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Jai
United Kingdom
12 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 22 2015 : 06:08:51 AM
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For those interested in St. John of the Cross and the meditation practices of the Carmelite Order.
A brief description-
Saint John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz) (24 June 1542-14 December 1591),
was a major figure of the Catholic Reformation, a Spanish Mystic, Carmelite friar, priest and poet.
Saint John of the Cross was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered along with Saint Teresa of Avila, as a founder of the Discalced Carmelites.
Both his poetry and studies on the growth of the soul are the considered the summit of mystical literature and one of the peaks of Spanish literature.
He was canonized as a saint in 1726. And was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1926. His feast day is 14 December.
Literary Works
The Spiritual Canticle
The Spiritual Canticle is an eclogue in which the bride (representing the soul) searches for the bridegroom (representing Jesus Christ), and is anxious at having lost him; both are filled with joy upon reuniting.
Dark Night of the Soul
Dark Night of the Soul narrates the journey of the soul from her bodily home to her union with God. It happens during the night which represents the hardships and difficulties she meets in detachment from the world and reaching the light of union with the Creator.
Ascent of Mount Carmel
Ascent of Mount Carmel is a more systematic study of the ascetical endeavour of a soul looking for perfect union, God, and the mystical events happening along the way.
The Living Flame of Love
The Living Flame of Love a masterpiece in the literature of mysticism, describes a greater intimacy, as the soul responds to Gods love.
The only other writings left are relatively few letters and various maxims and counsels.
1. O living flame of love
that tenderly wounds my soul
in its deepest centre! Since
now you are not oppressive,
now consummate! if it be your will:
tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!
2. O sweet cautery,
O delightful wound!
O gentle hand! O delicate touch
that tastes of eternal life
and pays every debt!
In killing you changed death to life.
3. O lamps of fire!
in whose splenders
the deep caverns of feeling,
once obscure and blind,
now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,
both warmth and light to their Beloved.
4. How gently and lovingly
you wake in my heart,
where in secret you dwell alone;
and in your sweet breathing,
filled with good and glory,
how tenderly you swell my heart with love.
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http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/JCROSS.HTM
http://www.icspublications.org/arch...ers/cs6.html
http://www.archive.org/details/a588512100johnuoft
http://www.carmelite.org.uk/
http://ocarm.org/
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St. John of the Cross
The Living Flame Of Love
Songs of the soul in the intimate communication of loving union with God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJk23KzsNpM
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THE WORKS OF
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS
http://www.jesus-passion.com/John_of_the_Cross.htm
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"Stanza 1. #6. This soul is so near to God that it is transformed in the flames of love, wherein Father, Son and Holy Spirit communicate Themselves to it. The effect of the living flames is to make the soul live spiritually in God, and experience the life of God. #8. Love is ever throwing out sparks; the effect of lfoe is to wound, that it may enkindle with love and cause delight. #19. God wars against all the imperfect habits of the soul and, purifying thesoul with the heat of His flame, He uproots these habits from it and prepares it so that at last He may enter it and be united with it by His sweet, peaceful and glorious love, as is the fire when it has entered the wood. #24. At death the rivers of love of the soul are about to enter the sea. Burning with sweetness. Consuming not but enlightening."
Living Flame of Love
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Bk. 3. Ch. 2. #2. All these sensory means and exercises of the faculties must be left behind and in silence so that God Himslef may effect the divine union of the soul. As a result one has to follow this method of disencumbering, emptying, and depriving the faculties of their natural rights and operations to make room for the inflow and illumination of the supernatural. If a person does not turn his eyes from his natural capacity, he will not attain to so lofty a communication; rather he will hinder it. #3. If it is true that the soul must journey by knowing God through what He is not, rather than through what He is, it must journey, insofar as possible, by way of the denial and rejection of natural and supernatural apprehensions. This is our task now with the memory. We must draw it away from its natural props and capacities and raise it above itself (above all distinct knowledge and apprehensible possession) to supreme hope in the incomprehensible God. #4. The annihilation of the memory in regard to all forms (including the five senses) is an absolute requirement for union with God. This union cannot be wrought without a complete separation of the memory from all forms that are not God. In great forgetfulness it is absorbed in a supreme good. #8. Once he has the habit of union he no longer experiences these lapses of memory in matters concerning his moral and natural life. All the operations of the memory and other faculties in this state are divine.
Ascent of Mt. Carmel
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Bk. 2. Ch. 26. #5. This divine knowledge of God never deals with particular things. This sublime knowledge can be received only by a person who has arrived at union with God, for it is itself that very union. It consists in a certain touch of the divinity produced in the soul, and thus it is God Himself who is experienced and tasted there… This knowledge savors of the divine essence and of eternal life. #8. They are so sensible that they sometimes cause not only the soul but also the body to tremble. Yet at other times with a sudden feeling of spiritual delight and refreshment, and without any trembling, they occur very tranquilly in the spirit. #9. Since this knowledge is imparted to thesoul suddenly, without exercise of free will, a person does not have to be concerned about desiring it or not. He should simply remain humble and resigned about it, for God will do His work at the time and in the manner he wishes. #10. God does not bestow these favors on a possessive soul, since He gives them out of a very special love for the recipient. For the individual receiving them is one who loves God with great detachment.
Ascent of Mt. Carmel
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To reach satisfaction in all, desire its possession in nothing. To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing. To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to the pleasure you have not, you must go by a way in which you enjoy not. To come to the knowledge you have not, you must go by a way in which you know not. To come to the possession you have not, you must go by a way in which you possess not. To come to be what you are not, you must go by a way in which you are not. For to go from all to the All, you must deny yourself of all in all. And when you come to the possession of the all, you must possess it without wanting anything. Because if you desire to have something in all, your treasure in God is not purely your all. In this nakedness the spirit finds its quietude and rest. For in coveting nothing, nothing raises it up, and nothing weighs it down, because it is in the center of its humility. When it covets something, in this very desire it is wearied.
Ascent of Mt. Carmel 1,13(11)
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"The very pure spirit does not bother about the regard of others or human respect, but communes inwardly with God, alone and in solitude as to all forms, and with delightful tranquility, for the knowledge of God is received in divine silence."
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Peace.X  
Jai
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kumar ul islam
United Kingdom
791 Posts |
Posted - Nov 23 2015 : 05:32:35 AM
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Charliedog
1625 Posts |
Posted - Dec 05 2015 : 02:14:14 AM
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St. John of the Cross
