December 14 2021 - St. John of the Cross - "O night more loving than the rising sun"

 In the course of the Christian life, there are times when the brightness of God’s closeness sustains us and strengthens us—when it is easy to pray and a delight to pray—when God’s will is relatively easy to discern and follow, when God’s presence is unobscured by our anxieties. But there are also times in the spiritual life—in the Christian life—of inevitable dryness, where the God seems far away, distant, even absent.  

Today’s Saint St. John of the Cross understood darkness. After joining the Carmelites, it became clear that many of his brother monks were not all that interested in prayer, penance, and spiritual growth. They became so annoyed with John that they imprisoned him in a tiny cell.

John took advantage of the darkness and the quiet and the solitude of imprisonment to seek Christ, and composed some of the most beautiful mystical poetry in history. 

And though I suffer darknesses
in this mortal life,
that is not so hard a thing;
for even if I have no light
I have the life of heaven.
For the blinder love is
the more it gives such life,
holding the soul surrendered,
living without light in darkness.

For when once the will
is touched by God himself,
it cannot find contentment
except in the Divinity;
but since his Beauty is open
to faith alone, the will
tastes him…which is so gladly found.

What a wonderful saint to honor and imitate during Advent. For during Advent when practice a sort of spiritual solidarity with Ancient Israel, waiting and longing for Christ in the darkness. For centuries, many thought that God had abandoned his people. The faithful remnant, kept the hope allowed, continued to pray and meditate on the Scriptures and the promises of the Messiah.

St. John of the Cross helps us to look for God in our own experience of darkness and isolation. When God seems distant, when hardships grow great, when the brokenness of the world seems beyond repair, when so many seem to be falling away from the Church, instead of losing hope, we must recommit to seeking God in the darkness. God in fact allows us to undergo spiritual darkness, spiritual trial, that our faith, hope, and love may be grow. 

For spiritual night can lead to an ever deeper experience of God; as John of the Cross wrote, “O night, that was more loving than the rising sun, o night, which joined the lover, to the beloved one” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That through self-denial and embrace of the cross the Christian people may experience ever-deeper union with Christ this Advent.

For the members of the Carmelite Order, that their life of prayer and penance will be for the Church a source of renewal and strength.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and a strengthening of all marriages in holiness.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel. And in a special way we pray for all victims of natural disaster and adverse weather, especially the victims of the recent tornados in our country.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

December 14 2020 - St. John of the Cross - The Secret Stairway to God

 

St. John of the Cross was born in Spain in 1542 and became a Carmelite friar at the age of 21 and ordained at 25.  He was thoroughly trained in theology especially the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas.  John dedicated himself to reforming his religious order which had grown lax in its observance of Gospel simplicity.  He was met with misunderstanding and opposition—a group of his Carmelite brothers imprisoned him in a small, stifling room, six feet by ten feet, letting him out only to make him kneel in the refectory during meals, where he would be subjected to beatings by his brothers.  

Yet, while holed up in his tiny prison cell, John began to compose verses of poetry in his mind, for he had neither pen nor paper.  And these poems constitute not only some of the gems of Spanish literature but some of the most eloquent articulations of the Catholic spiritual tradition— expressing in his prison- the ecstasy of mystical union with God.

While in this experience of captivity, John came to understand that the things of the world, of which he was deprived, are in the end, inadequate for the soul’s deepest longing for union with God.  

Like St. Augustine, John of the Cross understood that the human soul, like a great cavern, is infinitely deep—and can only be satisfied by the infinite one. And we are restlessly dissatisfied in this world when we seek to fill the infinitely deep cavern of our souls merely with the finite goods and pleasures of the world. 

His captivity, was not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, he came to discover it as a blessing, because it helped him to focus his life, like a beam of light being focused into a laser, to pursue and experience God. With the clutter of the world of things removed from his life, his soul was drawn to God like a magnet. In fact, he called, this way of deprivation of things and distractions from his life, "the secret stairway" or "secret ladder" to God.

What a wonderful Advent Saint. For all Christians, like John, are meant to make good use of the Advent season, by removing the clutter of worldliness in order to pursue Christ in prayer and good works. For some of us, it’s difficult at first, turning away from the worldly habits, but when we do in fact, willingly enter into the silence, we find our soul freely running toward God, being drawn by God into union. “in the dark night of the soul”, he write, “bright flows the river of God”. 

Through the example and heavenly intercession of St. John of the Cross, as we await the Advent of Christ, may we be stripped of all that keeps us from the union and sanctification God desires for each one of us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

 

We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That through self-denial and embrace of the cross the Christian people may experience ever-deeper union with Christ and a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel.

For the members of the Carmelite Order, that their life of prayer and penance will be for the Church a source of renewal and strength.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and a strengthening of all marriages in holiness.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

December 14 2018 - St. John of the Cross - Advent self-denial

John was a reformer, mystic poet, and theologian priest. He was ordained a Carmelite priest in 1567 at the age of 25. John noticed that his brother Carmelites had strayed from the primitive Carmelite rule, which stressed poverty, austerity, and discipline. And so he resolved to bring reform to his order, calling his community back to its original intent. His efforts however were met with increasing opposition, misunderstanding, persecution, and eventually imprisonment. His own religious brothers imprisoned him within the monastery in a cell 10 foot by 6 foot, barely big enough for his own body. He was also regularly flogged in front of his community.

There, in the darkness, John prayed, uniting his own suffering with that of our savior. He would spend his hours reciting scripture and composing poetry for God. Though he suffered physically, his interior life began to bloom, and he laid the foundation what would become some of the most beautiful mystical poetry in our Church’s tradition, his books and poems with titles like “The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night of the Soul, the Spiritual Canticle, and the Living Flame of Love.”

His poems contain timeless lessons for discipleship, and highlight the great Gospel paradox: the cross leads to resurrection, agony to ecstasy, darkness to light, abandonment to possession, denial of self to union with God.

During the last years of his life, after escaping imprisonment, John traveled throughout Spain, establishing new houses of prayer, many which endure to this day.

Another wonderful Advent saint. Who teaches us to practice penance, prayer, solitude and reflection, as the way to perfection, to open our hearts to the joy, communion, light, and peace God desires for each of us.

We are challenged by the mystics to examine our prayer lives.  Do we willingly go into the dark cell to encounter God? Do we put away all attachments that we may come to possess Him? Do we embrace the cross or shy away from it?  For as John writes in his Spiritual Canticle: “the gate that gives entrance to the riches of God’s wisdom is the cross.”

May this Advent help us to love the cross and thereby come to love and imitate more closely the One who suffered and died upon it out of love for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.
That through self-denial and embrace of the cross the Christian people may experience ever-deeper union with Christ and a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel.

For the members of the Carmelite Order, that their life of prayer and penance will be for the Church a source of renewal and strength.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and a strengthening of all marriages in holiness.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

December 14 2017 - St. John of the Cross - Lessons from Prison

For attempting to reform his Religious Order, the Carmelites, St. John of the Cross was imprisoned, nearly starved, and publicly flogged by his own religious brothers. They opposed John’s determination to observe the primitive Carmelite rule which emphasized austerity, poverty, and discipline.

It was in prison that John came to know the cross acutely, for there he learned to unite his suffering with the suffering and death of Jesus, as he sat month after month in his dark narrow cell.

His sufferings did not diminish his desire for holiness, rather, his desire for union with God increased. He passed the time reflecting on the Scriptures which he had memorized and composing poetry. In the darkness of the prison, he bloomed into a great mystical poet and theologian.

He authored books and poems titled The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night of the Soul, the Spiritual Canticle, and The Living Flame of Love. 

Of the thirty-six Doctors of the Church, John of the Cross is known as “the Mystical Doctor” for his writings on the mystical union with God the soul achieves through purification and purgation of its selfishness in this life through suffering and penance.

In his Ascent of Mount Carmel, John teaches, evidently from his own experience, that the soul must empty itself of itself, of selfishness, of ego-centrism. The source of our unhappiness in this life isn’t suffering, necessarily. Rather it’s selfishness.

We are restlessly dissatisfied because we seek to fill the infinitely deep caverns of our souls with the petty goods of the finite world: pleasure, sex, power, and prestige.  This drive to fill our hearts with the finite only leads to deeper dissatisfaction.

Yet, when we turn our hearts over to the infinite, to God, our deepest yearnings are met.  The spiritual life, therefore, consists of letting go of false aspirations, ideas, and attachments, and rightly ordering our desires: putting God first, and everything else second and only for the sake of God.

John is an excellent saint for Advent. He teaches us that the best way to prepare for Christ is through the renunciation of selfishness. We prepare best for Christ’s coming into our life through seeking to be free from all that keeps us from knowing, loving, and serving God. By undergoing this purification we become ready to receive the one we are destined to receive, Jesus Christ, whom we wait for, and prepare for, and long for, and hope for, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.
That through self-denial and embrace of the cross the Christian people may experience ever-deeper union with Christ and a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel.

For the members of the Carmelite Order, that their life of prayer and penance will be for the Church a source of renewal and strength.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and a strengthening of all marriages in holiness.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.