St. John of the Cross.
Friday, December 14, 2018 is the Feast Day of Carmelite, St. John of the Cross. Juan de Yepes y Álvarez was born in Spain and entered the Carmelite Order as a young man. After a meeting with St. Teresa of Avila, he joined her attempts at reforming the order and pledged himself to a more stringently monastic and studious life than Carmelites then practiced. Arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for his beliefs by his fellow monks, John underwent a spiritual awakening while captive that led to an outpouring of mystical poetry and writing, later collected in volumes such as Ascent of Mount Carmel, Dark Night of the Soul, and A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom of Christ. He was canonized a saint in 1726.
St. John of the Cross is considered one of Spanish literature’s most important poets, and his works have been translated many times since his death. In the 20th century, poets John Frederick Nims and Willis Barnstone translated the poetry of St. John of the Cross into English. You can read excerpts of his poetry HERE at the Poetry Foundation’s website.
“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 your self 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.”
Excerpted from Sayings of Light and Love, 26-27 — St. John of the Cross