CARMELITE QUOTE

Photo:R.Massaro(c)2013SpiritSinging

St. Alphonsus  Church Peru, Ohio

St. John of the Cross:

It is enough to have referred to the many imperfections of those who live in this beginner's state to see their need for God to put them into the state of proficients. He does this by introducing them into the dark night, of which we will now speak. There, through pure dryness and interior darkness, he weans them from the breasts of these gratifications and delights, takes away all these trivialities and childish ways, and makes them acquire the virtues by very different means. No matter how earnestly beginners in all their actions and passions practice the mortification of self, they will never be able to do so entirely--far from it--until God accomplishes it in them passively by means of the purgation of this night. May God be pleased to give me his divine light that I may say something worthwhile about this subject, for in a night so dark and a matter so difficult to treat and expound, his enlightenment is very necessary.
The Dark Night BK.1 Chap. 7, No. 5, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD





Music: Loreena McKennitt, Dark Night of the Soul from the Mask and Mirror
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Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS