// O guiding night!
The actual union, always a passing phenomenon, never becomes permanent on this earth. (2.v.3-4), In thus allowing God to work in it... the soul⦠is at once illumined and transformed in God and God communicates to it His supernatural Being, in such a way that it appears to be God himself, and has all that God himself has. And of such a soul, says Isaias, âthe heart of the wicked man is like the sea when it rages.â (1.vi.5-6), Desire is like the fire, which increases as wood is thrown upon it. In it, St. John continues his description of the soul’s journey: “the dark night” to “the divine union of the love of God.” A poet at heart, St. John describes the journey and the union with beautifully rich and deeply symbolic language.
This poem does not claim to be a translation, but rather a literary interpretation. This man, then, rejoices in all thingsâsince his joy is dependent upon none of themâas if he had them all.
1 Cor 3:6), and works all things after the counsel of His will (cf. The soul is greatly impeded from reaching this high state of union with God when it clings to any understanding or feeling or imagination or appearance or will or manner of its own, or to any other act or do anything of its own, and cannot detach and strip itself of all these.... [The] soul must pass beyond everything to unknowing. // It is here to call to creatures; / and they are filled with this water, although in darkness, / because it is nightâ¦. Juan de San MatÃas, as he was now known, was ordained a priest in 1567.
Life, Poetry & Teachings of Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), San Juan de la Cruz / John of the Cross (1542-91) is one of the towering saints in Christian history and often considered, even by secular poets and scholars, to be the loftiest Spanish-language poet ever. Seeking God demands a heart naked, strong, and free from all evils and goods which are not purely God⦠[Even] spiritual consolations, if possessed or sought with attachment, are an obstacleâ¦. // I do not know its origin, for it hasnât one, / but I know that every origin has come from it. (xxxvi.1,3,10,12), Since the soul and God are now united in this state of spiritual marriage, ⦠the soul performs no work without God. Poetry for John was not an art-form but a vehicle to express his love for his personal Lord, and the blazing power of the Holy Spirit, which had stoked a profound fire in him, overcoming the interior and exterior darkness of his dire situation. / In order to arrive at that in which you find no pleasure, you must go by a way in which there is no pleasure. –I went forth without being observed,My house being now at rest. âNo thing, created or imagined, can serve the understanding as a proper means of union with Godâ¦.
At one point, Juanâs whole leg broke out in ulcers, and a surgeon extensively cut and probed, causing intense pain, which he bravely bore without complaint. After his harsh sequestration in prison the tender and delicate intimacy that grew up between him and these sisters of his order supplied something that he was badly in need of, while their questions and demands gave him the stimulus to write his prose works in the form of explanations of his poemsâ¦.