Tag Archive for ‘Dark Night’
St John of the Cross
The Dark Night of the Soul Part 5 of 5 This is the fourth major work of St John, even though scholars say it is a continuation and completion of his earlier work, the Ascent of Mount Carmel. In fact, both comment on the same poem, but take different angles. The Dark Night is concerned […]
St John of the Cross — The Spiritual Canticle
Part 2 of 5 St John of the Cross, the Mystical Doctor of the Church, provides teaching to help us survive and thrive in these testing times. To begin to appreciate his profound wisdom, a wise man told me to begin with the Spiritual Canticle. Professor E Allison Peers calls it one of the loveliest […]
Christian Contemplation in John of the Cross
In previous chapters I have already touched on John of the Cross. At this point I would like to develop what has already been said at greater length. We must attune ourselves first to John’s terminology. John assumes that we start the life of prayer by discursive meditation on the gospel and on Christian doctrine. […]
Passive Contemplation
I pointed out in the last article that the word ‘contemplation’ can have many meanings, but they can be reduced to two. Firstly, there is ‘contemplation’ as understood by the Church Fathers and official church documents in which we use all our faculties to unite ourselves to God. In this article I will reflect on […]
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