In the style of the apothegms of the Desert Fathers, John of the Cross's teaching first comes in these hard, clean, unsentimental sayings that overflow with spiritual wisdom. They give to their recipients treasures that must first be unlocked; as maxims they were to be repeated and mulled over. While he was spiritual director in Avila, before he had undertaken any of his larger treatises, John jotted down many thoughts and counsels for the guidance of those whom he directed, probably similar to the ones expressed in the later collections. None of those earlier sayings has come down to us, but we know from witnesses that this practice was characteristic of the Carmelite confessor at that time. After John's imprisonment in Toledo, when he took up spiritual direction again, this time in Andalusia, he returned once more to the practice of condensing his thought into concise spiritual counsels for his penitents. They could keep them for inspiration, so as to be stirred in the Lord's service and love. Sometimes these sayings were directed to the particular needs of an individual; at other times they were destined more for a group of persons. The number of sayings that circulated must have been large, but comparatively few have come down to us, and they come through different collections.
The most distinguished collection is contained in an autograph manuscript, the largest autograph we have from John. Restored in 1976 and reproduced in a facsimile edition, the manuscript is preserved in the church Santa Maria la Mayor in Andajar (JaŽn). In his prologue to this collection, John calls his maxims "sayings of light and love". The title, Sayings of Light and Love, comes then from John's own words, and provides a good general designation for the other collections as well. Footnotes will indicate where one collection ends and another begins and the source from which each comes.
Sometimes, rather than being counsels destined for others, these sayings have an autobiographical coloring, as for example in the celebrated Prayer of a Soul Taken with Love. Here John in a profound experience of spiritual poverty becomes aware that God has pardoned him and given him everything in Jesus Christ; love then carries him off in a lyric outburst.
Though these sayings do not follow in any systematic order, we do find in them the important themes that the Carmelite friar developed at length in his major works. What he there expounds in detail, he here compresses into dense aphorisms. Much difficulty lies in deciding whether many of the maxims attributed to John actually did come from his pen, or disciples culled them from his sermons and conferences, or if they are simply spurious. Omitting the counsels of Madre Magdalena because they are repetitions of those given in chapter 13 of the first book of the The Ascent of Mount Carmel, we include here only those sayings that editors have considered trustworthy.
Prologue
O my God and my delight, for your love I have also desired to give my
soul to composing these sayings of light and love concerning you. Since,
although I can express them in words, I do not have the works and virtues they
imply (which is what pleases you, O my Lord, more than the words and wisdom
they contain), may others, perhaps stirred by them, go forward in your service
and love -- in which I am wanting. I will thereby find consolation, that these
sayings be an occasion for your finding in others the things that I lack. Lord,
you love discretion, you love light, you love love; these three you love above
the other operations of the soul. Hence these will be sayings of discretion for
the wayfarer, of light for the way, and of love in the wayfaring. May there be
nothing of worldly rhetoric in them or the long-winded and dry eloquence of
weak and artificial human wisdom, which never pleases you. Let us speak to the
heart words bathed in sweetness and love that do indeed please you, removing
obstacles and stumbling blocks from the paths of many souls who unknowingly
trip and unconsciously walk in the path of error -- poor souls who think they
are right in what concerns the following of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, in becoming like him, imitating his life, actions, and virtues, and the
form of his nakedness and purity of spirit. Father of mercies, come to our aid,
for without you, Lord, we can do nothing.
1. The Lord has always revealed to mortals the treasures of his wisdom
and his spirit, but now that the face of evil bares itself more and more, so
does the Lord bare his treasures more.
2. O Lord, my God, who will seek you
with simple and pure love, and not find that you are all one can desire, for
you show yourself first and go out to meet those who seek you?
3. Though
the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will
not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good
feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit.
4. It is better to be burdened and
in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you
are burdened you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the
afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden you are close to yourself, your
own weakness; for virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the
trials of patience.
5. Whoever wants to stand alone without the support of
a master and guide will be like the tree that stands alone in a field without a
proprietor. No matter how much the tree bears, passers-by will pick the fruit
before it ripens.
6. A tree that is cultivated and guarded through the care
of its owner produces its fruit at the expected time.
7. The virtuous soul
that is alone and without a master is like a lone burning coal; it will grow
colder rather than hotter.
8. Those who fall alone remain alone in their
fall, and they value their soul little since they entrust it to themselves
alone.
9. If you do not fear falling alone, do you presume that you will
rise up alone? Consider how much more can be accomplished by two together than
by one alone.
10. Whoever falls while heavily laden will find it difficult
to rise under the burden.
11. The blind person who falls will not be able
to get up alone; the blind person who does get up alone will go off on the
wrong road.
12. God desires the smallest degree of purity of conscience in
you more than all the works you can perform.
13. God desires the least
degree of obedience and submissiveness more than all those services you think
of rendering him.
14. God values in you the inclination to dryness and
suffering for love of him more than all the consolations, spiritual visions,
and meditations you could possibly have.
15. Deny your desires and you will
find what your heart longs for. For how do you know if any desire of yours is
according to God?
16. O sweetest love of God, so little known, whoever has
found this rich mine is at rest!
17. Since a double measure of bitterness
must follow the doing of your own will, do not do it even though you remain in
single bitterness.
18. The soul that carries within itself the least
appetite for worldly things bears more unseemliness and impurity in its journey
to God than if it were troubled by all the hideous and annoying temptations and
darknesses describable; for, so long as it does not consent to these
temptations, a soul thus tried can approach God confidently, by doing the will
of His Majesty, who proclaims: Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily
burdened, and I will refresh you [Mt. 11:28].
19. The soul that in aridity
and trial submits to the dictates of reason is more pleasing to God than one
that does everything with consolation, yet fails in this submission.
20.
God is more pleased by one work, however small, done secretly, without desire
that it be known, than a thousand done with the desire that people know of
them. Those who work for God with purest love not only care nothing about
whether others see their works, but do not even seek that God himself know of
them. Such persons would not cease to render God the same services, with the
same joy and purity of love, even if God were never to know of these.
21.
The pure and whole work done for God in a pure heart merits a whole kingdom for
its owner.
22. A bird caught in birdlime has a twofold task: It must free
itself and cleanse itself. And by satisfying their appetites, people suffer in
a twofold way: They must detach themselves and, after being detached, clean
themselves of what has clung to them.
23. Those who do not allow their
appetites to carry them away will soar in their spirit as swiftly as the bird
that lacks no feathers.
24. The fly that clings to honey hinders its
flight, and the soul that allows itself attachment to spiritual sweetness
hinders its own liberty and contemplation.
25. Withdraw from creatures if
you desire to preserve, clear and simple in your soul, the image of God. Empty
your spirit and withdraw far from them and you will walk in divine lights, for
God is not like creatures.
Prayer of a Soul Taken with Love
26. Lord God, my Beloved, if you still remember my sins in such a
way that you do not do what I beg of you, do your will concerning them, my God,
which is what I most desire, and exercise your goodness and mercy, and you will
be known through them. And if you are waiting for my good works so as to hear
my prayer through their means, grant them to me, and work them for me, and the
sufferings you desire to accept, and let it be done. But if you are not waiting
for my works, what is it that makes you wait, my most clement Lord? Why do you
delay? For if, after all, I am to receive the grace and mercy that I entreat of
you in your Son, take my mite, since you desire it, and grant me this blessing,
since you also desire that.
Who can free themselves from lowly manners and
limitations if you do not lift them to yourself, my God, in purity of love? How
will human beings begotten and nurtured in lowliness rise up to you, Lord, if
you do not raise them with your hand that made them?
You will not take from
me, my God, what you once gave me in your only Son, Jesus Christ, in whom you
gave me all I desire. Hence I rejoice that if I wait for you, you will not
delay.
With what procrastinations do you wait, since from this very moment
you can love God in your heart?
27. 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.
28. The very
pure spirit does not bother about the regard of others or human respect, but
communes inwardly with God, alone and in solitude as to all forms, and with
delightful tranquility, for the knowledge of God is received in divine
silence.
29. A soul enkindled with love is a gentle, meek, humble, and
patient soul.
30. A soul that is hard because of self-love grows
harder.
31. O good Jesus, if you do not soften it, it will ever continue in
its natural hardness.
32. If you lose an opportunity you will be like one
who lets the bird fly away; you will never get it back.
33. I didn't know
you, my Lord, because I still desired to know and relish things.
34. Well
and good if all things change, Lord God, provided we are rooted in you.
35.
One human thought alone is worth more than the entire world, hence God alone is
worthy of it.
36. For the insensible, what you do not feel; for the
sensible, the senses; and for the spirit of God, thought.
37. Reflect that
your guardian angel does not always move your desire for an action, but he does
always enlighten your reason. Hence, in order to practice virtue do not wait
until you feel like it, for your reason and intellect are sufficient.
38.
When fixed on something else, one's appetite leaves no room for the angel to
move it.
39. My spirit has become dry because it forgets to feed on
you.
40. What you most seek and desire you will not find by this way of
yours, nor through high contemplation, but in much humility and submission of
heart.
41. Do not tire yourself, for you will not enter into the savor and
sweetness of spirit if you do not apply yourself to the mortification of all
this that you desire.
42. 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.
43. 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.
44. Be attentive to your reason in order to do what
it tells you concerning the way to God. It will be more valuable before your
God than all the works you perform without this attentiveness and all the
spiritual delights you seek.
45. Blessed are they who, setting aside their
own pleasure and inclination, consider things according to reason and justice
before doing them.
46. If you make use of your reason, you are like one who
eats substantial food; but if you are moved by the satisfaction of your will,
you are like one who eats insipid fruit.
47. Lord, you return gladly and
lovingly to lift up the one who offends you, but I do not turn to raise and
honor the one who annoys me.
48. O mighty Lord, if a spark from the empire
of your justice effects so much in the mortal ruler who governs the nations,
what will your all-powerful justice do with the righteous and the sinner?
49. 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.
50. O Lord, my God, you are
no stranger to those who do not estrange themselves from you. How do they say
that it is you who absent yourself?
51. That person has truly mastered all
things who is not moved to joy by the satisfaction they afford or saddened by
their insipidness.
52. If you wish to attain holy recollection, you will do
so not by receiving but by denying.
53. Going everywhere, my God, with you,
everywhere things will happen as I desire for you.
54. Souls will be unable
to reach perfection who do not strive to be content with having nothing, in
such fashion that their natural and spiritual desire is satisfied with
emptiness; for this is necessary in order to reach the highest tranquility and
peace of spirit. Hence the love of God in the pure and simple soul is almost
continually in act.
55. Since God is 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.
56. 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.
57. 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.
58. 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.
59. 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.
60. When
evening comes, you will be examined in love. Learn to love as God desires to be
loved and abandon your own ways of acting.
61. 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.
62.
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.
63. Human beings know neither how to rejoice properly
nor how to grieve properly, for they do not understand the distance between
good and evil.
64. 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.
65.
Do not rejoice in temporal prosperity, since you do not know if it gives you
assurance of eternal life.
66. In tribulation, immediately draw near to God
with trust, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction.
67. In joys and pleasures, immediately draw near to God in fear and truth, and
you will be neither deceived nor involved in vanity.
68. 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.
69. You will without labor subject the nations and bring things to
serve you if you forget them and yourself as well.
70. 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.
71. Consider that God
reigns only in the peaceful and disinterested soul.
72. 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.
73. 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.
74. How is it you dare to relax so fearlessly, since you must appear
before God to render an account of the least word and thought?
75. Reflect
that many are called but few are chosen [Mt. 22:14] and that, if you are not
careful, your perdition is more certain than your salvation, especially since
the path to eternal life is so constricted [Mt. 7:14].
76. Do not rejoice
vainly, for you know how many sins you have committed and you do not know how
you stand before God; but have fear together with confidence.
77. Since,
when the hour of reckoning comes, you will be sorry for not having used this
time in the service of God, why do you not arrange and use it now as you would
wish to have done were you dying?
78. 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.
79. 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? [Mt. 16:26].
[1]
80. Bridle your tongue and your thoughts very much,
direct your affection habitually toward God, and your spirit will be divinely
enkindled.
81. Feed not your spirit on anything but God. Cast off concern
about things, and bear peace and recollection in your heart.
82. 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.
83. 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.
84. Rejoice habitually in God, who is your salvation [Lk. 1:47],
and reflect that it is good to suffer in any way for him who is good.
85.
Reflect how necessary it is to be enemies of self and to walk to perfection by
the path of holy rigor, and understand that every word spoken without the order
of obedience is laid to your account by God.
86. Have an intimate desire
that His Majesty grant you what he knows you lack for his honor.
87.
Crucified inwardly and outwardly with Christ, you will live in this life with
fullness and satisfaction of soul, and possess your soul in patience [Lk.
21:19].
88. Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel
or understand any particular thing concerning him.
89. Keep habitual
confidence in God, esteeming in yourself and in your Sisters those things that
God most values, which are spiritual goods.
90. Enter within yourself and
work in the presence of your Bridegroom, who is ever present loving you.
91. 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.
92. 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
93. Endeavor always that things be not for you, nor you for
them, but forgetful of all, abide in recollection with your Bridegroom.
94.
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.
95. 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.
96. 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
97. The soul that walks in love neither tires
others nor grows tired.
98. The poor one who is naked will be clothed; and
the soul that is naked of desires and whims, God will clothe with his purity,
pleasure, and will.
99. There are souls that wallow in the mire like
animals, and there are others that soar like birds, which purify and cleanse
themselves in the air.
100. The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son,
and this Word he speaks always in eternal silence, and in silence must it be
heard by the soul.
101. We must adjust our trials to ourselves, and not
ourselves to our trials.
102. He who seeks not the cross of Christ seeks
not the glory of Christ.
103. To be taken with love for a soul, God does
not look on its greatness, but on the greatness of its humility.
104.
"Whoever is ashamed to confess me before others, I shall be ashamed to
confess before My Father," says the Lord [Mt. 10:33].
105. Frequent
combing gives the hair more luster and makes it easier to comb; a soul that
frequently examines its thoughts, words, and deeds, which are its hair, doing
all things for the love of God, will have lustrous hair. Then the Bridegroom
will look on the neck of the bride and thereby be captivated; and will be
wounded by one of her eyes, that is, by the purity of intention she has in all
she does. If in combing hair one wants it to have luster, one begins from the
crown. All our works must begin from the crown (the love of God) if we wish
them to be pure and lustrous.[2]
106. Heaven is stable
and is not subject to generation; and souls of a heavenly nature are stable and
not subject to the engendering of desires or of anything else, for in their way
they resemble God who does not move forever.
107. Eat not in forbidden
pastures (those of this life), because blessed are they who hunger and thirst
for justice, for they will be satisfied [Mt. 5:6]. What God seeks, he being
himself God by nature, is to make us gods through participation, just as fire
converts all things into fire.
108. All the goodness we possess is lent to
us, and God considers it his own work. God and his work is God.
109. 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.
110. All for me and nothing for you.
111. All for you and
nothing for me.
112. Allow yourself to be taught, allow yourself to receive
orders, allow yourself to be subjected and despised, and you will be
perfect.
113. Any appetite causes five kinds of harm in the soul: first,
disquiet; second, turbidity; third, defilement; fourth, weakness; fifth,
obscurity [3]
114. Perfection does not lie in the
virtues that the soul knows it has, but in the virtues that our Lord sees in
it. This is a closed book; hence one has no reason for presumption, but must
remain prostrate on the ground with respect to self.
115. Love consists not
in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the
Beloved.
116. The entire world is not worthy of a human being's thought,
for this belongs to God alone; any thought, therefore, not centered on God is
stolen from him.
117. Not all the faculties and senses have to be employed
in things, but only those that are required; as for the others, leave them
unoccupied for God.
118. 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.
119. There are
three signs of inner recollection: first, a lack of satisfaction in passing
things; second, a liking for solitude and silence, and an attentiveness to all
that is more perfect; third, the considerations, meditations and acts that
formerly helped the soul now hinder it, and it brings to prayer no other
support than faith, hope, and love.[4]
120. If a soul
has more patience in suffering and more forbearance in going without
satisfaction, the sign is there of its being more proficient in virtue.
121. The traits of the solitary bird are five: first, it seeks the highest
place; second, it withstands no company; third, it holds its beak in the air;
fourth, it has no definite color; fifth, it sings sweetly. These traits must be
possessed by the contemplative soul. It must rise above passing things, paying
no more heed to them than if they did not exist. It must likewise be so fond of
silence and solitude that it does not tolerate the company of another creature.
It must hold its beak in the air of the Holy Spirit, responding to his
inspirations, that by so doing it may become worthy of his company. It must
have no definite color, desiring to do nothing definite other than the will of
God. It must sing sweetly in the contemplation and love of its Bridegroom.[5]
122. 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.[6]
123. If you wish to glory in yourself, but do not wish
to appear ignorant and foolish, discard the things that are not yours and you
will have glory in what remains. But certainly if you discard all that is not
yours, nothing will be left, since you must not glory in anything if you do not
want to fall into vanity. But let us descend now especially to those graces,
the gifts that make people pleasing in God's sight. It is certain that you must
not glory in these gifts, for you do not even know if you possess them.
124. Oh, how sweet your presence will be to me, you who are the supreme good! I
must draw near you in silence and uncover your feet that you may be pleased to
unite me to you in marriage [Ru. 3:7], and I will not rest until I rejoice in
your arms. Now I ask you, Lord, not to abandon me at any time in my
recollection, for I am a squanderer of my soul.
125. Detached from exterior
things, dispossessed of interior things, disappropriated of the things of God
-- neither will prosperity detain you nor adversity hinder you.
126. The
devil fears a soul united to God as he does God himself. [7]
127. The purest suffering produces the purest understanding.[8]
128. The soul that desires God to surrender himself to
it entirely must surrender itself entirely to him without keeping anything for
itself.
129. The soul that has reached the union of love does not even
experience the first motions of sin.
130. Old friends of God scarcely ever
fail him, for they stand above all that can make them fail. [9]
131. My Beloved, all that is rugged and toilsome I
desire for myself, and all that is sweet and delightful I desire for you.
[10]
132. What we need most in order to make progress
is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue,
for the language he best hears is silent love.
133. The submission of a
servant is necessary in seeking God. In outward things light helps to prevent
one from falling; but in the things of God just the opposite is true: It is
better for the soul not to see if it is to be more secure.
134. More is
gained in one hour from God's good things than in a whole lifetime from your
own.
135. Love to be unknown both by yourself and by others. Never look at
the good or evil of others.
136. Walk in solitude with God; act according
to the just measure; hide the blessings of God.
137. 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. They consider it a heavy burden to possess themselves, and
it pleases them more to be possessed by others and withdrawn from themselves,
since we belong more to that infinite Good than we do to ourselves.
138. It
is seriously wrong to have more regard for God's blessings than for God
himself: prayer and detachment.
139. Look at that infinite knowledge and
that hidden secret. What peace, what love, what silence is in that divine
bosom! How lofty the science God teaches there, which is what we call the
anagogical acts that so enkindle the heart.
140. 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.
141. Speak little and do not meddle in matters about which you are
not asked.
142. Strive always to keep God present and to preserve within
yourself the purity he teaches you.
143. Do not excuse yourself or refuse
to be corrected by all; listen to every reproof with a serene countenance;
think that God utters it.
144. Live as though only God and yourself were in
this world, so that your heart may not be detained by anything human.
145.
Consider it the mercy of God that someone occasionally speaks a good word to
you, for you deserve none.
146. Never allow yourself to pour out your
heart, even though it be but for the space of a Creed.
147. Never listen to
talk about the weaknesses of others, and if someone complains of another, you
can tell her humbly to say nothing of it to you
148. Do not complain about
anyone, or ask for anything; and if it is necessary for you to ask, let it be
with few words.
149. Do not refuse work even though it seems that you
cannot do it. Let all find compassion in you.
150. Do not contradict; by
no means speak words that are not pure.
151. 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.
152. Do not refuse anything you possess,
even though you may need it.
153. Be silent concerning what God may have
given you and recall that saying of the bride: My secret for myself [Is.
24:16].
154. Strive to preserve your heart in peace; let no event of this
world disturb it; reflect that all must come to an end.
155. Take neither
great nor little notice of who is with you or against you, and try always to
please God. Ask him that his will be done in you. Love him intensely, as he
deserves to be loved.
156. Twelve stars for reaching the highest
perfection: love of God, love of neighbor, obedience, chastity, poverty,
attendance at choir, penance, humility, mortification, prayer, silence,
peace.
157. Never take others for your example in the tasks you have to
perform, however holy they may be, for the devil will set their imperfections
before you. But imitate Christ, who is supremely perfect and supremely holy,
and you will never err.
158. Seek in reading and you will find in
meditation; knock in prayer and it will be opened to you in contemplation.[11]
159. The further you withdraw from earthly things the
closer you approach heavenly things and the more you find in God.
160.
Whoever knows how to die in all will have life in all.
161. Abandon evil,
do good, and seek peace [Ps. 34:14].
162. Anyone who complains or grumbles
is not perfect, nor even a good Christian.
163. The humble are those who
hide in their own nothingness and know how to abandon themselves to God.
164. The meek are those who know how to suffer their neighbor and themselves.
165. If you desire to be perfect, sell your will, give it to the poor in
spirit, come to Christ in meekness and humility, and follow him to Calvary and
the sepulcher.
166. Those who trust in themselves are worse than the
devil.
167. Those who do not love their neighbor abhor God.
168. Anyone
who does things lukewarmly is close to falling.
169. Whoever flees prayer
flees all that is good.
170. Conquering the tongue is better than fasting
on bread and water.
171. Suffering for God is better than working
miracles.
172. Oh, what blessings we will enjoy in the vision of the Most
Blessed Trinity!
173. Do not be suspicious of your brother, for you will
lose purity of heart.
174. As for trials, the more the better.
175.
What does anyone know who doesn't know how to suffer for Christ?
1. The autography manuscript ends here abruptly. The following saying are the MAXIMS ON LOVE gathered by the Discalced Carmelite nuns in Beas. A manuscript copy is preserved in the Silverian archives in Burgos.
2. Cf. Canticle 31, 5-6.
3. Cf. Ascent 1, 6-10.
4. For more on these signs of contemplation, cf. Ascent 2, 13-14; Night 1, 9.
5. Cf. Canticle 15, 24.
6. Cf. Ascent 1, 11, 3-4. The following maxims are from the edition of Gerona, published in 1650.
7. Cf. Canticle 24, 4.
8. Cf. Canticle 36, 12.
9. Cf. Canticle 25, 9-11.
10. Cf. Canticle 28, 10.
11. This saying comes from the Cathrusian Guigo II's SCALA PARADISI, chapter 2, in Migne, PL 40, 998. The counsels that follow come from an old manuscript belonging to the Carmelite nuns in Antequera. A copy is preserved in the National Library of Madrid.
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