Carmelite Spirituality
St. John of the Cross - Feast Day December 14
By Paul de Groot O.Carm
By Paul de Groot O.Carm
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Carmel cherishes mystics, those, who have been transformed directly by God’s love. John of the Cross, a 16th-century Spanish Carmelite, was a mystic who towers above most. John captures his experience in poetry, hoping that we can resonate with him and so recognise God’s love active in our own lives.
John single mindedly pursued the idea that we yearn for union with God and that unless we strive to make every aspect of our personality oriented towards God, the Spirit cannot flow into us to transform us. He regarded everything as good as it was part of God’s creative power but recognised that we constantly allow ourselves to be disorientated by either taking pleasure in these gifts or misusing them. We must learn to focus attention on what is primary in our lives, in the search for God. |
He used the poetry of a wounded lover searching for her lover, explaining this as a dynamic ascent of a mountain. This was a constant struggle often experienced in dark obscurity, as we journey upwards emptying ourselves and being purified as we ascend Mount Carmel. The purpose on reaching the summit was a union with God expressed in the Spiritual Canticle as a Bride and Bridegroom searching for each other and delighting in each other. The transformation of this union is described in the Living Flame of love, the work of the Spirit.
John by explaining his poetry describes what happed to him and God’s desire for union with him but maps out that this is the normal pattern for you and me if only we would recognise it.
John by explaining his poetry describes what happed to him and God’s desire for union with him but maps out that this is the normal pattern for you and me if only we would recognise it.