glorycloud's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

poverty of spirit

It is in the flow 5:26 PM Sunday evening. Soon my wife will be up getting ready to go back to work.

I have been messing with our main computer and reading from a book titled, “The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross” translated by Kieran Kavanaugh & Otilio Rodriguez. In this volume I have been reading “The Spiritual Canticle” by St. John of the Cross. Today in reading this treatise I keep telling myself St. John of the Cross is setting forth what it means to be a Christian/a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I should give our daughter-in-law Emily a volume of “The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross”. I thought about buying her Jonathan Edward’s famous work “On Religious Affections”, but decided not to. I doubt if Emily has time these days to read serious spiritual works, She is a full time wife/mother and also works 32 hours a week as a Nurse Practitioner.

Tonight there is nothing on TV worth watching, so I will read my books and go to bed early. Tomorrow is a Monday in the flow of time.

Well I suppose I will close with this quote from “The Spiritual Canticle”-

“Some call the Bridegroom beloved, whereas He is not really their beloved because their heart is not wholly set on Him. As a result their petition is not of much value in His sight. They do not obtain their request until through perseverance in prayer they keep their spirit more continually with God, and their heart with its affectionate love more entirely set on Him. Nothing is obtained from God except by love.

14. It is noteworthy of her next remark, “and left me moaning,” that the absence of the Beloved causes continual moaning in the lover. Since she loves nothing outside of Him, she finds no rest or relief in anything. This is how we recognize the person who truly loves God: if he is content with nothing less than God. But what am I saying, if he is content? Even if he possesses everything, he will not be content; in fact the more he has, the less satisfied he will be. Satisfaction of heart is not found in the possession of things, but in being stripped of them all and in poverty of spirit. Since perfection consists in this poverty of spirit, in which God is possessed by a very intimate and special grace, the soul, having attained it, lives in this life with some satisfaction, although not complete. For David, in spite of all his perfection, hoped to have this fullness in heaven, saying: When your glory appears, I shall be filled. [Ps. 16:15].

As a result, the peace, tranquility, and satisfaction of heart attainable in this life is insufficient to prevent the soul from moaning within itself-although this moan may be tranquil and painless-hoping for what it lacks. Moaning is connected with hope, and the Apostle affirmed that he and others moaned even though they were perfect: We ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit moan within ourselves, hoping for the adoption of the sons of God. [Rom. 8:23].

The soul, then, bears this moan within herself, in her enamored heart. For there where love wounds is the moan rising from the wound, and it ever cries out in the feeling of His absence; especially when the soul, after the taste of some sweet and delightful communication of the Bridegroom, suffers His absence and is left alone and dry. ” pg. 421,422 St. John of the Cross

5:56 p.m. - 2015-03-15

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next

latest entry

about me

archives

notes

DiaryLand

contact

random entry

other diaries:

catsoul
nikkifoofoo
whystinger
oct0ber
browndamask
koorikaze
mal-adjusted
lobo21
tobehis
weatethesea
raven72d
newschick
jondavid2010
journey2one
realthoughts
freakyouout
trapeze-act
msjessica
fragilegirl8
fan4