CARMELITE QUOTE

Photo: R. Massaro (C)2017 Spirit Singing Epiphany Cathedral Nashville, TN

(Concerning two visions of St. John of the Cross)

...The second apparition, toward the end of his life, took place in Segovia. He had called his beloved brother Francisco to come there..."When I had been there two or three days, I begged him to let me depart. He told me to stay a few days longer for he did not know when we would see each other again. And this was the last time I saw him. One evening after supper he took me by the hand and led me into the garden and when we were alone, he said to me: " I want to confide in you what happened to me with Our Lord. We had in the monastery a crucifix, and one day, as I stood before it, it occurred to me that it would be more suitable to have it in the church. It was my wish that not only the friars but those outside could also venerate it. And I did what I had thought of doing.

"After I had put it up in the church as fittingly as I was able to do, I was standing before it one day in prayer--and then he spoke to me: Brother, John, ask of me whatever I should grant you for the favor you have done me here! And on my part I said to him: Lord, what I wish from you is suffering which I may bear for you, and that I may be despised and disdained.

From The Science of the Cross by Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, OCDS