It would take a lifetime or more to unpack the spiritual treasures that are the writings and teachings of St. John of the Cross. Every now and then I like to thumb through my anthology of his works, not pretending to truly study, but doing nothing more than just let my glance fall on whatever especially delights me at that particular moment...here's what delighted me today:
#55 of the 'Sayings of Light and Love':
"Since God is inaccessible, be careful not to concern yourself with all that your faculties can comprehend or your senses feel, so that you do not become satisfied with less and lose the lightness of soul suitable for going to him."
And from one of his poems, an especially good description of the spiritual life:
"After I have known it
love works so in me
that whether things go well or badly
love turns them to one sweetness
transforming the soul in itself.
And so in its delighting flame
which I am feeling within me,
swiftly, with nothing spared,
I am wholly being consumed."
(and for Spanish readers, I'm sure it's better in the original:)
Hace tal obra el amor
despues que le conoci,
que, si hay bien o mal en mi
todo lo hace de un sabor,
y al alma transforma en si;
y asi, en su llama sabrosa,
la cual en mi estoy sintiendo,
apriesa, sin quedar cosa,
todo me voy consumiendo.
2 comments:
Whenever I come to St. John of the Cross, and God willing, I hope to come to him now more frequently, I feel I am encountering a physicist, or at least an alchemist. His descriptions are at once solid science and then also, transparent as gossamer threads and just as refined.
Well, here is what my eyes betook this moment, Erin:
"But yet thou sayest: ' If He whom my soul loves is within me, how is it that I neither find Him nor feel Him?' The reason is that He is hidden and that thou hidest thyself likewise that thou mayest find Him and feel Him; for he that has to find some hidden thing must enter very secretly even into that same hidden place where it is, and when he finds it, he too is hidden like that which he has found. Since, then, thy beloved Spouse is the treasure hidden in the field of thy soul, for the which treasure the wise merchant gave all that he had, it will be fitting that, in order to find it, thou forget all that is thine, withdraw thyself from all creatures, hide in the interior closet of thy spirit, and, shutting the door upon thee (that is to say, shutting thy will upon all things), pray to thy Father Who is in secret. Thus, remaining secretly with Him, shalt thou experience His presence in secret, and shalt love Him and have fruition of Him in secret, and shalt delight in Him in secret--that is to say, beyond all that is attainable by tongue and sense."
[E.A. Peers translation in Spiritual Canticle Stza 1;9]
Post a Comment