. “Bonaventure, The Soul’s Journey to God,” translated by Professor Ewert Cousins (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1978), page 113. John of the Cross, “The Ascent of Mount Carmel,” Second Dwelling Place, Chapter 4, paragraph 3. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. LINE 4. which were once in spiritual darkness and blinded by desires and affections –. In a similar vein, John discusses temptation as a schoolmaster allowed by God to strengthen the believer on the path of love. Stanza 1. Now that the caverns of the faculties are pervaded with the lamps that are burning within them, they give to God the very splendors they have received from him. A drawing of the faculties gently inward. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. (Note 4), Finally, the soul sits in stillness, enjoying the Trinitarian fire deep within it. Through this purgative experi­ence, God mediates and heals us of our many infirmities. Now there is a living flame of love from God that burns within the soul. For such people, their own death is gentle and sweet, filled with divine impulses of love. They should trust that “in all things God works for the good” (see Romans 8:28). O delicate touch that tastes of eternal life and pays every debt! “Isn’t my word like fire?” says the LORD; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”, LINE 2. that floods my soul with tender wounds of loving delight. O … [Back to the text], Note 3. After the soul has passed through the darkness of the Active Night and the Passive Night, it has, in a real sense, “arrived.” It has arrived at a remark­able union with the Most High God. Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. in whose spendours. But the silence is doing far more for us than what is possible by meditation. The soul has a certitude that it was in God and God was in it. Prayer of Quiet / Initial Contemplation: A deeper form of infused recollection, in which the will finds rest but the intellect continues to move. LINE 2. delightful stab that blazes me into an intense fire of love! The devil can lead the soul astray by moving it back to meditative prayer or to the desire for feelings in prayer. how tenderly you swell my heart with love. We longs to hear our divine lover call us to it. We can discredit the stillness of contemplative prayer as unproductive and then regress back to meditative prayer. Help me reach the world for the Lord Jesus Christ. The third phase of the spiritual life is the UNITIVE phase. It seems to it that the entire universe is a sea of love in which it is engulfed. Like the Prayer of Quiet, but the faculties become completely silent (“suspended”). “Sitting Still.” New York: Paulist Press, 1994, John of the Cross, “The Ascent of Mount Carmel.” In “The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross.” Washington, D.C., Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1991, John of the Cross, “The Dark Night.” In “The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross.” Washington, D.C., Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1991, John of the Cross, “The Living Flame of Love.” In “The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross.” Washington, D.C., Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1991, Griffin, Emilie, editor, and Farrington, Tim, translator. (Note 2). There is a peace and calm and inward absorption. Rather, the activity of the senses must be left behind. My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD. Those cor­respond to three phases of growth in prayer that we see in John of the Cross: pur­gative, illuminative and unitive. It heats us up so much that we ourselves shoot forth a living flame. We’ve been looking at “final” phase of the spiritual life, the unitive phase. An increase of the betrothal that culminates in an intellectual vision of the Most Holy Trinity. Rather, they should proceed only with a loving attention to God. In com­parison to what we had experienced be­fore, namely, trials, discomforts, fears, temptations, aridities, af­flictions, tribulations, darknesses, dis­tresses and abandonments, we now feel that we have received “a hundred times more” (see Matthew 19:29b). The movement was set into motion through a relationship that Our Lord and Our Lady enkindled with a humble Hungarian mother of six, Elizabeth Szanto Kindelmann, who suffered tremendously for souls. The first phase was the purgative phase, which John addressed in “The Ascent of Mount Carmel.” The second phase was the illuminative phase, covered in “The Dark Night.”. [Back to the text]. He calls them “wounds” because they are made by a fire that touches us within. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Since you were acceptable to God, he favored you by sending you temptation that he might try you more in order to exalt you more. This state can be recognized in that it always comes to pass with a certain peace and calm and inward absorption. John asks, Who can express how elevated this happy soul feels here, how exalted, how much admired in holy beauty. [Back to the text], Note 12. John reinforces that we should not go back to medita­tion at any time. Song of Songs 2:10. God’s light and our own light have be­come as one, in the same sense that a burning twig set into a huge bonfire begin to burn as one flame. This soul is so near to God that it is transformed in the flames of love, wherein Father, Son and Holy Spirit communicate Themselves to it. s Precious in the LORD’s sight is the death of his holy ones. They are in the Public Domain. LINE 5. now consummate our spiritual marriage with total union, if it be your will: Having mused on the ways that the Holy Spirit worked in his life in the past, John of the Cross now shifts to the future. Likewise, when God moves and awakens us, it seems that it was God who moved and awakened. “The Story of a Soul.” Translated by John Beevers. Pseudo-Dionysius divided the spiritual life into three phases, which he gave the unlikely names of beginners, proficients and perfect. The first blind guide is the spiritual director. Borst, James, M.H.M., “Contemplative Prayer.” Liguori, Missouri: Liguori Publi­cations, 1979, Ewert Cousins, trans. LINE 1. The second blind guide is the devil. The Living Flame of Love is all about the third phase, the unitive phase. We become like the air combusted in a flame. Infused Recollection: A passive experience of recollection. O burning lamps shining forth God’s many attributes! Yet this experi­ence will not come to those who seek it by means of their own senses. We’ve needed to synthesize our own definitions: Contemplation: A deep love communion with the Triune God. P.4.(3). O gentle hand! This is what “The Living Flame of Love” is all about. %PDF-1.5 REFLECT: Meditate/Journal for a few minutes on each of the following: “The words of wisdom are heard in silence.” “God cannot be grasped by the senses.” “It is in the soul in … Ibid., paragraph 16. It’s the topic of John’s book, “The Dark Night.” It describes the middle of the spiritual journey. Let’s pray to be consumed by the love of Jesus Christ and ablaze with love for him. there flow seas of loving fire within it, reaching to the heights and depths of the earthly and heavenly spheres . Lamentations 3:6. John sees meditation as “necessary for most beginners, even if it is only a remote means for union with God.” (Note 1). The flame flickers and flares together with the enkindled air. The goal of this journey is, of course, union with God. O lamps of fire! O living flame of love that tenderly wounds my soul in its deepest center! endobj “Fire Within.” San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989, Hart Clifford, Patricia. [Back to the text], Note 10. In this third stanza he invites us to descend into deep caverns and explore them with lamps of fire. They are like happy festivals and games that the Holy Spirit plays together with us. the deep caverns of feeling, once … 1 Corinthians 2:14. %���� John 16:33. endobj Those who practice Meditative Prayer are called BEGINNERS. Now, a new intellect, memory and will re­side there. John’s comments on Stanza Four are just seven pages long. <> Also called ecstatic union or absorption. stream We are being anointed with the most sublime unctions of the Holy Spirit. My heart trem­bled within me, and I grew faint when he spoke. St. Paul puts it this way: Galatians 2:20. (Note 11). In a burn wound caused by a material fire, it must be cured by first aid and medicines. 1 0 obj We can draw comfort from the fact that, if anyone is seeking God, the Beloved is seeking that person much more. He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead. It’s addressed in John’s book, “The Ascent of Mount Carmel.” It describes the beginnings of the life of prayer.

Pernod Vs Ricard, Texas Eastern Transmission Enbridge, The Works Login, Map Of Lanarkshire Scotland, Miss America 2021, Used Distillery Equipment For Sale, Contact Channel 2 News,