December 14: Saint John of the Cross

"What more do you want, o soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfaction and kingdom -- your beloved whom you desire and seek? Desire him there, adore him there. Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and you won't find him, or enjoy him more than by seeking him within you."


Today, December 14, we celebrate the feast day of Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), Doctor of Mystical Theology, and Doctor of the Church. Saint John exemplifies the Christian philosophy of self-sacrificing love, penance, and the finding of joy in suffering alongside the crucified Christ.

Juan de Yepes was born in the village of Fontiveros in Castile, about 30 miles from Avila, Spain. His family struggled financially, as his father had been disowned after he married a woman they considered beneath their class. A marriage of true love, Juan’s parents were deeply influential in his understanding of suffering and love. Juan’s father became ill, and died when Juan was only seven years old, leading to a series of family moves and struggles.

One story is frequently told regarding John’s childhood. As he was playing near a pond one day, he fell into the deep water. As he rose to the surface, a tall and incredibly beautiful Lady came to offer her hand to assist him to land. “No,” said John, the child, “You are too beautiful; my hand will dirty Yours.” After voicing his concern, an elderly gentleman appeared on the shore and extended his staff to the child to bring him to shore. These figures, looking out for the child, were the Mary, Our Blessed Mother, and Saint Joseph. Similarly, at another point in his childhood, John fell into a well, and his family grieved, certain that he would be found dead upon retrieving him. However, they found him at the bottom of the well, seated, comfortable, and waiting peacefully for rescue. He stated, “A beautiful lady took me into Her cloak and sheltered me.” From this, his mother grew certain that her son was destined for great things.

John’s mother moved the family frequently, and as an adolescent in Medina, John was put into school, as he demonstrated no aptitude for learning a trade. Academically, he was found to excel, however. Quick to learn, John soon found a patron who adopted him at fourteen, sending him to a Jesuit school where he flourished under the influence of one of the masters. At seventeen he began to work in the hospital where his patron was warden, bringing him into close contact with those who were suffering and near death. This work, along with that of his childhood, nurtured and developed his sensitivity and compassion—traits which characterized his life and works.

John felt called to religious life. One evening, as he was praying to the Lord, hoping that his vocation would be made known to him, an interior voice said to him: “You will enter a religious Order, whose primitive fervor you will restore.” Soon thereafter, John entered the Carmelite Order, at age 21. Out of humility, John attempted to conceal his mind and works, but was quickly professed the following year and was sent to the University of Salamanca, one of the four leading universities of Europe at that time. It was there he studied theology and arts, and was ordained a priest.

As a priest, John desired nothing less than perfection, and his means for attaining it were sacrifice, penance, mortification, and humility. He dwelt in an obscure corner whose window opened upon the chapel, opposite the Most Blessed Sacrament. Each day, he wore around his waist an iron chain full of sharp points, and over it a tight vestment made of reeds joined by large knots. These practices led to constant blood loss and pain. Drawn to solitude, his plans were interrupted when he met Saint Teresa of Avila, who made him the confidant of her projects for the reform of Carmel and asked him to be her auxiliary.

John, accompanied by two friars, retired to a poor and inadequate dwelling and began a new kind of life, conformed with the primitive Rules of the Order of Carmel. The three lived together in quiet solitude and contemplation, practicing their apostolic works, traveling throughout the region preaching and hearing confessions. The reform, however, was not accepted by many of the Carmelite brethren. He was persecuted, insulted, and made to suffer by those members of the Order resistant to reform. Despite this persecution and difficulty, Saint John continued to pray to the Lord, stating his wish as only “To suffer and to be scorned for You.” The General of the Order approved the reform, but it was rejected by the older friars, who condemned the Saint as a fugitive and an apostate and cast him into prison. There, in a tiny cell that measured only 6 feet by ten feet, and had little light, John was confined for nine months. Beaten three times a week, and left to suffer, the brothers expected John to give up. Yet in that unbearable dark, cold, and desolation, his love and faith were like fire and light. He had nothing left but God -- and God brought John his greatest joys in that tiny cell. From his cell, Saint John wrote many books of practical advice on spiritual growth and prayer that still speak to the faithful today, including: “Ascent of Mount Carmel,” “Dark Night of the Soul,” and “A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ.”

John's drawing of Christ, crucified (below, top), still preserved by the Carmelites, inspired Salvador Dali's painting (below, bottom):

After nine months, John managed to escape from his torturous imprisonment by picking the lock of his cell, creeping past the guards at great personal risk, and climbing from a window to freedom. Having no idea of where he was, John followed a dog for several days, eventually finding refuge at the infirmary of some Carmelite nuns. Having brought his spiritual poetry with him (which he wrote in the darkness of his cell), he spent his days reading to the sisters of the convent, and explaining the extraordinary grace his imprisonment had been. In prison, John had experienced the profound love of the Lord.

John’s suffering did not end there. Twice more, before his death, he was shamefully persecuted by his brethren, and publicly disgraced. Asked by his beloved Master what reward he would like for all he had done for the order, John replied, “Lord, what I wish you to give me are sufferings to be borne for your sake, and that I may be despised and counted as nothing.” Eventually, due to the harsh treatment he had suffered, John fell ill and was given a choice of monasteries to retire to. He chose a monastery where he was sure to be ill-treated, and this was the case. As he became progressively sicker, he was left untended most of the time, to suffer in isolation. But at his death, the room was filled with a marvelous light, and his unhappy Prior recognized his error, and that he had mistreated a Saint.

Saint John of the Cross’ body was buried, and later his relics translated. After a first exhumation, his body was found to be intact. This was the case in many subsequent exhumations (the latest occurring in 1955). Saint John of the Cross was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1926 by Pope Pius XI.

Saint John’s life was one filled with hardship, persecution, and misery. Yet, he found nothing by the love of God in each of his experiences. Rather than giving up, becoming bitter or jaded, John’s compassion and love increased with every insult. He truly lived his words: "Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love." The life of Saint John of the Cross reminds us that despite our worldly experiences, true happiness and joy can come only from the Lord. When we look to Him, we will find our comfort.

Selected Quotations of Saint John of the Cross:
If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection.

In detachment, the spirit finds quiet and repose for coveting nothing. Nothing wearies it by elation, and nothing oppresses it by dejection, because it stands in the center of its own humility.

The Lord measures our perfection neither by the multitude nor the magnitude of our deeds, but by the manner in which we perform them.

I wish I could persuade spiritual persons that the way of perfection does not consist in many devices, nor in much cogitation, but in denying themselves completely and yielding themselves to suffer everything for the love of Christ. And if there is failure in this exercise, all other methods of walking in the spiritual way are merely a beating about the bush, and profitless trifling, although a person should have very high contemplation and communication with God.

Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.

O you souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if you knew how pleasing to God is suffering, and how much it helps in acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in anything; but you would rather look upon it as a great happiness to bear the Cross of the Lord.

In giving us His Son, His only Word, He spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and He has no more to say…because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son.

If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.

In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.

It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.

Beloved, all that is harsh and difficult I want for myself, and all that is gentle and sweet for thee.

In tribulation immediately draw near to God with confidence, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction.

If you purify your soul of attachment to and desire for things, you will understand them spiritually. If you deny your appetite for them, you will enjoy their truth, understanding what is certain in them.

The soul that is attached to anything however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken the bird cannot fly.

Anyone who complains or grumbles is not perfect, nor is he even a good Christian.

Anyone who trusts in himself is worse than the devil.

Anyone who does not love his neighbor abhors God.

Whoever flees prayer flees all that is good.

Conquering the tongue is better than fasting on bread and water.

Suffering for God is better than working miracles.

Let us pray today that those called to seek God in Carmel
may remain, like Saint John of the Cross,
faithful to the meditation of the Word and to prayer
by day and by night,
until their consummation in the Living Flame of Love.


O God,
who endowed your priest, Saint John,
with a spirit of utter self-denial
and a surpassing love of the Cross;
grant that, by ever holding fast to his example,
we may attain to the contemplation of your everlasting glory.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.


O God,
who by Thy living flame of love,
didst sustain Saint John of the Cross even in the darkness:
shed Thou Thy light, we beseech Thee,
on all who love Thee though it be night
and give them to drink their fill of that deathless spring
that in the living Bread lies hidden.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.




Year 2: Day 348 of 365
Prayer Intentions: Willingness to suffer for the Lord; Humility; Joy in Christ.
Requested Intentions: Financial security, successful employment (J); Obedience to God’s will (A); Conversion of souls (A); Success of business venture; faith of daughter (S); Safe return home (J); Recovery of mother and son; repose of the souls of the dearly departed (A); Blessings upon a relationship (M); Sobriety and recovery for a son (M); Employment and successful marriage (A); Employment, healing, freedom from anxiety (T); Financial security (C); Conversion (T); Peace in difficult times at work (E); Financial security and blessings for mother and children (T); Financial security for a mother (M); Health, finances, successful marriage (A); Successful resolution of court case for son (K); Continued sobriety (N); Healing of a chronic health condition (B); Successful employment (A): Peace in a family, recovery of a niece from substance use (L); Blessings on a marriage, healing of a husband (P); For the health and recovery of sisters (B); For a daughter and granddaughter (D); Blessings on overseas employment (M); Healing of mother (L).