Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, priest and doctor of the Church

December 14, 2020

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 25, the prayer of someone who is in love with God – as was John of the Cross:

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.

Psalm 25: 4-5

When we truly love someone, we see God’s face in them. Who doesn’t love that beautiful line from Les Miserables:

Take my hand
I'll lead you to salvation
Take my love
For love is everlasting
And remember
The truth that once was spoken
To love another person
Is to see the face of God

( Just in case you’re longing to listen to it now🤗)

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John of the Cross saw God’s Face in all Creation, and found God deep within his own contemplative soul:

What more do you want, O soul!
And what else do you search for outside, when
within yourself you possess your riches, delights,
satisfactions, fullness, and kingdom
– your Beloved whom you desire and seek?

Be joyful and gladdened
in your interior recollection with Him,
for you have Him so close to you.
Desire Him there, adore Him there.

Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself.
You will only become distracted and wearied thereby,
and you shall not find Him,
nor enjoy Him more securely,
nor sooner,
nor more intimately
than by seeking him within you.

Spiritual Canticle 1.8

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John was in love with God in a way described by the blessed Jesuit Pedro Arrupe:

Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than
falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

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As we pray today with St. John of the Cross, we ask our God to deepen us in love. We thank God for the promise and gift of Unconditional Love:

Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your kindness are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.

Music: One Dark Night – John Michael Talbot