rich, soft, comfortable.   We shrink even from words like self-denial, mortification, purification, asceticism, discipline.   We run from the cross.   John’s message—like the gospel—is loud and clear:   Don’t—if you really want to live! (Fr Don Miller OFM)

St John of the Cross – pray for us!

Our Morning Offering – 14 December – The Memorial of St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Doctor of the Church

O King of Gentleness By St John of the Cross

O blessed Jesus, give me stillness of soul in You. Let Your mighty calmness reign in me. Rule me, O King of Gentleness, King of Peace.