Pope John Paul II comments on the doctrine of St John of the Cross:

“The Mystical Doctor appeals today to many believers and non-believers because he describes the dark night as an experience which is typically human and Christian. Our age has known times of anguish which have made us understand this expression better and which have furthermore given it a kind of collective character. Our age speaks of the silence or absence of God. It has known so many calamities, so much suffering inflicted by wars and by the destruction of so many innocent beings. The term dark night is now used of all of life and not just of a phase of the spiritual journey. The Saint's doctrine is now invoked in response to this unfathomable mystery of human suffering.

“I refer to this specific world of suffering about which I spoke in the Apostolic Exhortation Salvifici Doloris. Physical, moral and spiritual suffering, like sickness—like the plagues of hunger, like war, injustice, solitude, the lack of meaning in life, the very fragility of human existence, the sorrowful knowledge of sin, the seeming absence of God—are for the believer all purifying experiences which might be called night of faith.

“To this experience St. John of the Cross has given the symbolic and evocative name dark night, and he makes it refer explicitly to the light and obscurity of the mystery of faith. He does not try to give to the appaling problem of suffering an answer in the speculative order; but in the light of the Scripture and of experience he discovers and sifts out something of the marvelous transformation which God effects in the darkness, since "He knows how to draw good from evil so wisely and beautifully" (20). In the final analysis, we are faced with living the mystery of death and resurrection in Christ in all truth.

“Only Jesus Christ, the final Word of the Father, can disclose the mysterious meaning of suffering and, through His glorious Cross, light up the darkest night of the Christian. St. John of the Cross, consistent with what he teaches about Christ, tells us that after God revealed his Son He "was, as it were, mute, with no more to say" (22). The silence of God speaks its most eloquent and revealing word of love in Christ Crucified."(John Paul II, Masters in the Faith)

St. John of the Cross, the Mystical Doctor of the Church, is the teacher, par excellence, of apophatic contemplation, arising from the purity of Faith in the Word of God, Jesus Christ, and God's self-revelation. Such apophatic contemplative prayer, he taught, is based on the sure foundation of a spiritual life nurtured by the virtues of the love of Jesus Christ, and the sacramental life of the Church. Its methodology, built on the purity of Faith, and freedom from attachment and clingings to the world of created forms and images, as well as spiritual gifts less than God, leads to "losing one's life" in exchange for union with God in the fullness of supernatural life as a New Man in Jesus Christ, ever crucified to the world. Such spirituality, built on man's free-will surrender in love to "self-emptying" through the Cross of Jesus Christ, and the purity of Faith, is most powerfully transformative in the perfection of charity, since it is most fully supernatural, and, thereby, the cornerstone of all true contemplative spirituality leading to divine union.

St John of the Cross bases his teaching on spirituality embracing the doctrine and wisdom of the Cross:

"Wherefore Our Lord, instructing us and leading us into this road, gave, in the eighth chapter of St. Mark, that wonderful teaching that signifies: ‘If any man will follow My road, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For he that will save his soul shall lose it; but he that loses it for My sake, shall gain it.’ The road to God consists only in the one thing that is needful, which is the ability to deny oneself truly, according to that which is without and to that which is within, ‘giving oneself up to suffering for Christ's sake, and to total annihilation.’ For this self denial must certainly be like to death and annihilation, temporal, natural and spiritual, in all things that the will esteems, wherein consists all self-denial. For progress comes not save through the imitation of Christ, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no man comes to the Father but by Him, even as He Himself says through Saint John. And elsewhere He says: 'I am the door; by Me if any man enter he shall be saved.' (St John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt Carmel, Bk II)

When studying the doctrine of St John of the Cross, it is important to remember that he emphasizes our part, the natural, detachment of the will part of self-denial, i.e., the suffering and death of the Old Man in Adam. He does not give a great deal of emphasis to the part Almighty God is playing to make our dark part, and the terrible suffering possible. For example, when he says that the road to God consists of only one thing, which is 'giving oneself up to suffering and total annihilation,' he is speaking only of our part of this process. And this is profoundly true as far as it goes for one on the contemplative path. However, there is a simultaneous supernatural transformation accompanying the natural death and self-denial, and it is only because of the courage and strength we receive from that supernatural grace that our natural part is possible. For the natural suffering we undertake, and the natural life we lose, in connection with the death of the Old Man in Adam, takes place within the context of new life, and new birth as children of God, and the receipt of the spiritual strength and joy from God's supernatural life. For the natural loss and death can only take place since it is happening within a soul who is being fed a far better food than that which it is losing, which is new life in supernatural union with Jesus Christ. This latter aspect of the dark night is often overlooked, and is why in following Christ, self-denial and dying also means: “My yoke is easy and my burden light,” as recorded in St. Matthew's Gospel.

As we said above, apophatic contemplative prayer, as taught by St John of the Cross, is the basis of the reform of Carmel, and as such, was fully embraced by the Mother of the Reform, St Teresa of Avila. There is, therefore, no substantial difference between the teachings of St John of the Cross and St Teresa. Both embrace a life leading to contemplative union based on all the teachings of the Church, and in imitation of the life of the Crucified Savior, Jesus Christ. However, St John is the master of mystical theology and its doctrinal development as it relates to the Cross, The Via Negativa, the purity of faith, and apophatic contemplation.

St Teresa, while not dealing in depth with such theological precisions of the Via Negativa, nonetheless implicitly accepts them as she writes practical spirituality, with greater emphasis on her own experience and the Via Affirmativa, for the daughters and priests of the Reform. Moreover, she is well aware, as she experienced in her own practice, that an over-emphasis on emptiness, and imageless apophaticism, at the expense of proper regard for God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ, could undercut all true spiritual progress through sterile self-absorption, and destroy the necessary foundation for spiritual growth and sanctity: a loving, self-giving relationship with Jesus Christ, the Way, Truth, and the Life. Therefore, throughout her spiritual teachings, she emphasizes the need to always remember the central role of Jesus Christ in true spirituality, even though one might be incapable of thinking of Him, or anything else, when receiving the gift of "infused unknowing" during apophatic contemplation. That St John of the Cross is fully in agreement with this point of view is demonstrated by his total commitment to the Church, and God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ throughout his writings, and as shown by the comments of Hans Urs von Balthasar below:

"What it truly is to be a Christian one learns from him, and secondly, one learns it from the few, the very few who in faith and love have chosen him as the exclusive law of their existence and have remained faithful to that choice to the end. If one man in a hundred thousand were a norm in this sense, because in this one man Christ's grace and the demands of his Gospel could be seen with all humanly possible purity, this would not be an objection to the value of the norm.

"Faith, hope and love for Christ (which, in turn, through Christ and in the Spirit, is love for the Father) become the one and only law of existence and John, as one of the grands simplificateurs du monde, believed it was his duty to concern himself with this kind of fundamental ideal of Christian life.

"The question still remains, however, whether such an ideal could be put into practice in the way John believes necessary. He defines 'pure faith' in two ways. First, there is the negatiive sense, the elimination of every figura, every finite form, that faith, as faith in God and for God alone, transcends in its formal object. Then there is the positive sense, when he identifies the 'night of faith' with the night of contemplation, which as such represents an existential relationship with God, a state in which one is affected by God -- in other words, an experience of God, albeit formless, whether negative (in the night or privation) or positive (in the dawn of eternal vision).

"(St John's) two simplifications, the negative and the positive, will now be considered in detail.

"The faith that loves and hopes is that infinite, divine power that allows and requires all finite figures, objective as well as subjective, to be surmounted. For the earthly man the surmounting is crucifying; for the heavenly man it means the freedom of love. Here the question arises as to the religious value of all the figures of revelation-above all, of the form of God incarnate; then of the Church as a visible institution of salvation, as the communion of saints; and of Scripture in its objective, multiform facticity.

"Does not this mysticism fly past the incarnate Christ as it plunges, without mediation, into the furnace of triune love? Still more, is not the Church as a concrete community of love left behind? Is not God's configured Word irresistibly reduced to a single, superhuman, ineffable Word?

"There can be no doubt whatsoever that the incarnate Son of God, or more specifically, the crucified Son of God, determines the whole mystical way of this man who carries the cross even in his name. For him everything depends on the call of Christ in the Gospel, which is, of course, immediately heard and understood in the most radical manner. 'Christ, our Lord, instructing us about this way of renunciation, stated, according to St Luke: "Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." This statement is quite clear, for the doctrine the Son of Man came to teach is contempt of all things (fue il menosprecio de todas las cosas) that we may receive the gift of God's Spirit. So long is the soul fails to rid herself of these possessions, she is incapable of receiving God's Spirit to work its pure transformation.' This essential definition of Christianity, reduced in this form, is found everywhere.

"It is a call to the Cross, as the programmatic Chapter 7 of the second book of the Ascent shows in words of steel. 'A man makes progress only through imitation of Christ. No one goes to the Father except through him.' He is door, way, truth, life. In what sense? 'First, it is clear that during his life he died spiritually to the world of the senses, and that at his death he died naturally. He proclaimed during his life that he had no place whereon to lay his head. And at his death he had less. Second, at the moment of his death he was certainly annihilated (aniquilado) in his soul, without any consolation or relief .(The words segun la parts inferior and sensitivamente may be the prudent interpolations of an editor). He was therefore compelled to cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This was the most extreme abandonment that he suffered in his life.

"'And in this way (y asi) he accomplished the most marvelous work (obra) of his whole life, surpassing all the works and deeds and miracles that he had ever performed on earth or in Heaven, that is, he brought about the reconciliation of the human race with God through grace. The Lord achieved this, as I say, at the very moment in which he was most annihilated in all things': in his reputation before the men who mocked him, in his human nature by dying and with regard to the Father, who left him without consolation or help, 'forsook him so as to pay the full price of sin.' For this reason the verse from the psalm applies to him: Ad nihilum redactus sum et nescivi. 'Union with God does not consist in recreations, experiences or spiritual feelings, but in the one and only living, sensory and spiritual, exterior and interior, death of the Cross.'

"According to the Ascent, Book 1, Chapter I 3, the foundation of all spiritual life is 'the habitual desire to imitate Christ in all things' by 'mortification and renunciation of self for the love of Christ, who in his life on earth had no other gratification, nor desired any other, than the fulfillment of his Father's will, which he called his meat and food.' And this mortification begins with the active choice and preference of 'the more difficult' instead of 'the easier,' and 'the less pleasant' instead of the gratifying, of 'the unconsoling' instead of the consoling, of 'the lowest and most despised' instead of the higher and more precious -- in short, of 'total poverty in all the things of this world'.

"For so long as we live, the depths of the mystery of Christ cannot be plumbed. Imitation takes place in humility, which knows very well, and never forgets, that I myself was 'the cause of the Passion and death of Christ' that if 'the knife is raised above our head' we should not feel ourselves to be innocent victims. It is sufficient that we succeed in 'losing ourselves completely for Christ's sake', and that we 'choose for love of Christ all that is most distasteful, whether in God or in the world.'

"One of the most magnificent chapters in the Ascent (II, 22) shows from what perspective John makes this last statement. It is God the Father's address to the man who hankers after new and personal revelations and answers from God. The discourse proceeds as follows:

"'I have already told you everything in my Word, who is my Son. I have nothing more to reveal, no further answer to give you, there is nothing to add to him. Fasten your eyes on him alone, because in him I have spoken and revealed everything. Ipsum audite 'Listen to Him.'

"'If you desire me to answer with words of comfort, behold my Son, obedient and subject to me racked in pain, and you will see how much he answers. If you desire me to declare some secret truths or events to you, fix your eyes on him, and you will discern hidden "in him the most secret mysteries and wisdom, the wonders of God..." These treasures of wisdom and knowledge will be far more sublime, delightful and advantageous than what you want to know. The Apostle, therefore, gloried, affirming that he had made it plain that "he knew no other than Jesus Christ and him crucified." And if you should still seek other divine or corporal visions or revelations, behold him, become human, and you will encounter more than you imagined, because the Apostle also says, "In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.'

"All this proves unequivocally that St John's mysticism is meant to be understood christocentrically, and only through Christ is it theocentric. It is not philosophical but theological, grounded in the imitation of Christ, and all the words of the Bible, of both Old and New Testaments, are arranged concentrically around the annihilation of the Word of God on the Cross.

... "The authentic image of God in the world is the image of crucified love -- nothing else. All the profusion of imagery in the Spiritual Canticle can only be explained and justified as the deployment of the 'hidden treasures' of this one image."(Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord, vol. III)

When one is practicing the radical detachment of the will from forms, images, and memories recommended by St John, it is well to remember that he is not talking about disrespect for the images and forms set before us by the Catholic Church. These, he says, can ever help us as means to divine union:

"For, with respect to the remembrance and adoration and esteem of images, which the Catholic Church sets before us, there can be no deception or peril, because naught is esteemed therein other than that which is represented; nor does the remembrance of them fail to profit the soul, since they are not preserved in the memory save with love for that which they represent; and, provided the soul pays no more heed to them than is necessary for this purpose, they will ever assist it to union with God, allowing the soul to soar upwards (when God grants it that favour) from the superficial image[528] to the living God, forgetting every creature and everything that belongs to creatures.(St John of the Cross, "The Ascent," Bk III, Ch. XV)

In his mystical writings, e.g., The Ascent of Mount Carmel, St John shows how narrow is the way that leads to life and how nothing that belongs to the understanding, as opposed to the obscurity of Faith, can guide the soul to supernatural union. For the intellect operates in the natural, while Faith operates in the supernatural. By the understanding, in this context, John is talking about the use of the intellect to penetrate divine truths by natural reason, or to receive natural understanding based on personal visions, revelations, and knowledge from supernatural means, as opposed to receiving these same truths, i.e., the Deposit of Revelation, through Faith in the teachings of the Church. He's saying its one thing to use reason to conclude that Jesus is God the Son, and quite another to receive that same truth through the superntural gift of Faith. The first way of dealing with divine truth does not, by itself, lead to supernatural union with God, because it is a natural activity which unites us with a limited, natural concept or understanding, rather than with supernatural God: "Our Saviour was a very living image in the world; and yet those that had no faith, even though they went about with Him and saw His wondrous works, derived no benefit from them. And this was the reason why, as the Evangelist says, He did few mighty works in His own country.("The Ascent," Bk III, Ch 36)

The second way, of Faith, involving acceptance of the truth that Jesus is God the Son, does lead to divine union, because Faith is a supernatural virtue which unites us immediately to God, in obscurity, and through which our will moves our intellect to submit to divine truth, based on the authority of God. Therefore, religious prayers and practices of the Catholic Church, based on Faith, and involving revealed divine truths, are a significant part of "the Way," toward union and transformation taught by Jesus Christ, as well as his disciple, St John of the Cross.

On this road to perfection, St John teaches that, just as in "unknowing," in terms of natural forms, and "unloving" in terms of selfish natural affection and attachment for them, keeps the intellect and will free from clinging to them, and availble for union with the fullness of God, so "unremembering" in terms of new incoming, and old memory forms, keeps the memory free from clinging to memories, and new incoming images, and, thereby, available for ongoing union with that same divine fullnes. This "death" to the natural operations and habits of these three faculties does not keep them from operating to perfection, whenever required, since they are habitually(most of the time) moved by God to perform necessary natural operations, so that the soul may not be hindered in its divine union by its own natural acts. St John teaches:

"All the things that he hears, sees, smells, tastes, or touches, he must be careful not to store up or collect in his memory, but he must allow himself to forget them immediately, and this he must accomplish, if need be, with the same efficacy as that with which others contrive to remember them, so that there remains in his memory no knowledge or image of them whatsoever. It must be with him as if they existed not in the world, and his memory must be left free and disencumbered of them, and be tied to no consideration, whether from above or from below; as if he had no faculty of memory; he must freely allow everything to fall into oblivion as though all things were a hindrance to him; and in fact everything that is natural, if one attempt to make use of it in supernatural matters, is a hindrance rather than a help.(St John of the Cross, "The Ascent," Bk III, Ch.1)

In its essence, the soul of St John of the Cross was filled with the fullness of Divine Union, and this supernatural union totally sustained him, and was the background of personal spiritual experience from which he wrote "The Ascent," and "The Spiritual Canticle," and proposed mortification and "death" to desire for everything else, which interfered with, and was not part of this supernatural union. Nothing that he taught about "seeking the Cross and suffering" was directed toward "giving up" the divine union within his soul, which gave him the strength and joy at one level, to recommend the annihilation and suffering at another level. Such union is a pure gift of God and is not reduced or taken away by one's choosing the Cross over pleasure and satisfaction. On the contrary, it is only strengthened by such practice: "...when it(the soul) shall be perfectly dispossessed, it will remain with the perfect possession of God, in Divine union...(which is) "supreme possession and perfect sweetness."(The Ascent, Bk III, Ch.7)

So, although he was the Doctor of annihilation and darkness at the level of the natural operations and habits of the soul, he was, first of all, the Doctor possessing the divine union, giving strength and joy to the heart, and making all such radical natural sacrifices possible. Therefore, "The Ascent," and "The Dark Night," written for those already beginning to experience contemplative prayer, should be read remembering the background of divine union and the dawning light and ever-growing brightness of divine power working continuously within the depths of the soul to transform its natural darkness into the radiant light of union.

Through contemplative prayer, God, Himself, gradually puts all our selfish desires to death during the Night of the Sense and the Spirit. God's power sustains us during these nights and makes our journey through them possible. Therefore, St John's recommended "death" to all spiritual and sensual desire, feeling, and understanding, does not mean death to the desire for God, and the desire for divine union growing within us, and making such radical detachment possible. Rather, it means we must not "cling" to our natural feelings and understandings, mistaking them for God, thereby making idols of them. And we manage to curb such clinging and desire by "embracing the Cross" and making the desire for the Cross the centerpiece of our spirituality. However, by always embracing the Cross, and seeking total detachment and death to such desires and feelings, we don't end up walking this life in bleak darkness and suffering, with nothing to lean on. We rather end up walking this life in the fullness, strength, and joy of Divine Union as St John, himself,did. Every good, every pleasure, and every possession that St John says we must give up in this life is repalced, also in this life, by a higher,and infinitely more satisfying level of goodness and joy, through the divine union.

St John was writing for contemplatives and is the great theologian of mystical theology. He goes deeply into apophatic mysticism and contemplation. The gift of apophatic contemplation is the perceived, actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, operating in a supernatural mode, in a mind made fully "receptive" by adopting an attitude of "listening." In it, the actuation of the Gifts, beginning and ending at the pleasure of Almighty God, usually causes a loving, intuitive experience of Divine Presence. However, this sense of Presence is absent during the purgative periods of the Dark Nights. On the other hand, outside of the Dark Nights, the sense of Divine Presence is sometimes accompanied by a created awareness of a delightful, otherworldly "Brightness," particularly during the stage of Ecstatic Union. One does not directly see the Substance of God, or emanations from Him, with the faculties of consciousness. It's rather that one becomes intellectually aware that God is Light as indicated in the following quote by St Augustine:

"I entered into the secret closet of my soul, led by Thee; and this I could do because Thou wast my helper. I entered, and beheld with the mysterious eye of my soul the Light that never changes, above the eye of my soul, above my intelligence. It was not the common light which all flesh can see, nor was it greater yet of the same kind, as if the light of day were to grow brighter and brighter and flood all space. It was not like this, but different: altogether different from all such things. Nor was it above my intelligence in the same way as oil is above water, or heaven above earth; but it was higher because it made me, and I was lower because made by it. He who knoweth the truth knoweth that Light: and who knoweth it, knoweth eternity. Love knoweth it."(Aug. Conf., bk. vii. cap. x)

The mind in apophatic contemplation maintains a passive, generalized awareness, without focusing on a specific object. This is the intuitive mind, which is aware of the general field of things, and makes no effort to distinguish one thing from anything else. It is an effortless state in which we are peacefully aware, but, during contemplation, capable of forgetting self, or losing the sense that it is "our" awareness. And in this state we are totally "receptive" or in a state of "listening." At the natural level, it takes place when one gazes contemplatively at a sunset or landscape. There is no "concentration" involved since the state of Concentration must be left behind if one is to be truly passive with the receptivity required for this state of consciousness. It is somewhat like the way in which the eye passively receives the light of vision.

In Contemplative prayer, which begins when God so chooses, we cease all active, intellectual activity, "let go" of our possessive self-control, and freely give up "natural" operations, in order that we may participate, without natural interference, in the "supernatural" operations and ministrations of God's loving Spirit. He accepts our gift of self, and through, supernatural annointings, often secret from us at the time they are given, He enables us to maintain this passive, loving condition.

St John describes how God is teaching the soul with knowledge in contemplation, although hidden from clarity of understanding through forms and concepts. Although hidden and obscure, this substantial knowledge imparted by God causes a loving awareness only describable as "something" during apophatic contemplation:

"In contemplation God teaches the soul very quietly and secretly, without its knowing how, without the sound of words, and without the help of any bodily or spiritual faculty, in silence and quietude, in darkness to all sensory and natural things. Some spiritual persons call this contemplation knowing by unknowing. For this knowledge is not produced by the intellect that the philosophers call the "agent intellect," which works on the forms, phantasies, and apprehensions of the corporal faculties; rather it is produced in the possible or "passive intellect." This possible intellect, without the reception of these forms, and so on, "receives passively only substantial knowledge," which is divested of images and given without any work or active function of the intellect.(Spiritual Canticle, stanza 39)

NOTE; "Infused passivity" connected with contemplative prayer springs from inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit gives us an inclination to "let go" of actions of the faculties, such as those connected with meditation, since, under the influence of this contemplative grace, they cause subtle pain and aridity. This should be distinguished from "acquired passivity" which one might undertake in order to thrust oneself into the mystical way before the proper time, and without the infused grace. Acquired passivity is obtained purely by the voluntary cessation of acts and activity.(gloss from Fr. Garrigou-Lagrance, "Three Ages of the Interior Life," p.220)

He fills our awareness with an intuitive sense of His Presence, normally accompanied by delight and joy. And this is a form of awareness, although it is generalized and passive. It might be compared to the type of generalized experience one receives by moving from the shade to the sunshine, or the experience of wetness while one is swimming. It is somewhat like one's awareness of one's own body with eyes closed. However, in this apophatic state, we can, by definition, have no "specific" knowledge about particular things, since that requires taking back possession of self, resuming natural operations, shifting from the passive to the active intellect, which extricates knowledge from phantasms, and withdrawing from the fullness of apophatic contemplation. (In rare cases, while the soul is engaged in apophatic contemplation, God intervenes, and by a special action not characteristic of this state, provides the passive soul with specific knowledge, even though it remains passive. Examples of this might include, as in the case of St Teresa, a bodily vision of Jesus Christ, or, as in the case of St Catherine of Siena, communication of spiritual truths. In such cases, God directly impresses the form and the knowledge into the consciousness, without the use of the agent intellect. Then, in order to communicate such truths, one would normally revert to the cataphatic contemplative state, with minimal intellectual activity, if the Gifts are still active, or to the natural state, if the Gifts are no longer active.)

This pure state of passive consciousness is what the "unknowing" feature of classical Contemplation and as taught by John of the Cross relates to. It means unknowing in terms of the active intellect. It means no "specific" understanding or awareness, although there is certainly "awareness" and "knowing" in a pleasant, generalized, intuitive sense. "Unknowing" doesn't mean that Contemplation or our awareness is dark, or without light, or that God's Spirit is Dark. On the contrary, as St Teresa remarks, God's Spirit brings great light, and we may in fact be filled with a sense of delightful, generalized sense of "brightness" during apophatic contemplation, as for example, was described by St Augustine, above." However, in this life, we are incapable of direct vision of the Essence of God.

If we wish to remain in pure apophatic contemplative prayer, and experience its full transformative power, we normally must ignore distractions. However, on rare occasions, when they are very sensual and powerful, and ignoring them does not bring them under control, we must actively resist distractions, resorting to help from "active prayer" until they subside. Once we have them under control, we may then resume passive prayer.

For those is the early stages of Contemplation, natural "activity" may completely eliminate "perception" of the activity of God's Spirit. For those in very advanced Contemplative states, where the effect of the actuation of the gifts is more-or-less continuous, personal activity may sometimes reduce the "perception" of the action of the Holy Spirit. However, it is always in the background of perception. Or, in advanced contemplation states, personal activity could even provide an enhancement of the "perception" of the Spirit as the loving service, itself, results from an especially intense intervention of the Holy Spirit, and leads to increased perception, through an increase in Charity connected with intensification of the activity of the gifts.

For individual at this advanced level of transformation are relatively free from "attachment" to images and forms, and their presence or absence has a minimal effect on the immanent activity of the Holy Spirit. Such might be the case as in the activities of the apostolate of a Don Bosco or Mother Teresa. In such manner, as St. Teresa has told us, those in advanced Contemplation, or advanced stages of the Contemplative Life, in which there is relatively continuous effect from the actuation of the gifts, tend to maintain a strong awareness of the Presence of God within themselves whether they be passive in prayer, or active in performing duties and service to the Church.

Some mistakenly believe that the graces of contemplative prayer are totally secret from the contemplative as he advances in perfection. This is a misunderstanding, as many quotes from St John of the Cross, such as the one below, demonstrate. Outside the Nights, the graces bring light and love to the intellect and will. The light of God can be called secret from the "active intellect" in terms of its ability to "take possession" of specific forms or particular knowledge. However, it is not totally secret from the soul. Through the surrender of unknowing, the intellect becomes aware in a generalized, intuitive manner, during prayer or shortly thereafter, of the effects of God's Love in the soul. For this Love, peacefully, yet forcefully, pours into the soul, bringing with it great delight. Sometimes it is a "torrent of delight" as Isaiah indicates. And as St John indicates, the intuition of well-being and delight from such Divine Love is "manifestly" greater enjoyment than the enjoyment from all particular things.

"God infuses this love in the will when it is empty and detached from other particular, earthly or heavenly pleasures and affections. Take care, then, to empty the will of its affections and detach it from them. If it does not retrogress through the desire for some satisfaction or pleasure, it advances, even though it experiences nothing particular in God, by ascending above all things to him. Although it does not enjoy God very particularly and distinctly, nor love him in so clear an act, it does enjoy him obscurely and secretly in that general infusion more than it does all particular things, for it then sees clearly that nothing satisfies it as much as that solitary quietude. And it loves him above all lovable things, since it has rejected all the gratifications and pleasures of these things and they have become distasteful to it. (Living Flame of Love, Stanza 3, p.51)

JOHN OF THE CROSS ON CONTEMPLATION: A SERENE NIGHT

"It is obvious that if persons do not lay aside their natural active mode, they will not receive that good except in a natural mode; thus they will not receive it, but will remain only with their natural act. For the supernatural does not fit into the natural mode, nor does it have anything to do with it. If individuals should, then, desire to act on their own through an attitude different from the passive loving attention we mentioned, in which they would remain very passive and tranquil without making any act unless God would unite himself with them in some act, they would utterly hinder the goods God communicates supernaturally to them in the loving knowledge.

"If as I say - and it is true - this loving knowledge is received passively in the soul according to the supernatural mode of God, and not according to the natural mode of the soul, individuals, if they want to receive it, should be very annihilated in their natural operations, unhampered, idle, quiet, peaceful, and serene, according to the mode of God. The more the air is cleansed of vapors and the quieter and more simple it is, the more the sun illumines and warms it. A person should not bear attachment to anything, neither to the practice of meditation nor to any savor, whether sensory or spiritual, nor to any other apprehensions.

"Individuals should be very free and annihilated regarding all things, because any thought or discursive reflection or satisfaction on which they may want to lean would impede and disquiet them and make noise in the profound silence of their senses and their spirit, which they possess for the sake of this deep and delicate listening. God speaks to the heart in this solitude, which he mentioned in Hosea [Hos. 2:14], in supreme peace and tranquility while the soul listens, like David, to what the Lord God speaks to it [Ps. 85:8], for he speaks this peace in this solitude.

"When it happens, therefore, that souls are conscious in this manner of being placed in solitude and in the state of listening, they should even forget the practice of loving attentiveness I mentioned so as to remain free for what the Lord then desires of them. They should make use of that loving awareness only when they do not feel themselves placed in this solitude or inner idleness or oblivion or spiritual listening. So they may recognize it, it always comes to pass with a certain peace and calm and inward absorption.

"Contemplation... is called night, because contemplation is dim; and that is the reason why it is also called mystical theology -- that is, the secret or hidden wisdom of God, where, without the sound of words, or the intervention of any bodily or spiritual sense, as it were in silence and in repose, in the darkness of sense and nature, God teaches the soul -- and the soul knows not how -- in a most secret and hidden way.

"Some spiritual writers call this "understanding without understanding," because it does not take place in what philosophers call the active understanding which is conversant with the forms, fancies, and apprehensions of the physical faculties, but in the understanding as it is possible and passive."

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JOHN OF THE CROSS, Sayings of Light and Love:

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest."[Mt. 11:28].

John provides good direction as to how the contemplative soul enters most fully into the rest of Christ:

"The soul that journeys to God, but does not shake off its cares and quiet its appetites, is like one who drags a cart uphill. It is not God's will that a soul be disturbed by anything or suffer trials, for if one suffers trials in the adversities of the world it is because of a weakness in virtue. The perfect soul rejoices in what afflicts the imperfect one. So abide in peace, banish cares, take no account of all that happens, and you will serve God according to his good pleasure, and rest in him.

"This way of life contains very little business and bustling, and demands mortification of the will more than knowledge. The less one takes of things and pleasures the farther one advances along this way. Think not that pleasing God lies so much in doing a great deal as in doing it with good will, without possessiveness and human respect.

Reflect that the most delicate flower loses its fragrance and withers fastest; therefore guard yourself against seeking to walk in a spirit of delight, for you will not be constant. Choose rather for yourself a robust spirit, detached from everything, and you will discover abundant peace and sweetness, for delicious and durable fruit is gathered in a cold and dry climate.

"Bear in mind that your flesh is weak and that no worldly thing can comfort or strengthen your spirit, for what is born of the world is world and what is born of the flesh is flesh. The good spirit is born only of the Spirit of God, who communicates himself neither through the world nor through the flesh.

"If you purify your soul of attachments and desires, you will understand things spiritually. If you deny your appetite for them, you will enjoy their truth, understanding what is certain in them. Strive to be content with having nothing. Strive to be content with emptiness, emptiness of satisfaction in both natural and spiritual desire.

"Since God is (directly) inaccessible, be careful not to concern yourself with all that your faculties can comprehend and your senses feel, so that you do not become satisfied with less and lose the lightness of soul suitable for going to him.

"See that you do not interfere in the affairs of others, nor even allow them to pass through your memory; for perhaps you will be unable to accomplish your own task. Because the virtues you have in mind do not shine in your neighbor, do not think that your neighbor will not be precious in God's sight for reasons that you have not in mind. Do not be suspicious of your brother, for you will lose purity of heart. Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. 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. Ignoring the imperfections of others, preserving silence and a continual communion with God will eradicate great imperfections from the soul and make it the possessor of great virtues.

"Habitual voluntary imperfections that are never completely overcome not only hinder the divine union, but also the attainment of perfection. Such imperfections are: the habit of being very talkative; a small unconquered attachment, such as to a person, to clothing, to a cell, a book, or to the way food is prepared, and to other conversations and little satisfactions in tasting things, in knowing, and hearing, and the like. "Allow yourself to be taught, allow yourself to receive orders, allow yourself to be subjected and despised, and you will be perfect.

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

"The purest suffering produces the purest understanding.

"Bridle your tongue and your thoughts very much, direct your affection habitually toward God, and your spirit will be divinely enkindled. Feed not your spirit on anything but God. Cast off concern about things, and bear peace and recollection in your heart. Keep spiritually tranquil in a loving attentiveness to God, and when it is necessary to speak, let it be with the same calm and peace.

"The soul that has reached the union of love does not even experience the first motions of sin.

"Love to be unknown both by yourself and by others. Never look at the good or evil of others. Walk in solitude with God; act according to the just measure; hide the blessings of God. To lose always and let everyone else win is a trait of valiant souls, generous spirits, and unselfish hearts; it is their manner to give rather than receive even to the extent of giving themselves

"Preserve a habitual remembrance of eternal life, recalling that those who hold themselves the lowest and poorest and least of all will enjoy the highest dominion and glory in God. Rejoice habitually in God, who is your salvation and reflect that it is good to suffer in any way for him who is good.

"Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular thing concerning him.

"Be hostile to admitting into your soul things that of themselves have no spiritual substance, lest they make you lose your liking for devotion and recollection. Let Christ crucified be enough for you, and with him suffer and take your rest, and hence annihilate yourself in all inward and outward things. Endeavor always that things be not for you, nor you for them, but forgetful of all, abide in recollection with your Bridegroom.

"Have great love for trials and think of them as but a small way of pleasing your Bridegroom, who did not hesitate to die for you. Bear fortitude in your heart against all things that move you to that which is not God, and be a friend of the Passion of Christ. Be interiorly detached from all things and do not seek pleasure in any temporal thing, and your soul will concentrate on goods you do not know.

"See that you are not suddenly saddened by the adversities of this world, for you do not know the good they bring, being ordained in the judgments of God for the everlasting joy of the elect.

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

"Take God for your bridegroom and friend, and walk with him continually; and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you. You will without labor subject the nations and bring things to serve you if you forget them and yourself as well.

"Although you perform many works, if you do not deny your will and submit yourself, losing all solicitude about yourself and your affairs, you will not make progress.

"What does it profit you to give God one thing if he asks of you another? Consider what it is God wants, and then do it. You will as a result satisfy your heart better than with something toward which you yourself are inclined.

"If you desire that devotion be born in your spirit and that the love of God and the desire for divine things increase, cleanse your soul of every desire, attachment, and ambition in such a way that you have no concern about anything. Just as a sick person is immediately aware of good health once the bad humor has been thrown off and a desire to eat is felt, so will you recover your health, in God, if you cure yourself as was said. Without doing this, you will not advance no matter how much you do.

"If you desire to discover peace and consolation for your soul and to serve God truly, do not find your satisfaction in what you have left behind, because in that which now concerns you you may be as impeded as you were before, or even more. But leave as well all these other things and attend to one thing alone that brings all these with it (namely, holy solitude, together with prayer and spiritual and divine reading), and persevere there in forgetfulness of all things. For if these things are not incumbent on you, you will be more pleasing to God in knowing how to guard and perfect yourself than by gaining all other things together; what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of one's soul?

"The secret of one's conscience is considerably harmed and damaged as often as its fruits are manifested to others, for then one receives as reward the fruit of fleeting fame.

"Speak little and do not meddle in matters about which you are not asked.

"Never allow yourself to pour out your heart, even though it be but for the space of a Creed.

"Do not contradict; by no means speak words that are not pure. Let your speech be such that no one may be offended, and let it concern things that would not cause you regret were all to know of them.

"Do not refuse anything you possess, even though you may need it.

"Be silent concerning what God may have given you and recall that saying of the bride: My secret for myself [Is. 24:16].

"In the tasks you have to perform, rather than others, imitate Christ, who is supremely perfect and supremely holy, and you will never err.

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

John of the Cross came to Jesus, followed him, found the "peace of Christ" and came to realize:

"Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the nations, the just are mine, and mine the sinners. The angels are mine, and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me. What do you ask, then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in something less or pay heed to the crumbs that fall from your Father's table. Go forth and exult in your Glory! Hide yourself in it and rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart."