From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

December 14th - St. John of the Cross

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) was a confessor and doctor of the
Church. He was co-reformer of the Carmelite Order with St. Teresa of
Avila. He was a great mystic and left many famous maxims about the
spiritual life. Some of them are the following:

* I did not know Thee, my Lord, because I still desired to know and
relish trifling things. My spirit became dry because it forgot to rest
in Thee.

* If you wish to attain holy recollection, you will do so not by
approving but by denying.

* The devil fears a soul united to God as he does God Himself.

* The purest suffering produces the purest understanding.

* Through small things, one reaches the great. The evil that at the
beginning appears insignificant, later becomes enormous and without
remedy.


Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corr=C3=AAa de Oliveira: (died 1995)

Let me comment one sentence at a time.

=C2 =C2 * I did not know Thee, my Lord, because I still desired to kn=
ow
and relish trifling things. My spirit became dry because it forgot to
rest in Thee.

The love for trifles is one of the most deeply-rooted things that
exist in the human soul. When one of us goes to a public square or a
restaurant or when we take a bus where people are chatting, if we
observe well, we will see that most of the time they are talking about
trifling things. Also, when they are quiet they are usually thinking
about trifling matters.

St. John of the Cross said: I didn't know Thee, My Lord, because I
wanted to relish trifles. What he means is that one who likes to taste
trifles cannot taste the things of God. What is the reason for this?
It is because the two are contrary things and no one is able to love
opposite things at the same time. God is infinite, transcendent, and magnificent. A trifle is a very insignificant thing. The person who
loves insignificant things cannot love the grandeur of God. So, we
should ask Our Lady to free us from our attachments to trifles and
prepare us to have true love for God.

The second part of the sentence -My spirit became dry because it
forgot to rest in Thee--confirms the first. What kind of souls rest in
God? They are persons who like to think about the situation of the
Catholic Church, Catholic doctrine, the history of the Church and the
supreme interests of God. These people can say that they rest in God.
Such men are sheep who graze and feed themselves on divine grass.

=C2 =C2 * If you wish to attain holy recollection, you will do so not=
by
approving but by denying.

This is a magnificent sentence! It is based on a very anti-liberal
principle. Optimistic and liberal souls who only want to see the
positive side of everything do not have holy recollection, according
to St. John of the Cross. On the contrary, those souls who vigilantly
see the evil around them, discern it, and then deny it -these are the
ones who attain true recollection. Therefore, the discernment of evil
is the door that opens the way for holy recollection.

The devil fears a soul united to God as he does God Himself.

It is beautiful! One sees in every day life the hatred of the Devil
for the true Catholic, the true counter-revolutionary. It is a hatred
that comes from fear. He trembles before a good Catholic as he
trembles before God Himself, because he sees God in that person.

=C2 =C2 * The purest suffering produces the purest understanding.

It is a twofold affirmation. First, it says that each one of us should
suffer purely, which is to accept our cross to the end, to honestly
and gladly suffer what is asked of us without tricks and frauds.

Second, it states that whoever does this receives a greater capacity
to understand the things of God, that is, to reach the highest and
noblest part of reality. This understanding is not only the
understanding of the intelligence but also of the sensibility of the
soul. Therefore, accepting suffering makes the entire soul --the will, intelligence, and sensibility --more perfect and closer to God.

Through small things, one reaches the great. The evil that at the
beginning appears insignificant, later becomes enormous and without remedy....Let me exemplify this with laziness. Someone takes a lapse
position in face of an important matter regarding the Catholic cause
that is being reported to him. Because he is lazy, he does not want to
make an effort to think and react on the high plane the topic demands.
He does this many times, and he acquires the habit of not responding
to serious matters in the Catholic cause.

After a while, this habit of omission is transformed into indifference
toward the great Catholic panoramas. He loses the appetite for the
good, which is, according to St. Thomas, related to the death of the
love of God. That is to say, something that began as a small
concession, in a short time ended in the death of the love of God. For
this reason, St. John of the Cross warns us to be vigilant and snuff
out evil in its first spark; otherwise we will be facing a
wide-ranging fire....

These are a few of the maxims St. John of the Cross left for us to
meditate on. We should ask Our Lady to help us make them firm
principles for the good of our souls.

See more at: http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j159sd_StJohnOfCross_12-14.shtml


Saint Quote:
Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great
detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.
--St. John of the Cross

Bible Quote:
Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies,
no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let
your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ.=C2 (Romans 13:13-14)


<><><><>
From The Passion And Death Of Jesus Christ, by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori:

My sweet Lord, if others banish Thee, I will not banish Thee. there
was once an unhappy time when I ungratefully banished Thee from my
soul; but now I set a greater value on being united with Thee than on
the possession of all the kingdoms of the earth. Oh my God, who shall
ever be able again to separate me from Thy love?
Amen.
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)