A Tribute to My Beloved

My Beloved Readers!

 

I would like to share with you these profound ideas by St. John of the Cross and his short biography.  

  

I believe that even we belong to different walk of faith, our journey in this lifetime it to unite with God at the sunset of our lives.  To simplify my context and way of thinking is, to unite ourselves with the DIVINE SELF. 

  

What is your concept of God? Is it a flower that reminded you of your love one?  A “Christmas” that gather your family to be together and gave happiness in your heart?  A friend who helped you in your lowest moment?  These  simple concepts might help you. 

   

I hope this will sound universal and ecumenical for the benefit of my atheist brothers and sisters and to the different faith in this world who accepted and respected my writings and personal thoughts in the blogosphere. 

For everybody are welcome to sit, talk, laugh and eat with me in my blog “unity table” without reservation, discrimination and argument but only to understand, share ideas, respect, to be at peace and to love! 

 

Okay! The steak with honey sauce and hot noodles are ready to be served.  Lets enjoy!

 

Few Profound Ideas from St.John of the Cross

 

– Substantial union with God is that by which the soul exists.

 

– The union of likeness, also called transforming or mystical union, is that by which the soul becomes like God.

 

– God is darkness to the soul in that the divine is essentially other than the human.

 

– Since the means must be proportionate to the end, the soul must travel in darkness to the Divine Darkness.

 

– The journey in darkness is named the via negativa.

 

– Night is the image for the dark journey of detachment as the soul actively purges herself of desires for that which is specific, concrete, and particular and as God purges her of desires and dependencies.

 

– Detached in terms of her senses and higher faculties, the soul knows only the dark, confused, and general, which is God.

 

– In the experience of being purged by God, suffering is epistemology.

 

– Love is both the mode and content of knowing

 

 

 

Biography of My Favorite Saint.

St. John of the Cross stands as one of the most important mystical philosophers in Christian history. The son of a rich merchant, John was born Juan de Yepes y Alvarez in Fontiveros, Spain in 1542. John’s father died when the boy was quite young, leaving his mother, a member of a lower social class, to raise him alone. After gaining employment in a plague hospital, John, at age 18, began to study with the Jesuits. He entered the Carmelite Order in 1563, continuing his studies at the University of Salamanca, where he began to teach while still a student. After being ordained in 1567, John met St. Teresa of Avila, another of the great mystics of the Christian tradition.

Following Teresa’s lead in attempting to reform his Order, John, in 1568, initiated a very severe form of monasticism in a tiny farmhouse. These monks went so far as to go barefoot, indicating their commitment to poverty, lending to them the appellation of “Discalced” or “shoeless.” Over time, a rift arose between the traditional Carmelites and John’s Discalced Carmelites, leading in 1576 to John’s arrest and imprisonment. During this period of imprisonment, John wrote much of the poetry that would provide his greatest contribution to later generations.

Eventually, the rights of the Discalceds were recognized, and John took on various roles of leadership within the order. After some fifteen years of leadership, he died in 1591, leaving behind a number of remarkable works of Christian mysticism: Ascent of Mount Carmel, Dark Night of the Soul, and the Spiritual Canticle of the Soul. 

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