Table of Contents
1- Meditation
2- Contemplation
expressions
divine pedagogy
a) According to the divine modality (“fine gold”, “the whole sea”)
b) According to the human modality (“the basest metal”, “a drop of water”)
Gift and Gifts of the Holy Spirit
one of the texts where he will speak of contemplation
Anxieties and perfection of love
3- Engagement
general view
the inaugural grace of engagement
How to bring the Holy Spirit-charity?
some graces
moved by the Holy Spirit
the whirlwind of love
engagement summary
4- Marriage
one Spirit with God
ordinary delight
anthropology
the “refreshing of the Holy Spirit”
5- Transition
link between knowledge and love
stanza 37
stanza 38
6- Blazing
a new step in marriage: flamboyant
(a) the conditions of Act
b) the actors of the blazes
c) the soul “gives God to God”
(d) the place and frequency of the acts
(e) the value of these acts
f) the taste that these acts provide
g) the glory given by Act
a grace, an aspiration full of glory
poem
7- Death
the Holy Spirit causes death
8- General reflections and remarks
the most oriental of the Latins
the Holy Spirit as the inspirer of Saint John of the Cross
The One Who Speaks in Scripture
the Holy Spirit par excellence
9- Conclusion
“flaming”, end of the whole divine economy
key lines emerge, they open up several horizons for us
When Christian tradition wants to indicate the goal of the spiritual life, it speaks of “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.” For Anthony, Simeon Metaphrastus, Simeon the New Theologian, Seraphim of Sarov , Silouan, and many others, the goal of the Christian life is to receive the Holy Spirit. “What is the will of God?” asks Simeon Metaphrastus; he replies: “It is the perfect purification from sin, deliverance from dishonouring passions, and the acquisition of the supreme virtue[1], that is, the purification and sanctification of the heart, which is accomplished in a fully real way by the sanctification of the heart, which is accomplished in a fully real way by the participation of the perfect and divine Spirit.”[2] Or again, we have this answer from Seraphim of Sarov to his disciple Motovilov, which we find in their famous dialogue:
“Prayer, fasting, vigils, and all the other works of a disciple of Christ, however excellent they may be, do not constitute the goal of the Christian life, although they are the indispensable means to attain it. The true goal is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God[3].”[4]
We can say that Saint John of the Cross only inserted himself into this great current of the Christian spiritual Tradition. In fact, his teaching led to this experience of the Holy Spirit that he would sing about until the end of his life. In 1591, the very year of his death, he revisited his masterpiece, a commentary on a poem addressed primarily to the Holy Spirit and, in a way, his testament. But he was not content to describe the final stages of spiritual ascension; he developed what his other writings had only sketched out. He received, with a special grace, a precise mission to show the path that leads to this fullness of the Spirit: the “acquisition of the Holy Spirit.” Great is his merit, to have traced this path for us and to have masterfully described this journey throughout his work [5].
To speak of the Holy Spirit in Saint John of the Cross is therefore, in a certain sense, to study him in all his works, a vast and rich theme… We can say that his writings are a hymn to the action of the Holy Spirit who purifies the soul, illuminates it and unites it with God. We will try to approach the question by following, step by step, the growth of the soul. In fact, the Holy Spirit acts throughout the spiritual life; but his action is different according to the stages and it depends, moreover, on the purity and docility of the subject who receives his influence.
We can identify at least seven different types of action of the Holy Spirit in the soul, corresponding to seven stages in its journey. Let us list them:
| 1- Meditation | 2- Contemplation | 3- Engagement | 4- Marriage | 5- Transition | 6-Flaming | 7- Death |
| general help from the Holy Spirit | special assistancepurifying action of God, attributed to loving Wisdom, to the Spirit of God | visits of the Holy Spirit who begins to be named and has a specific action”the landlord” | the soul, united to God, is a flame having one Spirit with God,does with God the very work of God: she draws in the Holy Spirit | passage towards an increase in the intensity of the fire of the Holy Spirit | the soul blazes with the Holy Spirit, it throws out flames which bathe it in glory and delights | It is by a surge of love that the Spirit tears the jewel from the soul |
1- Meditation
Meditation: by this word, we designate the first stage of the spiritual life. It consists in the effort that the beginner must make to advance in his knowledge of God and of himself, in the spiritual warfare, the flight from sin and the acquisition of virtues. Here, God gives ordinary help to every human being, what Saint Teresa of Jesus calls “general help”[6]. Man can act – and he must do so – to advance in the spiritual life; on this effort, his progress depends and God gives him, by his grace, what is necessary to do it. As for prayer, this stage is that of “meditation”, that is to say the passage, by an effort of reason, from one idea to another, to draw profit and advancement from it[7]. Then, in prayer, will come the stage of recollection, by an effort of interiorisation which allows him to approach the one who dwells in the depths of his heart. Here, the action of the Holy Spirit is general and ordinary. It offers “the first tastes and the first sensible fervors” (LF III,32). The Saint will not speak much about it, because it is with the beginning of contemplation, above all, that the action of the Spirit will be specific. And this will be the “special help” according to the expression of Therese of Jesus [8].
“The state and exercise of those who are beginning is to meditate and perform acts and exercises of discourse with the imagination. In this state, it is necessary to give the soul material to meditate and discourse and it is fitting that of itself it exercises interior acts and makes its profit from the savor and the sensible taste of spiritual things, so that by maintaining the appetite with the savor of spiritual things, the savor of sensual things is uprooted and the soul comes to leave the things of this world. But afterwards, when the appetite has already maintained itself and in some way accustomed itself to the things of the spirit with some strength and some constancy, God suddenly begins, as they say, to wean the soul and put it in a state of contemplation.” (LF III,32)
This is a crucial turning point where God makes the human being pass from sense to spirit (cf. LF III,32). Then “the soul must be governed in a way totally contrary to the first” (LF III,33), as we shall see.
2- Contemplation
Contemplation is one of the most important points in the teaching of Saint John of the Cross and the key to all of this teaching. It is an action of God in the soul, a direct and infused action that begins by purifying it and that takes on, from the moment of entering into contemplation [9]until the end, a new way of acting. In this regard, we can say that there is a very clear threshold between meditation and all the other stages. This is where the Holy Spirit begins his action. At the beginning, it will be an action of purification, which will be transformed into illumination, to arrive at union. For the moment, let us note the change in the action of God: he therefore begins to “lay his hand” [10].
the expressions
When the Saint describes God’s action, contemplation, he does so in different books. In The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night, [11] two of his first writings, he uses terms related to contemplation. These will be: “contemplation,” “love note,” “Ray of Darkness ,” “Divine Spirit.” But toward the end of his life, in The Living Flame, to describe the same action, it will be more concise, it will be simply the Holy Spirit. He does not deny in any way what he had said before; he is simply placed in a higher and more simplified perspective. The content of his message does not vary, but it is a different choice of expressions.
divine pedagogy
Furthermore, in his pedagogy, God communicates himself according to the modality of the soul: “the Holy Spirit illuminates the recollected understanding, and he illuminates it according to its recollection” (MC II,29,6). The modality of the soul can be human or divine. If it is human, God will act according to the order of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; if it is divine, he will act according to the order of the virtue of faith.
The visions, words and all the extraordinary supernatural manifestations that come from God are the work of the Holy Spirit. But that does not mean that we must admit them because they involve many dangers!!! For that, we would have to read the whole of chapter 17 of book II of the Ascent of Carmel where the Saint explains the economy of God and how he operates to seek the soul at the lowest level where it is found. The Holy Spirit is given “economically” by these imaginary manifestations; for example, the Saint warns us: “[…] as the soul is passively given the spirit of these imaginary apprehensions, it must also behave passively, without putting its interior or exterior actions into anything.” We see the expression: “the spirit of these apprehensions.” There is the bark and there is the fruit. He does not deny the reality of these communications but he distinguishes what is essential and what is secondary, accidental. And if the soul wants to receive the Spirit contained in these graces it must not converse with their exterior aspect which is like “the bark and the accident” (MC III,13,4).
We understand from this that there are two levels in the action [12]of the Holy Spirit:
a) According to the divine modality (“fine gold”, “the whole sea”)[13]
– This action takes place in the superconscious depths of the soul which is called “spirit”; this is made up of intelligence and will insofar as they are passive – to be distinguished from the soul which is also intelligence and will but insofar as they are active and conscious. And it is “all the Wisdom of God […] who is the Son of God” [14], loving Wisdom, which is infused into the spirit, both into the passive intelligence and will.
b) According to the human modality (“the basest metal”, “a drop of water”)
– This happens at the level of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the conscious and active intelligence, that is to say the soul. The intellectual gifts that govern the active organism of the intelligence are: Wisdom, Intelligence, Science, Counsel. The Saint will say that God can communicate the “wisdom of one or two or three truths” etc… There are the gifts of the Holy Spirit that govern the active will and these are: Piety, Fortitude and Fear. To better understand this question let us see the transcendence of the Holy Spirit.
Gift and gifts of the Holy Spirit
A remark is necessary. It is both dogmatic and anthropological. Saint John of the Cross maintains the transcendence of the Holy Spirit God!!! Acting in the spirit as a divine Person, he falls neither into sense nor into intelligence. One thing is a gift of the Holy Spirit, another the Holy Spirit himself. Or, if you prefer, one thing is the Gift of the Holy Spirit, the transcendent Person who acts in the supra-conscious depths of our being (the spirit), and another his gifts or his action in the conscious part of our being (the soul). There is therefore a difference between the theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They do not act in the same place in the human being, and they do not have the same modality of action.
In chapter 29 of the second book of the Ascent of Mount Carmel, Saint John of the Cross helps us to differentiate between the virtue of faith and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Implicit in this passage is the reference to intellectual gifts, to the enlightenment they confer on the intellect. In this chapter, Saint John of the Cross addresses the case where, in prayer, one receives enlightenment that is considered supernatural. He seems to classify them in the category of “gifts of the Holy Spirit.” But he does not give them any importance. Comparing them to what the soul can receive through a recollection of faith, It’s not much. Moreover, he explains to us that gifts come to us from love, which in turn comes to us from pure faith.
Pure faith to Charity to “Supernatural” lights
He therefore concludes that one should not attach importance to these lights received, however good they may be. One should even deprive oneself of them. Here is the passage:
“That if you ask me why the understanding must deprive itself of these truths, since there the Spirit of God illuminates it, therefore, that this cannot be bad, I answer that the Holy Spirit illuminates the recollected understanding and that he illuminates it according to its recollection. And because the understanding cannot find greater recollection than in faith, the Holy Spirit will not illuminate it in anything else more than in faith. Because the more pure and eminent the soul is in faith, the more it has infused charity of God, and the more it has charity, the more he illuminates it and communicates to the soul some light in this illustration of truths, nevertheless, it is as different – as to quality – from that which is in faith, without hearing clearly, as there is to be said of fine gold to the basest metal; and as to quantity , there is as much to be said as of a drop of water to the whole sea. Because in in one, the wisdom of one or two or three truths, etc., is communicated to him, and in the other, all the wisdom of God generally, who is the Son of God who communicates himself to the soul in faith.” (MCII,29,6)[15]
In the question raised in Chapter 13 of Book III, [16]the Saint distinguishes two levels in the action of the Holy Spirit: one in the spirit (this is the substance of his action) and the other in the soul (this is the redundancy, the echo of his action), and he shows us how to react to it. We must differentiate between, on the one hand, what is the profound action of God in the mind and, on the other hand, his redundancy. Confusing the two and, moreover, giving a certain importance to redundancy in the soul is a serious error of discernment. This retards the progress of the soul [17]. It must be understood that the action of the Holy Spirit cannot be felt.
Finally, it should be noted that Saint John of the Cross only mentions the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in passing. They are never the heart of his message about the Holy Spirit.
one of the texts where he will speak of contemplation
This is a text which gives us an idea of the usual teaching of Saint John of the Cross on contemplation, on the action of the Holy Spirit in this period of purification.
“[The soul] calls this dark contemplation secret , because it is mystical theology, which theologians call secret wisdom, which, according to St. Thomas [18], is communicated and infused into the soul by love. This happens secretly with the exclusion of the work of the understanding and the other powers. Therefore, because the said powers cannot acquire it, unless the Holy Spirit pours it and orders it into the soul [19]– as the Bride of the Canticles says [20]– without its knowledge and without its hearing as it is, it is called secret. And in truth, not only does it not understand it, but no one else, not even the devil; because the Master who teaches it is substantially within the soul, where neither the devil, nor the natural sense, nor the understanding can reach.” (DNII,17,2)
anguish and perfection of love
Throughout this period, the soul desires an increase in love until it reaches the state of perfect love, which pays for itself only. It “desires the fulfillment and perfection of love” (SCA 9,6):
“The soul in love cannot help but desire the rent and wages of its love for which it serves the Friend, for otherwise it would not be true love; which wage and rent is nothing else, and the soul could desire nothing else, except an increase of love until it arrives at the state of a perfect love, which pays for itself only with itself.” (SCA 9,6)
The further we go, the better we will understand what this perfection of love consists of. But as long as the soul has not reached it, it experiences an anguish of love:
“The soul that is enamored with the love of God desires the fulfillment and perfection of love, that it may be perfectly refreshed. Just as the deer, worked by the heat of summer, desires the shade to be refreshed therein, and as the hired servant waits for his work to be finished, so the soul that loves waits for hers to be finished.” (SCA 9:6)
“His work is to love, and from this work of loving he awaits the end and the culmination, which is the accomplishment and perfection of loving God. And until this happens, the soul is always in the state that Job describes […] holding the days and months empty, and the nights painful and endless (Job 7:3). In which is meant how the soul that loves God must not claim or expect anything from him other than the perfection of this love.” (SCA 9:6)
Now let us see what the soul obtains when its purification is completed.
3- Engagement
general view
This period of spiritual life begins with a rather powerful experience with Christ, a visit of a completely new quality. This is verse 12 of the Spiritual Canticle: Drive them away, my Beloved… The description of the graces that characterize this stage of spiritual betrothal is found above all in the Spiritual Canticle (SCA 12 to 26; SCB 12 to 22) and in a few allusions in the Living Flame verse 3 verse 3. These graces are visits of the Holy Spirit that prepare the bride for the grace of spiritual marriage. Here, the action of the Holy Spirit is sweet, it no longer causes pain to the soul. From this stage, the latter “is inflamed with the love of God more than it was before” (SCA 13-14, 28)
Although pure, the soul during the engagement still “needs other positive dispositions that God puts in it, it needs his visits and his gifts, by means of which he always purifies it more and more, embellishes it and subtilises it, so that it is suitably disposed for such a high union.” (LF III,25) “[…] during the time of the engagement and the expectation of marriage, […] the anointings of the Holy Spirit are made and […] the most precious ointments of the dispositions for union with God are given” (LF III,25) “these ointments are his divine inspirations and touches” (LF III,28).
the inaugural grace of betrothal
The soul recounts its experience of the grace of betrothal, it feels rivers with a powerful sound:
“the soul sees itself so invested […] with the torrent of the Spirit of God and being mastered by it with such force, that it seems to be flooded with all the rivers of the world, which invest and drown all its actions and passions in which it was previously.
And although this is done with such force, nevertheless it is without torment because these rivers are rivers of peace, as God says through Isaiah, speaking of this investment of the soul: […] note and observe that I will bring down upon it – namely, upon the soul – as a river of peace and as a torrent that overflows glory (Isaiah 66:12), and thus this divine investment that God makes in the soul, like rivers with a mighty noise , fills it all with peace and glory.” (SCA 13-14:9)
What the soul also feels “is a spiritual sound or voice that dominates every sound and every voice; which voice suppresses every other voice, and the sound thereof surpasses all the sounds of the world.” (SCA 13-14,9) And he explains:
“This voice or this mighty sound of these rivers, of which the soul speaks here, is such a great repletion that fills it with good things, and such a mighty power that possesses it, that not only does it seem to it that these are the sounds of rivers, but also furious thunders. This voice nevertheless is spiritual and does not have these bodily sounds and does not give the pain and suffering that they do, but only greatness, strength and power, and delight, and glory. And it is like an immense inner voice and sound that fills the soul with power and strength.” (SCA 13-14,10)
Saint John of the Cross will then evoke the sound that the Apostles heard at the coming of the Holy Spirit:
“This spiritual voice and sound was made in the spirit of the apostles when the Holy Spirit descended upon them in a vehement torrent (Acts 2:2-4), as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles; to make the spiritual voice which he made them grasp within, to resound outside this sound as of a rushing mighty wind , of such a nature as to be heard by all those who were then in Jerusalem. By which was signified that which the apostles received within, which, as we say, was a repletion of power and strength.” (SCA 13-14:10)
We therefore see new potentialities unfolding in the action of the Holy Spirit. But is the soul passive? Can it not attract the Holy Spirit more and more?
How to bring the Holy Spirit-charity?
This is one of the most important passages that shows us that we can and must put charity into practice, with the result that we increase the grace of the Holy Spirit.
“It must be noted that God places his grace and his love in the soul only according to the will and love of the soul. This is why the good lover must try that this is not lacking, since by this means, as we have said, he will excite God to love him more – if that can be said – and to recreate himself in his soul. And to obtain this charity one must exercise oneself in what the Apostle says” (And he refers to 1 Corinthians 13,4-7). (SCA 12,11)
It is in this sense that we can read another passage from the Living Flame:
“It is a matter of great importance for the soul to exercise in this life the acts of love, so that, being consumed in a short time, it does not stop for long, here below or there above, without seeing God.” (I,34)
We also know how much these words marked Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and were a stimulus for her to move forward [21].
some graces
The Word of God, visiting the soul, brings it graces. Here are some of them:
In stanza 12, which is the very stanza at the beginning of the engagement, the Saint puts these words into the mouth of the Word of God: Savoring the fresh breeze of your flight (SCA 12). In fact, the soul has just had a grace of high contemplation, a flight . This flight will provoke love [22]:
“By flight he means the contemplation of the ecstasy we have spoken of; and by breeze he means that spirit of love which this flight of contemplation causes in the soul. And it is quite properly that he calls here this love caused by flight a breeze , since the Holy Spirit, who is Love, is also compared in Holy Scripture to the breeze because he is breathed in by the Father and the Son. And just as he is, up there, the breeze of flight , that is to say, he proceeds from the contemplation and wisdom of the Father and the Son and is breathed in by both, so the Bridegroom here calls this love of the soul a breeze , because it comes to her from the contemplation and knowledge which she then has of God.” (SCA 12,10)
Let us note the comparison he establishes between what happens in the Trinity and what takes place between the soul and the Word: “as love is the union of the Father and the Son, so it is of the soul with God” (SCA 12,10). The Holy Spirit-Love is the “link” here and there.
Here the Bride begins to have dominion over her Husband: “So this charity and love of the soul makes the Bridegroom run to drink from this fountain of love of his bride, as the fresh waters make the thirsty and wounded deer come to take refreshment.” (SCA 12,10)!!
We cannot mention all the graces received here, but we will simply point out that there are “touches”: they inflame the soul (Cf. SCA 16:4)[23] and intoxicate it in the Holy Spirit with a wine of love (Cf. SCA 16:6). The Word sometimes grants much greater favours to advanced souls. The place that the Holy Spirit now holds in the soul and in the supernatural organism is fundamental for the virtues: “as the thread [which] interweaves and binds the flowers in the garland, so love interweaves and binds the virtues in the soul and maintains them in it, because, as Saint Paul says, charity is the bond and knot of perfection ” (Col 3:14) (SCA 21:8). And it is he who breathes into the soul, inviting it to offer itself and all the virtues within it to God. He often pushes her to give herself to him (Cf SCA 25,1 and 7)
And to finish this quick tour of the graces that the soul receives during the period of betrothal, let us look at stanza 22. She tells the Bridegroom that he saw a single hair fly on her neck. The explanation follows:
“[…] as the wind stirs and makes the hair on the neck fly, so the wind of the Holy Spirit moves and stirs strong love to make it fly to God. Because without this divine wind, which moves the powers to the exercise of divine love, the virtues, although they are in the soul, do not operate, nor produce their effects.
And in saying that her Friend considered this hair flying on the neck, she gives to understand how much God loves strong love, because to consider is to look with particular attention and esteem – and strong love makes God turn his eyes to consider it.” (SCA 22,2)
moved by the Holy Spirit
We saw above that there are two levels in the action of the Holy Spirit. He acts either in the depths of the spirit or in the soul. And now that the soul is pure and united to the Word in spiritual betrothal, its whole being is moved by the Love-Holy Spirit (Cf. SCA 19,7). The Saint often describes this prodigious change that has taken place in the soul and shows us its docility at both levels. Here are some of these descriptions.
“And finally, all the movements, operations and inclinations that the soul had before, coming from the principle and efficacy of its natural life, are now in this union changed into divine movements, dead to its operation and inclination and alive to God. Because the soul now, as a true daughter of God, is in everything moved by the Spirit of God, as Saint Paul teaches: Those who are moved by the Spirit of God are the children of God. So that the understanding of this soul is now the understanding of God, and its will is the will of God, and its memory is the memory of God, and its delights are the delights of God” etc… (LF II,34)
We also have examples in Book III of the Ascent of Carmel:
“memory being transformed into God, no forms or notices of things can be imprinted upon it. This is why the operations of memory and of the other powers, in this state, are all divine ; because God, now possessing the powers as absolute Lord, by their transformation into him, it is he himself who moves them and commands them divinely according to his divine spirit and according to his will” (MC III,2,8).
The following quote from St. Paul: ” He who is united with God becomes one spirit with him ” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Here we are in fact at the level of the soul, that is, of the active part of the human being, and not at the level of the spirit. And we see how this part also becomes docile under the influence of the Spirit of God:
“Wherefore the works of these souls are those which are proper and reasonable, and not those which are out of place; because the Spirit of God makes them know what they ought to know, and to ignore what ought to be ignored, and to remember what they ought to remember, with forms and without forms, and to forget what is to be forgotten, and makes them love what they ought to love, and to dislike what is not in God. And thus all the first movements of the powers of these souls are divine; and there is no reason to be surprised that the movements and operations of these powers are divine, since they are transformed into a divine being.” (MC III,2,9).
Therefore, when the human being is united to God, the Holy Spirit moves the powers of the soul as he wills: “although sometimes it is by means of intellectual forms, often it is without apprehensible forms, not knowing themselves how they know it” (MC III,2,12).
Certainly it is rare to find “a soul which is moved by God in all things and at all times, having such a continual union that, without the means of any form, its powers are always divinely moved.” But it does exist, there are some who are very ordinarily moved by God “in their operations, and it is not they who are moved, according to the word of Saint Paul [Romans 8:14], that the children of God – who are those transformed and united in him – are driven by the Spirit of God , that is to say, to divine works in their powers [24]. And it is no wonder that the operations are divine, since the union of the soul is divine.” (MC III,2,16).
These passages interest us for several reasons. First, on a more theological level, to see how the Saint analyses the action of the Holy Spirit in the psychology of human beings. Then, on the level of Scripture, to see how he reads, understands, and interprets it.
Now let us look at the growth of love.
the whirlwind of love
The “merciful Divinity of the Spouse” “pours upon her [the soul] his love and his grace, by which he beautifies and elevates her so much that he makes her a participant in the Divinity Himself” (SCA 23,3). But “to say that God places his grace in the soul is to say that he makes her worthy and capable of his love”, for “without his grace one cannot merit his grace”. He explains to us why: “God loves nothing outside of himself” (SCA 23,5). A clear and precise sentence of remarkable theological accuracy. What causes the growth of love is love itself! In fact, “the more charity she [the soul] has, the more he enlightens her and communicates to her the gifts of the Holy Spirit, because charity is the cause and the means by which they are communicated to her” (MC II,29,6). In fact, “for God to love the soul is to place it in a certain way in itself, making it equal to itself; and thus, he loves the soul in itself, with itself, with the same love with which it loves itself; and for this reason the soul in every work deserves the love of God, because, placed in this grace and this eminence, it deserves God himself in every work.” (SCA 23,5). We can clearly see this growing whirlwind of love. This is how the visits of the Holy Spirit make love grow, embellish and elevate the soul and make it attractive!!
The master of this growth is the Holy Spirit.
engagement summary
Verse 26 is emblematic; it sums up the entire period of the engagement. It is also central to the subject at hand. In this verse, the soul invokes the Holy Spirit, “persevering in prayer so that, by means of him, not only may aridity remain outside her, but also that devotion may increase and she may exercise the virtues interiorly, all so that her Beloved may rejoice and delight more in them.” (SCA 26,1) She always desires to please and delight her Beloved.
So she said: “Come, Auster, you who awaken loves,
come blow through my garden“
“Auster is a […] pleasant and rainy wind, which makes herbs and plants sprout, flowers bloom, and makes them spread their fragrance […]. The soul understands by this wind the Holy Spirit, and says that it awakens loves , because, when this divine wind invests it, it inflames it all, recreates and animates and awakens the whole will, and raises the appetites to the love of God (which were previously fallen and asleep), so that one can truly say that it awakens loves. ” (SCA 26,3)
Note that the virtues are there and he only awakens them, he makes them act.
“In this breath of the Holy Spirit through the garden of the soul, which is a visit in love with which he favors it, the Spouse, Son of God, communicates himself to it in a high manner. For for this purpose, he first sends his Spirit, as to the apostles – which Spirit is his aposentador lodger – so that he may prepare for her the home of the soul bride, raising her up in delights, putting the garden in a pleasant state, opening her flowers, revealing her gifts and adorning her with the tapestry of her graces and riches.” (SCA 26,7)
Let us note the image he uses: he calls the Holy Spirit “host,” that is, the one who prepares the place where the Bridegroom is to live. This expression well summarises the function of the Holy Spirit during this period of betrothal.
“And therefore, it is a thing well to be desired that every soul should ask that the wind of the Holy Spirit blow through her garden and that its divine perfumes spread. And to be a thing so necessary and of such great good and glory for the soul, the Bride desired it in the Canticles and asked for it saying […] Arise, North Wind, and go away, and you, south wind , sweet and beneficent, come, run, and blow through my garden, and its precious odors and perfumes will spread . And the soul desires all this, not for the pleasure and glory it receives from it, but because it knows that her Spouse delights in it, and that it is in her a disposition and preparation so that her dear Spouse the Son of God may come to delight in her.” (SCA 26,8)
4- Marriage
one Spirit with God
In stanza 27 (B-22) the Bridegroom contracts marriage with the soul. “[…] as in the consummation of carnal marriage they are two in one flesh [ Gen 2:24], according to what the Holy Scripture says, so also, this spiritual marriage between God and the soul being consummated, there are two natures in one Spirit and one Love of God” (SCA 27:2) This is what he will take up again a few stanzas lower: “And thus the soul in this state loves God as much as it is loved by him […] since one love is theirs to both” (SCA 38:3 (B-39)) and this Love is the Holy Spirit.
ordinary delight
The Saint sings again in stanza 31 of the joys of the Bride:
While among the flowers and rose bushes
amber (the HS) gives its perfume (SCA 31 (B-18) lines 2 and 3)
“Flowers are the virtues of the soul, as we have already said; rose bushes are the three powers of the soul, namely understanding, memory and will, which produce roses and flowers: divine conceptions, acts of love and virtues.
Amber is the divine Spirit that dwells in the soul; and to say that this amber perfumes the flowers and the rose bushes is to say that this divine Spirit communicates and spreads itself very sweetly in the powers and virtues of the soul, giving to the soul in them a perfume of divine sweetness.” (SCA 31,3)
This action of the Holy Spirit in the soul provides an “ordinary delight” (SCA 30,10).
anthropology
Verse 31 (B-18) establishes the anthropological reality of the soul (Cf. SCA 31,4-5), and it delimits its spheres: spirit – soul – body, and it shows the original harmony found (Cf. SCA 31,5). In fact the reality of the spirit, this deepest sphere of the human being, appears, it is as if born to a new life. It is there that God communicates himself fully. There can then be echoes in the soul and in the body but the essential happens in the spirit. God for certain reasons can prevent these echoes in the soul (and of course in the body) which means that although receiving the fullness of God’s action, being transformed in its depths, the human being can feel nothing!![25] So the action of the Holy Spirit is not necessarily felt since it takes place deep down, in the spirit!!
the “refreshing of the Holy Spirit”
Saint John of the Cross often uses a beautiful expression about the Holy Spirit: the “refreshment” refrigerio. This is his way of expressing what the person can feel at this level of union. In stanza 33 (B-34) he speaks of “the clear water of high contemplation and of the wisdom of God” and of the resulting freshness, that is, of the experience of the Holy Spirit: “the fresh water which is the refreshment refrigerio that she finds in him” (SCA 33,5). He had previously, in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, also spoken of refrigerio with regard to substantial touches: “At other times they [these touches made in the substance of the soul] slip into the spirit when it is very accisé, without any fear, making it suddenly feel a heightened feeling of pleasure and refreshment in the spirit súbito feeling of the refreshment and refrigeration in the spirit (MC II,26,8). It seems more accurate to say: “refreshment in the [Holy] Spirit” because we find a similar expression in the Prologue of the Precautions and this time the expression is complete:
“The religious who desires in a short time to reach holy recollection, spiritual silence, destitution and poverty of spirit, where one enjoys the peaceful refreshment of the Holy Spirit pacifico refrigerator of the Espíritu Santo, where also the soul reaches union with God and frees itself from all the obstacles of the creatures of this world, avoids the artifices and deceptions of the devil and delivers itself from itself, must practice the following teachings.” (Precautions, Prol.)
With this kind of expression, both simple and poetic, we join the spiritual tradition , especially the Eastern one!
The soul is now in this new state of spiritual marriage. This is normally a definitive state, one cannot go further. But within this state progress is possible. The soul has become like a flame but this can increase in intensity[26] and above all it can begin to throw out flames (this will be our number 6: blazing). To move from this stage to the other, time and practice are needed[27]. Let us therefore look at this intermediate stage, so important, especially because of the richness of the description that the Saint makes of it. We are touching here on some of the most beautiful pages on the Holy Spirit.
5- Transition
We are therefore in this intermediate phase between the flame and its blaze. We are therefore talking about the last five stanzas of the Spiritual Canticle[28]. Although this is not yet the final phase, these stanzas are of extraordinary richness. Those which will occupy us most for our subject are stanzas 37 and 38 (B- 38 and 39); they are to be read and meditated on.
First of all, it must be clearly understood that “in this state of spiritual marriage of which we speak, the soul does no work alone without God” (SCA 36.5). It is transformed in him and it is moved by him[29]. The “communications of love” (SCA 36.5) continue.
link between knowledge and love
As we noted in the note above, there is a link between knowledge and love, just as there is a link in God between the two operations of the Trinity: the generation of the Word and the aspiration of the Holy Spirit. Or again, as for the incarnate Word, the link is the fact that it is he himself who communicates (aspires) the Holy Spirit. Therefore, by participating in his being, we participate in his operation: to aspire the Holy Spirit.
Here are the most typical passages: ” in[30] this knowledge, again she [the soul] loves very closely and very highly, transforming herself into him according to this new knowledge” (SCA 36,5); “the fruition that the soul […] receives in this knowledge of the divine attributes, and the delight delight of love of God that she savours in them” (SCA 36,6)
Let us note that since “fruition” is proper to intelligence, he attributes a term to the will: “delight.” This is therefore what provokes the love that is born of knowledge!
stanza 37
In wanting to know her Spouse better, entering into the caverns of his mysteries is “to attain entirely – at least as much as the state of this life allows – to what she had always claimed, namely to the entire and perfect love which is given in this communication because the end of everything is love.” (SCA 37,1) And so in this verse, she asks “what her soul claimed in all its acts and in all its intentions”: which is to ” show him perfectly to love her Spouse as he loves himself ” (SCA 37,1). We prefer to quote the Saint at length. We will be content to underline the key passages. This almost speaks for itself:
“And there you would show me
What my soul urgently desired
This claim is equality of love, which the soul always desires naturally and supernaturally, because the lover cannot be satisfied unless he feels that he loves as much as he is loved. And since the soul sees the truth of the immensity of the love with which God loves it , it does not want to love him less highly or less perfectly, and for this reason it desires the actual transformation. For the soul cannot arrive at this equality and perfection of love except in a total transformation of its will with that of God: in which the wills are united in such a way that of the two there is made one, and thus there is equality of love. Because the will of the soul converted into that of God is henceforth all the will of God; and the will of the soul is not lost, but is made the will of God; and therefore the soul loves God with the will of God, which is also its own will; whence it comes that she will love as much as she is loved by God since she loves him with the will of God himself in the same love with which he loves her, which is the Holy Spirit who is given to the soul, according to what the Apostle says: […] The grace of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us [Romans 5,5] . And so she loves God in the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit , not as an instrument, but jointly with Him , because of the transformation, […] supplying what is lacking in her for having transformed herself into love with Him.”
But there is one more:
“Now it must be noted that the soul does not say here: you would give me there, but: there you would show me , for although it is true that he gives her his love, nevertheless she says very properly that he shows her love, that is to say, he shows her to love him as he loves himself . For God loving us first, he teaches us to love purely and entirely, as he loves us. And because in this transformation, God, communicating himself to the soul, shows her an entire love, generous and pure, with which he communicates all of himself to her most lovingly, transforming her into himself – in which he gives her his very love […] with which she loves him – this is properly showing her to love, which is like putting the instrument in her hands and telling her how she must act and do with her . And thus the soul in this state loves God as much as she is loved by him , and I do not mean that she will love God as much as he loves himself, This cannot be, but only as long as she is loved by him; because just as she must know God as she is known by him, according to what St. Paul says (1 Corinthians 13:12), she will then also love him as she is loved by God, since one love is theirs for both. From which it comes about that the soul is not only taught to love, but also becomes mistress of love , being united with the very Master of love; and therefore she remains satisfied, for she is not so until she has attained to that love, which is loving God perfectly with the same love with which he loves himself . But this cannot be entirely in this life, although in the state of perfection which is the spiritual marriage (of which we are speaking), it can be in some way.”
And he describes the resulting delight:
“And from this manner of perfect love, there is immediately born in the soul an intimate and substantial jubilation in God. For it seems and it is so, that the whole substance of the soul bathed in glory exalts God; and it also feels, by way of fruition, an intimate sweetness which makes it overflow to praise, revere, esteem and magnify God, with a great joy preserved in love.” (Cf. SCA 37,1-4)
stanza 38
In this verse, the Bride asks God for five things concerning love. But what will hold our attention is the first and most important one: “the aspiration and the aspirar of the air,” which is “love itself.”
“This skill of the Holy Spirit which the soul here asks for in order to love God perfectly, she calls aspiration of the air, because it is a very delicate touch and feeling of love which the soul ordinarily feels at this time in the communication of the Holy Spirit. Who, by a way of aspiring by this his own divine aspiration, highly raises the soul and informs it so that it aspires in God the same aspiration of love as the Father aspires to [in fact “into”] the Son and the Son to the Father, who is the Holy Spirit himself , which they aspire in it in the said transformation. For it would not be a true transformation, if the soul did not also unite and transform itself to the Holy Spirit, as to the other two divine Persons (though not in a manifest and evident degree [on earth], because of the lowliness of the condition of this life). Which is to the soul a great glory and a delight so deep and so high that it There is no mortal tongue that can declare it, nor human understanding as such that can understand anything about it.
But the soul united and transformed in God aspires in God, to God, the same divine aspiration that God, being in it, aspires in himself to it – which St. Paul, as I understand it, meant when he said: […] Now inasmuch as you are children of God, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts , crying in prayer to the Father, which happens in perfect persons in the aforesaid manner.”
We see how he reads and interprets Saint Paul. And if this description surprises us, he responds:
“And there is no wonder that the soul can do so high a thing, for supposing that God grants it this grace of becoming deiform and united in the most holy Trinity, in which it becomes God by participation, why is it incredible that it carries out its work of understanding, knowledge and love in the Trinity, jointly with the Trinity, like the Trinity itself, however in a participated manner, God working this in it?” (SCA 38,2-3)
He then quotes St. John (John 17:24): My Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may see the glory you have given me , and he continues: “that is, doing in us by participation the same work that I do by nature, which is to draw in the Holy Spirit” (§4). He quotes St. John above:
“[…] that the world may know that you […] have loved them as you have loved me, which is by communicating to them the same love that he communicates to the Son , although not naturally, as to the Son, but […] by unity and transformation of love; just as it is not understood here that the Son says to the Father that the saints are one thing essentially and naturally as the Father and the Son are; but he only wants them to be so by union of love as the Father and the Son are in unity of love. From which it comes that souls possess the same goods by participation as he does by nature. Therefore they are truly gods by participation, the equals and companions of God.” (SCA 38,4)
Then he quotes the second letter of Saint Peter where he says that we are made companions of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:2-4), “which is for the soul,” he says, “to participate in God by operating in him and in his company the work of the holy Trinity, in the way that we have said, because of the substantial union between the soul and God.” (SCA 38:4)
And here is the famous exclamation which is an overflow of his heart:
“O souls created for these greatnesses and who are invited there, what are you doing? What are you amusing yourselves with? Your pretensions are baseness and your possessions miseries. O deplorable blindness of the eyes of your soul, since they see nothing, surrounded by such a great light, and you are deaf to these loud cries, not seeing that, as long as you seek the greatness and glory [of the world], you remain miserable and abject, ignorant of such great goods and unworthy of them!!” (SCA 38,5)
After these sublime passages, let’s move on to the flamboyance.
6- Blazing
a new step in marriage: flamboyant
The stage that the Living Flame approaches is a bit like this second phase of the union of love. As we said above, it is always the same state of union of love, – the soul cannot obtain more, it would be heaven (Cf. LF Prol,3) – but here it is “enhanced and consubstantiated To qualify and sustain more in love” (Ibid.). Saint John of the Cross uses the image of the log [31]to help us better understand this new stage:
“although the fire which has already penetrated the wood has transformed it into itself and united itself entirely with it, nevertheless, coming to burn more and remaining there longer, it becomes much more ardent and inflamed, until it throws out many flames and sparks.” (Ibid.)
Here he uses the verbs centellear and llamear[32]; these verbs refer us to what constitutes, in a way, the specificity of this new stage. The soul is not only transformed into God who is a fire, a flame, but it does the same work as God, with him, namely: to blaze, to throw flames![33] Let us look at the first verse of the Living Flame of Love to get an idea:
O living flame of love
Who grieves with tenderness
From my soul the deepest center,
Having no more rigor,
Finish, if you want,
Break the web of this happy encounter.
In this stanza, as in the two following ones, it is above all a question of a flame. This – as the Saint will specify – is the Holy Spirit himself (Cf. LF I,1); it burns in the depths of the soul. It invests it, absorbs it, assails it; one can add: glorifies it. Result: it makes it taste a little of the glory and sweetness of eternal life; and so it seems that it will give it eternal life, so close is it.
In all the work of the Living Flame the Holy Spirit is fundamentally perceived as a fire[34]. And the soul that is described here “is transformed into a flame of love”[35] (LF I,6) and “this flame of love is the Spirit of her Spouse who is none other than the Holy Spirit” (LF I,3). Here the ordinary state of the soul ordinario habito “is similar to that of wood which is always assailed by fire.” (LF I,4) Indeed, “the same difference which is found between habit habito and the act, is also found between this transformation into love and the flame of love – which is none other than that which is seen between a burning wood and the flame which comes out of it, because the flame is the effect of the fire which is there.” (LF I,3) And the soul, deep within itself, in this region which he calls “spirit”, in its purified rational powers, “feels in itself like a fire which […] burns in it and throws out flame” (LF I,3). It blazes. Throughout our attentive reading of the Living Flame we can discover the fundamental elements which characterise these acts of blazing.
a) the conditions of the act
The flaming supposes a whole journey for the soul. Not only can it not take place before the spiritual marriage, but even after the latter, a certain time and exercise are necessary. The soul is thus ” consubstantiated ” to sustain more in love” (LF Prol,3); and the “fire now throws a bright flame into her” (LF Prol,4).
“And such is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the soul transformed into love: the interior actions that he performs are as much as if he threw flames, they are, I say, inflammations of love, in which the will of the united soul loves with a strong and elevated love, being made one and the same love with this flame.” (LF I,3)
b) the actors of the blazes
The Holy Spirit is the subject of these acts of flaming; in fact, “in this state, the soul cannot perform any acts.” (LF I,4) This is not to be taken as quietism. “It is the Holy Spirit who does them all and moves the soul in them – which is the cause that all its acts are divine, since it is moved and acted upon by God.” (LF I,4) It is both the Holy Spirit and the soul who act in concert. But, given that the soul is transformed into God, into flame, into the Holy Spirit, the one who guides it and moves it is the Holy Spirit and therefore, in a certain sense, the principal author of these acts is indeed he. By these acts, “the will [is] ravished and absorbed in the flame of the Holy Spirit.” He “raises it to an operation of God in God.” (LF I,4) Here, there is a sort of total docility which disconcerts us; we should not, in a hasty judgment, forget all the trouble the soul had to go through to get there.
The explanations that the Saint gives us regarding the being and action of the soul underline its empire and power; it has now become “mistress of love” (SCA 38,3) and it voluntarily gives God to whomever it wishes (Cf. LF III,78). It is fully, in the fire and with it, the author of the blazes. However, the very audacious affirmations of the Saint never make him deviate from orthodoxy. The soul does not become God by nature, that is not possible. It becomes so by participation. The harmony or “synergy” that exists between the Holy Spirit and the soul is admirable. The nuances of the Saint’s description of it are of a rare lyricism.
“The movements of this divine flame, […] do not come from the soul alone transformed into flames of the Holy Spirit, nor do they come from the Holy Spirit alone; but from both assembled, making the soul move, as fire moves the burning air.” (LF III,10)
Let us therefore remember that the main subject of these acts is the Holy Spirit, who has indeed taken possession of the soul and its powers. But we wish to know more about these acts.
c) the soul “gives God to God”
In these blazes, the soul “gives God to God” according to the expression of the Saint. The fact that the soul is, in its being, transformed into God has as a consequence this capacity to participate in the very work of God, in God. It gives the Holy Spirit to God, a perfect work which relieves its heart[36] and allows it to give back to God Love for Love[37].
“And since in this present which the soul makes to God, it gives him the Holy Spirit as something of its own and with a voluntary surrender[38], so that he may love himself in it as he deserves, it receives an inestimable contentment and enjoyment, because it sees that it gives to God something which is its own and which is nevertheless proportionate to the infinite being of God.
For although it is true that the soul cannot give God again to God Himself, since in Himself He is always the same, yet it does so of itself perfectly and truly, by giving Him all that He had given to Him in payment for love – which is done by giving as much as one receives; and God pays Himself with this gift from the soul, for otherwise He would not pay Himself less, and He is grateful to the soul for it, as for something that it gives of itself, so much so that on the occasion of this same gift, the soul loves Him as if again.” (LF III,79)
d) the place and frequency of the acts
The centre of the soul, or the spirit, is the locus of these acts of the Holy Spirit. We do not want to force the thought of the Holy One by placing it within a pre-established system. It is flexible and nuanced. However, the necessary minimum is stated. Only the summit of the soul is capable of being in direct contact with God and being transformed by him. It is the powers of the soul that are moved by God and that constitute the spirit. This is where the flamings take place.
No other region of the human being is capable, in the strong sense of the term, of receiving God as he is. These faculties, including the body, can only receive an echo of God, a repercussion of his action, a redundancy.
We can ask ourselves the question of the frequency of the blazes. A delicate problem certainly, but we can say that the soul, through repeated acts, blazes in a constant manner.
e) the value of these acts
Since these acts are done in God, by God and according to the very modality of God, it is as if it were God himself who did them. They have an infinite value. Each act of charity that Christ performed in his life is infinite. Saint Thomas Aquinas even said that he could have saved humanity by a single one of these acts[39]. We can guess the value that such acts have for the salvation of humanity. In taking up Saint John of the Cross (Cf. SCB 29,1-4) Thérèse of the Child Jesus said: “The smallest movement of pure love for it [the Church] is more useful than all the works put together” (Manuscript B 4v°). This is one of the most significant passages of the work :
“Therefore, these acts of love are of very great value and the soul deserves more in one of them and this act is worth more than anything it had done all its life without this transformation – anything whatsoever.” (LF I,3)
Let us note that this remark of the Saint sheds a singular light on the problem of the apostolate. We therefore understand his tireless insistence, in his works, on pushing the soul to the heights. The good that results from this for the Church is immense.
f) the taste that these acts provide
The Saint moves us deeply by evoking the Holy Spirit’s desire to caress the soul. Each act of this flame is, in fact, like a caress that God gives to the soul. Added to this is a kind of sweet pain. He reminded us more than once that what the soul experienced could not be described. Everything he tried to tell us was like a poor stammer. And he would often have preferred to remain silent, so ineffable was the experience.
“The effect it has is to caress regalar the wound, as a good doctor does. […] a wound all the more caressing as the fire of love that causes it is higher and more elevated, seeing that as the Holy Spirit made it for this sole purpose which is to caress the soul, and that the desire and the will that he has to caress it are great, also this wound must be great, because it will be greatly caressed.” (LF II,7)
The effects of these acts in the soul are a great delight in the mind and in the senses which makes it taste God. The soul is made alive in God. The Holy Spirit, by launching this flame into the soul, works in it such a great delight that it communicates to it the taste of eternal life (Cf. LF I,6). This is why the soul “calls this flame ‘living,’ not because it is not always alive, but because it causes it such an effect, which makes it live spiritually in God and makes it feel the life of God.” (LF I,6) The Holy Spirit “throws his blows at it like tender bursts of flame of delicate love, joyfully and delightfully exercising and practicing the craft and play of love.” (LF I,8)
g) the glory that the act gives
Each act is like an immersion in God, where it seems to the soul that God wants to tear it away from its mortal condition to give himself to it in fullness. We guess the glory that the soul feels in these blazes.
“these movements of God and of the soul together are not only splendours, but also glorifications which take place in the soul; because these movements and bursts of flame are the games and joyful celebrations which we spoke of, in the second verse of the first stanza, that the Holy Spirit made in the soul, in which it always seems that he wants to complete giving it eternal life and leading it to its perfect glory, henceforth truly introducing it into itself” (LF III,10).
a grace, an aspiration full of glory
In the fourth stanza, aspiration is one of the “two admirable effects” that God “has sometimes made in her [the soul] by means of this union.” It “is an aspiration of God in the soul, and his way is of good and glory which is communicated in aspiration; and what rebounds here on the soul is to enamour it delicately and tenderly.” (LF IV,1) But the reality is so ineffable that he refuses to say it. Let us leave the Saint to speak:
“In your tasty aspiration
Rich in glory and good
How delicately you enamored me!
I would not and do not even want to say anything about this aspiration full of good and glory and of a very delicate love of God for the soul, because I see clearly that I could not say it, and if I did say it, it would be believed that if I said it that it is less. Because it is an aspiration that God makes to the soul – in which by means of this awakening of the high knowledge of God the Holy Spirit draws it in with the same proportion as the intelligence and knowledge of God have been – he absorbs it very deeply in the Holy Spirit, ravishing it in love with a divine excellence and delicacy, according to what it has seen in God. For since the aspiration is full of good and glory, the Holy Spirit fills the soul in it with good and glory, in which he ravishes it with his love, above all that any language could say or any sense imagine, in the depths of God to whom be honor and glory. Amen.” (LF IV,17)
the poem
As a conclusion to this question we can take up the poem and taste it:
O living flame of love
Who grieves with tenderness
From my soul the deepest center,
Having no more rigor,
Finish, if you want,
Break the web of this happy encounter.
O delectable cautery,
O caressing wound,
O flattering hand, O delicate touch
Who feels eternal life
And who pays every debt,
By killing, you made life out of death.
O lamps of fire, O you
In the dazzling splendors
From whom, the deep caverns of meaning,
Once dark and blind,
In strange excellences
Warmth and light at the same time, give to the Friend .
How sweet and loving
Do you wake up in my womb?
Where in secret you make your stay alone
In your tasty breath
Rich in glory and good
How delicately you enamored me!
Let us now look at the role of the Holy Spirit in the last act of earthly life: death.
7- Death
the Holy Spirit causes death
For Saint John of the Cross, what causes death is an “inner assault of the Holy Spirit” (LF I,34). These blazes that we have just seen immerse the soul in God. It is one of these blazes, stronger, more violent than the others, which carries off the soul:
“Although the condition of death, as far as nature is concerned, is similar in the souls that arrive at this state and in the others, nevertheless there is much difference in the causes of death and the manner of dying. Because, where others die of a death caused to them either by some illness or by age, these, even if they die of illness or old age, nothing carries off their souls except some impetuosity, some encounter of love much higher than the preceding ones, more powerful and more valiant, since it can break the web and remove the jewel of the soul.” (LF I,30)
It is therefore the Holy Spirit who is the “link” between the soul and God who, in an impetuous impulse, reunites it definitively with its Spouse!!
8- General Thoughts and rRemarks
We see that, in Saint John of the Cross, the work of God is to purify, illuminate and unite to Himself. The author, by appropriation, of the whole work of sanctification is indeed the Holy Spirit [40]. But, as we have seen, he never separates the Holy Spirit from the Word. The Saint does not deviate one hair from Tradition. Several firm points of the Eastern spiritual tradition (which is largely monastic) find a generous echo in his works:
– He truly considers the Holy Spirit as the author of sanctification, he is truly the Finger of God, the Person of the Trinity who reaches out to the human being and touches him more closely. He is Lord and he gives life, as the Creed says: “who is Lord and gives life[41].”
– As was said at the beginning, for John of the Cross, as for the monastic tradition, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit is the goal of the spiritual life.
We also note that his experience and his teaching demonstrate the profound unity between theology and the deepest spiritual experience; it is the illustration of the indissoluble link between dogma and mysticism, between experience and theological formulation. We see, especially in the Living Flame, how he passes without difficulty from one to the other of the aspects of his magisterium (dogma and mysticism), how they are intertwined. It is consoling for the theologian to note this profound unity and it is a call to rediscover it in theology. We always run the risk of not rediscovering the sources of dogmatics. It is found among the Fathers of the Church in the state of seed, of first elaboration, of springing forth, but, in fact, it comes from a particular grace that God gives to his Church to make the Pastor pass from the implicitness of faith to its explicitness. But this implicitness has always existed since Pentecost. For us, it is a matter of rediscovering the unity of theology by going back from dogma to experience to profound spiritual reality, to the very life of God. It is therefore a living and active dogmatics that Saint John of the Cross proposes to us [42].
the most oriental of the Latins
Saint John of the Cross can be considered the most Eastern of the Latins. Indeed, when it comes to the theology of grace, he does not use Latin expressions and mental forms. Saint John of the Cross does not use the expression “grace” as a Latin would. The term is not absent, but it does not have a Latin valence. It is mainly the terms: the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, contemplation, knowledge, the loving notice, the Ray of darkness (he cites Dionysius), etc. that take their place. In this, he is closer to the East!! There is no theology of “grace”!!! The explicit influence of Dionysius and the implicit influence of Gregory of Nyssa are present. Certainly, he takes the best of Saint Thomas Aquinas; but we must not forget that the latter commented on Dionysius, who constitutes one of his main sources.
Moreover, he uses the literary genre of poetry to express the action of God in the soul and this is more Eastern than Western.
the Holy Spirit as the inspirer of Saint John of the Cross
It should be noted that in his writings, especially in his poems, there is an “inspiration.” God inspires his poems, the commentary on his poems, etc. They are composed in “abundance of the fruitful spirit of love” (SC Prol, 1), just as Scripture is also inspired. For example, for The Living Flame, three levels of inspiration are distinguished. The light under which he places himself to write has at least three levels:
| At the beginning of the work, in the Prologue: | Then from the third stanza he asks for God’s assistance: | And towards the end of the work, in the last lines of the fourth stanza he says: |
| “Our Lord has revealed to me a little knowledge of it” (a strong inner spirit) (Cf. Prol.). | “May God grant us his grace here.” | “I wouldn’t want to say it.” |
| Verses I and II | Stanzas III and IV verses 1, 2 and 3 | Verse IV lines 4, 5 and 6. |
| because “the things of the spirit are above the senses” (Cf. Prol.). | because this verse is very “deep” | It cannot be said: “this is beyond what any language could say or any sense imagine.” |
We must consider with great seriousness this remark of the Saint in verse III of the Living Flame:
“May God assist us here with his grace, because without doubt we have great need of it to declare the profound meaning of profundity of this stanza; and whoever reads it will need to be attentive, because if he has no experience, it will perhaps seem a little obscure and long-winded.” (LF III,1)
Already, to comment on the two previous stanzas, the Saint had to wait for God’s help!
“I have had some difficulty, most noble and devout Lady, in declaring these four verses that you asked me, because they are such interior things . and spiritual spiritual that for their declaration all sorts of language are ordinarily short and defective – since things of the spirit lo espiritual are beyond meaning and it is difficult to say anything about their substance . – and also because no one can speak, except inappropriately, from within the spirit las entranas of the spirit, if not with a strong inner trainable spirit espiritu, and seeing what little was in me, I delayed until now! But now that it seems that Our Lord has somewhat revealed to me the knowledge abierto la noticia, and has given me some ardour […]. I have encouraged myself, knowing for sure that as far as my part is concerned I could not say anything appropriate on any subject whatsoever, how much less in things so high and substantial.” (LF Prol,1)
It was necessary to quote this passage in its entirety to see all the nuances. This alone would merit a commentary and would teach us the exact attitude – religious and respectful – that we should have towards this work .
At the beginning of verse III of The Living Flame, he feels even more the need to resort to God’s help. As for us, readers, we need extra attention. We simply need to pray. Faced with works composed in prayer or on our knees, humility and the light from above (the gift of intelligence) are very necessary for us to read and understand them. The Saint himself will say that for verse III, “this communication” and “this showing that God makes of himself to the soul” is, in his opinion, “the greatest that he can do to it in this life“! (Cf. LF III,3)
The one who speaks in Scripture
For Saint John of the Cross it is quite clear that in Holy Scripture, it is the Holy Spirit who speaks [43]. Very often when quoting a passage from the Bible he expresses himself thus: “the Holy Spirit says ….”[44]. In his prologues, we see his faith in the Holy Spirit who speaks in the Bible. Certainly it is the Church which has the last word in the interpretation of Scripture but that does not prevent it from reading it in the Spirit and finding hidden meanings there. The quality of his act of faith in Scripture as the word of God cannot be said enough. It would deserve a study[45]. He relies on Scripture, on the light of the Holy Spirit which comes to him from Scripture to answer the most obscure questions!!! His assiduous reading of the Bible is legendary. What he seeks there is the voice of the Spirit. It is he who inspired it, period. We would gain much by learning this purity of faith by reading Scripture instead of stopping at the surface and wasting an excessive amount of time there.
“[…] to deal with something of this dark night, I will not trust in experience or in science, because both can deceive me and can fail me, but – not failing to help myself with these two things, in what way possible – I will use, for everything that, with divine favor, I have to say (at least for the most important and obscure to understand), divine Scripture, which, taking as its guide, we cannot err, since the one who speaks in it is the Holy Spirit. And if I fall into error in something, for want of understanding well what I will say according to it as without it, it is not my intention to move away from good sense and the doctrine of the holy Mother the Catholic Church. For in such a case I submit myself entirely not only to its command, but to every better advice and sounder judgment.” (MC Prol, 2)
the saint of the Holy Spirit par excellence
We can without any hesitation call Saint John of the Cross, the saint of the Holy Spirit par excellence. Indeed Saint Therese of the Child Jesus called him “the saint of love par excellence” [46]and the Holy Spirit and Love are one and the same thing. In fact the poem of the Living Flame is the most beautiful hymn to the Holy Spirit. And as we have seen, to speak of the Holy Spirit in Saint John of the Cross is to a large extent to evoke all his work!!! Moreover we can affirm without any exaggeration that his works are the best description of the work of the Holy Spirit in the human being from the beginning of conversion to the heights of the life of union[47].
9- Conclusion
“flaming”, end of the whole divine economy
As we can clearly see, the entire work of Saint John of the Cross tends towards the realisation of the blazes which are a pure act. Everything that precedes is ordered to this end: to participate in the life of God, to do with God what he has done from all eternity. This is what he will say at the Ascent of Mount Carmel when speaking of the action of God who uses “palpable” means to give himself to the soul:
“It is not that God would not have been willing to give him immediately the wisdom of the Spirit, from the first act, if the two extremes, which are the human and the divine, the sense and the spirit, could agree in the ordinary way and be joined by a single act [48], without the first intervention of numerous acts of disposition which agree with each other with order and sweetness, some serving as a foundation and disposition for the others” (MC II,17,4)
Let us note the way in which the Saint describes the goal that we pursue in the spiritual life: “To join (to unite) in the same act.” It is this act, accomplished jointly by the soul and by the Spirit of God, which is the goal of the spiritual life. All the other acts that God accomplishes by his Spirit in the soul are rather “acts of disposition,” “particular acts”!!! They are of God, of his Spirit, but they are not realised in the “actual substance of the [human] spirit.” This teaching is in accordance with what he will say elsewhere and particularly in the Living Flame [49].
It is only when the soul is well disposed that the action of God will make it perform these perfect acts[50]. We can then say that “the act of love enters in a moment, because the spark catches fire at every turn in the wick which is dry.” It can therefore “perform in a short time much more numerous and more vehement acts than the soul which is not disposed could perform in a long time” (Ibid.)[51].
To conclude this point, we could take up a remark of the Saint: “It would rather be a great lack of love not to ask for entry into this perfection and this accomplishment of love”[52] (Cf. LF I,28).
key lines emerge, they open up several horizons for us
– What the Saint tells us about the blazes sheds a profound light on the essence of Scripture. ” God is love, ” St. John tells us. We understand this affirmation better and what it wants to tell us about the life of God. But it is above all the first commandment that is as if renewed from within: ” You shall love your God… “. To love now has a new meaning; it is as if God were asking us to participate in his life of love and to do with him what he has done from all eternity.
– The description we have of the soul and its actions can greatly help Christology and Mariology [53]. In fact, each of these disciplines has the task of studying Christ and Mary respectively. Indirectly, the teaching of the Saint sheds a whole new light on the soul of Christ as well as that of Mary. Consequently, we can better understand what was happening in them during their earthly life and thus avoid falling into some of today’s minimalisms.
– On the other hand, this fire of the Holy Spirit also evokes a sacrificial dimension [54]: the entire Old Testament liturgy was based on a sacrifice that was burned to worship God [55]. This was fulfilled with Christ. We thus perceive the very heart of worship. It is these acts, which participate in the eternal worship of the intra-Trinitarian Life, which reveal to us the root of all liturgy. We could thus approach other areas of theology and see their repercussions.
To conclude, it would be good to remember a point of capital importance, which thus gives all its meaning and its “usefulness” to the message of Saint John of the Cross: “the value of these acts.” By studying it, we can grasp, with ever greater force and clarity, the reality of these acts; we thus understand both the beauty and the gravity of what is at stake. These acts are of enormous weight for the work of Salvation. Certainly, this does not constitute their principal element, which is to enjoy God. But, consequently, they concern the Salvation of humanity. It is therefore desirable that all those who, in the field of research, are concerned with the apostolate and the mission, take this teaching into account, both in theory and in practice. This would save us a lot of waste of time and energy, as well as surprises!
Finally, we let the Saint speak:
“O great glory of you, souls who deserve to reach this sovereign fire, which, since it has infinite power to consume and annihilate you, it is certain that, not consuming you, it consumes you immensely in glory!” (LF II,5)
Jean KHOURY
[1]Emphasis added.
[2]“Paraphrase of Simeon the Metaphrast in 150 chapters, on the speeches of Saint Macarius the Egyptian”, §2, in, “Philokalia of the Neptic Fathers , Macarius the Egyptian and Simeon the New Theologian”, Collection “Philokalia of the Neptic Fathers “Abbaye de Bellefontaine” n° 5 (Cholet), 1984, p.17.
[3]Emphasis added.
[4]Tomas Spidlik , “The Great Russian Mystics”, Paris, 1979, pp. 191-2. As for Anthony the Great, we can read what he says about the Holy Spirit in his letter no. 8 in: Father Matta El- Maskine , “Saint Anthony ascetic according to the Gospel”, Coll. Spiritualité Orientale, no. 57, Abbaye Bellefontaine, 1993. pp. 122-4.
[5]As for his writings, we cite them according to the received Spanish numbering. For the acronyms: Ascent of Mount Carmel: MC; Dark Night: NO; Spiritual Canticle (A or B): SCA or SCB; Living Flame of Love B: LF. For MC and DN we give in Roman the book then the chapter and finally the paragraph. For the SC and the LF we give the stanza then the paragraph. We generally use the SCA. For the translation into French, we generally follow the translation of Father Cyprien of the Nativity revised by Father Lucien-Marie de saint Joseph: John of the Cross, Complete Works. Translated from Spanish by Father Cyprien of the Nativity of the Virgin, European Library, Paris, 1967. Sometimes we deviate from the text to follow the Spanish more closely. For the SCA quotations, it must be remembered that stanza 11, which Cyprian introduces, does not originally appear in the SCA. For the following stanzas, there will therefore be, in this translation, a shift of one stanza. For example, if we indicate: SCA 27.3, we must find paragraph 3 of stanza 28 in Cyprian.
[6]Life of Saint Teresa of Jesus written by herself: 14,6.
[7]As for meditation in Saint John of the Cross, see: Louis Guillet, “See what love God gives us”, Paris, 1978, p. 41ss.
[8]See Louis Guillet, “See what love God gives us”, Paris, 1978, p. 41ss.
[9]The entry into contemplation itself holds his attention cf. MC II,13 to 15; DN I,8 to 10 ; LF III,3.
[10]Cf. LF III,42. His hand is the Holy Spirit.
[11]The Ascent of Mount Carmel was composed between 1581 and 1585. The Dark Night around 1584-5.
[12]Here we see better the difference between the system of faith and that of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We understand the error of Thomas of Jesus and of Neo-Thomism which explained infused, supernatural contemplation as well as the divine modality of God’s action by the action of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We see how gross this is.
[13]Here “God teaches the soul supernaturally and secretly and raises it in virtues and gifts without it knowing the manner ” (MC II,29,7).
[14]Here we encounter an interesting expression that allows us to better understand what contemplation is. True contemplation communicates the Word of God himself.
[15]A passage from John of St. Thomas op (1589-1644) also goes in the same direction:
“[The gifts of intelligence and Wisdom] do not have as their subject matter God himself immediately in themselves , but God insofar as he is experienced and connaturalised, and united with us in something created , namely love itself, and the experimental union of charity. This is why knowledge through the gifts is affective and mystical, not quidditative , not intuitive of the thing in itself. Whereas the theological virtue has for its object God in himself, immediately , and not by reason of something created which is formally attained” (Jean de S. Thomas, “Les cadeaux du Saint Esprit”, trans. Raïssa Maritain, Paris, 1950, p. 92)
[16]Cf. also chapters 16 and 17 of Book II of the Ascent of Carmel where he deals with this.
[17]This shows us the discernment to be made in the face of certain contemporary manifestations of the Holy Spirit (for example in the charismatic renewal). As for manifestations in the soul, “the principal doctrine is to pay no attention to them” (MC II,30,6). A final sentence!!! But he is more nuanced, more precise in chapter 13: in the face of visions, words, feelings or revelations that the Spirit of love gives to the soul; we must “take care to have the love of God that they cause interiorly in the soul” (MC III,13,6) we must pay attention “only to the feelings of love sentimientos de amor that they give” (ibid.)!! He even says that we can remember them, precisely to rediscover these feelings and that it is a grace that God leaves in the soul the memory of graces received.
[18]He refers to the Summa Theologica IIa-IIae , q. 45 a.2 in c and q. 180 a.1.
[19]Emphasis added.
[20]Song of Solomon 2.4: “introduxit me in cellam vinariam ordinavit in me caritatem”.
[21]She said on July 27, 1897: “With what desire and consolation I have repeated to myself from the beginning of my religious life these other words of Our Lady of the Cross” and she quotes the passage from Saint John of the Cross. Cf. Complete Works of Thérèse of Lisieux, Paris, 1992, p. 1060.
[22]Love always comes from contemplation, and in the same proportion as it. In fact, one cannot participate in the Generation of the Word more than in the aspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Saint will address this question more than once: MC II,12,2; SCA 17,6 ; SCA 36,4.5 and 7; LF III,4; LF IV,17. It is especially in SCA 17,6 that he will respond to a major objection.
[23]At the time of purification there were “wounds of love” (cf. Verse 1 verse 4).
[24]We see how the quotes from Saint Paul come to his aid.
[25]We can consult the chapter: “Love with the taste of faith” in the book by Father Louis Guillet ocd (in French): “Lord, increase faith in us”, Quebec, 1994, pp. 285-299, which studies this question. And, by the same author, the book: Gethsemane, Ste Thérèse: l’amour crucifié, Paris, 1980, which shows how, in the case of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the human being can be united with God but at the same time live through great trials which are a participation in the Redemption.
[26]The soul manages to “elevate itself and become more substantial in love” (LF Prol,3).
[27]In the Prologue of the Living Flame he will say “with time and through practice” (LF Prol,3).
[28]We know the story of the composition of these stanzas. It was in Beas , in Andalusia, where one day the Saint asked a Carmelite nun – Sister Frances of the Mother of God – what she was doing in prayer. She replied that she admired the beauty of God and was glad that he had it. And the Saint was so happy with this answer that for several days he said very lofty and admirable things about the beauty of God. And it was carried by this love that he then composed these five stanzas. (Cf. the Introduction to the Spiritual Canticle of Father Lucien-Marie de S. Joseph § I, In, “The Spiritual Works of Blessed Father John of the Cross”, Paris, 1967)
[29]To avoid falling into a bad quietism, let us remember these words of the Saint: “Oh! If men understood well that one cannot reach the depth of wisdom and the riches of God, except by entering into the depth of sufferings in many ways – the soul putting its consolation and its desire there” (SCA 35,9) etc.
[30]Emphasis added.
[31]We must point out that this fire (God) that assails the log (the soul) has already been mentioned by the Saint in Dark Night II,10. In fact, it is “the same fire of love” that first purifies and then “unites itself to the soul, glorifying it” (Cf. LF I,19). Thanks to this kind of inclusion (the fire, present at the beginning and at the end of the journey) the Saint gives us a unified vision of all his work. “It is therefore necessary to know that before this fire of love enters the substance of the soul and unites itself to it through a complete and perfect purification and purity, this flame, which is the Holy Spirit, goes beating the soul, consuming and annihilating the imperfections of its bad habits.” (LF I,19)
[32]“To throw sparks” and “to blaze.” The Saint uses the verb llamear . Llamear is to throw flames, it is this action that we can observe in a flame. Not only is there a flame but it throws flames, it blazes in a sort of play, upwards. This is, certainly, an image that the Saint uses, but it seems quite close to reality.
[33]We also have this quote: “What we say about her [the soul], concerning the operation that the Holy Spirit does in her, is much more than what happens in the communication and transformation of love. […] That is why these two different ways of union – namely: the simple union of love and the union with inflammation of love […]. […] And without doubt this soul has not arrived at as much perfection as that one [eternal life], however, in comparison with the other common union, it is like a burning oven with a more peaceful, glorious and tender vision that the flame is more clear and resplendent, like the fire in the coals.” (LF I,16)
[34]He will speak of the coming of the Holy Spirit as fire. He does not say, as the text of the Acts of the Apostles says: “tongues as of fire” (cf. Acts 2:3) but, in a simple and concise expression which is disconcerting, he says: “this fire” (LF II:3).
[35]“The soul is now all cauterised by the fire of love.” (LF I,8)
[36]Thérèse of the Child Jesus said: “O Jesus, I know that love is only repaid with love , so I have sought, I have found the way to relieve my heart by returning Love for Love to you.” (Manuscript B 4r°) Does not the Saint say that the action of these blazes pays off every debt (Cf. LF II v.5).
[37]See SCA9.6.
[38]Emphasis added.
[39]Cf. Summa Theologica IIIa q.48 a.1.
[40]“The ancient Church often speaks of the Spirit, where one might have expected, relying on the theological doctrine of the unity of divine action ad extra , to see only the name of God mentioned.” Dictionary of Spirituality article “Holy Spirit”, Volume IV coll. 1271.
[41]“It is generally agreed that the Greek Fathers present the Holy Spirit as the principal and true author of our sanctification, and speak of personal union, of substantial communication, whereas Latin scholasticism more readily envisages grace, supernatural habitus, created gift.” Dictionary of Spirituality article “Holy Spirit”, Volume IV coll. 1258.
[42]In this regard, we could reread the interesting pages that Father Marie-Eugène wrote about the relationship between dogma and mysticism, or more particularly contemplation: Part Three, Chapter IX: Theology and Supernatural Contemplation, in I Want to See God, Ed. Carmel, 1979(3), pp.433-454. Elsewhere he also speaks about it: Part Five, Chapter VII B: Spiritual Marriage (The Imaginary Vision and Intellectual Vision of the Holy Trinity) , in ibid., pp. 967-988. The article by Father-Mr. Emonet, Journet, Mystic and Theologian, (Carmel 1994/4-n°74, pp. 11-19) also addresses the same problem in the work of Cardinal Journet. In several passages of the Living Flame, the boundary between a simple dogmatic development and a description of a contemplated thing is tenuous. For example, at the end of stanza III the Saint draws heavily on a pamphlet long attributed to St. Thomas, the “De beatitudine”. And despite the obvious traces of the pamphlet, his words do not lose their inspiration! For a more general study on the relationship between the language of spirituals and that of theologians cf. RP CONGAR op, Language of spirituals and language of theologians , in, La mystique rhénane, Colloquium of Strasbourg 16-19 May 1961 , Paris, 1963, pp. 15-38.
[43]MC Prol,2.
[44]There are many quotes: MC II,16,8; II,16,9; II,17,1; II,22,2; III,19,3; III,45,3; DNII,9,5; SCB 14-15,27; SCB 24,3 etc.
[45]Cf. The second part of Father Louis Guillet’s book, “Lord increase our faith”, Quebec (ed. Anne Sigier ), 1994, especially chapter 6.
[46]Vie Thérésienne, no. 77, p. 50.
[47]This is what Saint Therese of the Child Jesus understood when, reading it at the age of 17, she asked God to accomplish in her all that it described. The Holy Spirit, the fire of Love will be the heart of the last stage of Therese’s life; one only has to read her last writings to be convinced of this (end of Manuscript A, the Act of Offering, Manuscript B, end of Manuscript C and the poems). She will offer herself to him. It is the Spirit of her Spouse.
[48]Emphasis added.
[49]“The soul that is already disposed can perform in a short time many more and more vehement acts than the soul that is not disposed could perform in a long time. […] For the one that is not disposed, everything goes to disposing the mind. […] In the disposed soul, the act of love enters in a moment, because the spark catches fire at every blow in the wick that is dry.” (LF I,33) Regarding disposing the soul, read, LF III,25-26 where it speaks of the visits and gifts that God makes to the soul for this purpose. “And in this,” he says, “God uses more time for the one and less for the other, because he governs himself according to the mode of the soul.” Time is a function of the “mode of the soul,” of its way of acting, of its way of harmonising its action with that of God. Therefore, the desire for God in the soul, which “is a disposition to unite with” Him, increases. We have the same teaching in MC II,17,4-5.
[50]Note that Saint Therese of the Child Jesus says in her Act of Offering: “In order to live in an act of perfect Love” (Prayers 6) (emphasis added).
[51]And according to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus: Nor can we neglect the decisive step of the Offering to Merciful Love. It certainly did much to set little Thérèse’s soul ablase and it constitutes, in itself, an additional and new aspect of achieving this. The Offering to Love aims to make her “live in an act of perfect Love.” One could say: to make live in constant blazes (we find similar terms in the Saint: actos perfectos de amor (LF I,33), actos , actos de amor , los actos son la LLama (LF I,1.3 and 4; III,8), acto de dileccion (LF III,8); she could have been inspired by them).
We cannot therefore fail to note the contribution of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus to this question. It is both new and “revolutionary”. Indeed, on June 9, 1895, she received “the grace to understand more than ever how much Jesus desires to be loved” (Manuscript A 84r°): she then offered herself to the fire of love and, on June 11, when she formulated this grace, she clearly highlighted her weakness. She had, until that day, certainly done everything possible to love the Lord, to practice love – we have just seen this in her and in the Saint. But now, she recognised that all this included stains: “I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works . All our righteousnesses have stains in your eyes” (Act of Offering). So she asked the Lord to be his holiness himself.
She therefore radically changes her perspective. It is no longer something to be conquered through exercise (although it took some practice beforehand to “dispose” her!) but to be received through humility and “blind hope.” It is enough to offer oneself to the fire of love and let it act: the soul catches fire. It is this fire that is both its effort and its reward.
Certainly, she does not ask anything of her sister to accomplish this gesture of offering, she does not ask her for years of exercises of love! But did the Offering to Love have the same effects on her sister as on her? She, according to the terminology of the Saint, was “disposed” – that is why the fire took hold. But was her sister ? In this sense we could say that this fire of love “ignites and absorbs each one, some more, others less, according as it finds them disposed” (LF II,2).
She will concentrate her desire to “make the Good Lord loved” – this is her mission – by many little souls who resemble her in this prayer: “I beg you [O Jesus] to lower your divine gaze [by casting this fire] on a great number of little souls …I beg you to choose a legion of little victims worthy of your LOVE [because they are “weak” and “small”, “without desires or virtues”]” (Manuscript B 5v°).
[52]Certainly, what he is aiming at here is the sky, but one can, without betraying his thought, also apply these words to this penultimate stage which is the blaze.
[53]Saint John of the Cross speaks of the Virgin Mary in stanza III (Cf. LF III,12ss).
[54]MH de Longchamp noted it Cf. MH de LONGCHAMP, Saint Jean de la Croix, to read the Mystical Doctor, Paris, 1991, pp. 191-192.
[55]In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author clearly shows the difference between the old and the new worship. He points out that Moses built the Tent on his heavenly model (see Hebrews 8:5 and Exodus 25:40). This worship is therefore an image of the heavenly liturgy.