St. John of the Cross--Denial of Self

Greetings in Jesus and Mary...

Tomorrow, Nov. 24th is the feast of St. John of the Cross. I would like to begin by asking you to please kindly say a prayer for my daughter Veronica whose birthday is on this feast day, that she may return to the Catholic Church. I wholeheartedly thank you for this! May St. John pray for her to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!

St. John of the Cross throughout all of his writings continually had the idea of transforming union as his final goal.....and we should have this goal in all of our pursuits as well. We are here a short time on this earth and God has given us all that we need to seek Him (including His Mother Who helps us in the best way). There are very little excuses to put this off while we pursue earthly delights when, in reality, they  are fleeting compared to Heavenly delights which will last for all of eternity.

(Digression) I just got up to put another log in our woodburner and thought about the great analogy that St. John used of the transformed log in the fire. I pick up solid log pieces all day long to feed the woodburning stove......they start out in one state and then each gets transformed slowly in the fire....the wood catches fire and slowly it burns until it becomes a glowing log that is completely consumed by the fire. It seems miraculous. The miraculous fire of God's love will consume us if we accept His Divine Will and deny our own self-will. We must ask Our Lady to plunge ourselves into His Most Sacred Heart which is a Burning Furnace of LOVE!

What keeps one from giving oneself completely to God for this transformation?Contrary to what the world thinks, attachments are killjoys. The worldly man and woman work hard at multiplying experiences and accumulating possessions all in  pursuit of contentment. Do not these same people see that there has been a continual stream of discontentment....that this only feeds one to want more and more in search of satiating that hunger for deep happiness .....which can only come from God. No matter how intense wordly delights may be, they inevitably leave in their wake a disillusionment. Where one does find genuine joy is in the heart and on the lips of those who have generously given up all to have Christ. Saints are proofs that the world has things upside down and all wrong. "The more a person rejoices over something outside God," notes St. John, "the less intense will be his joy in God." In proportion as one is stripped of all self-centered seeking, so the capacity for deep, calm, enduring delight is heightened. St. Paul told the Philippians to "rejoice in the Lord always." Genuine joy, lasting joy is impossible outside of God.

St. John says, "Until a person is purified of his clingings, he will not be equipped to possess God, neither here below through the pure transformation of love, nor in heaven through the beatific vision."

There is so much to write on St. John's teachings but I will add this ....St. John speaks of voluntary desires and not "natural ones" because the natural ones offer little or no hindrance to advanced prayer as long as the will does not intervene with a selfish clinging. By natural desires, the saint has in mind, for example, a felt need for water when thirsty, food when hungry, rest when fatigued. There is no necessary disorder in experiencing these needs. He does condemn "habitual appetites" that are repeated and willed clingings to things less than God for their own sake. An occasional slip is not a habitual inclination. We must meet our needs without excess. In today's world, this is hard because our culture teaches us how to pamper our every whim and to do otherwise receives ridicule....unless done discreetly.

We must ask Our Lady who is perfect to help us in this life to make good choices and to surrender our own will and beg Her to show us God's Will. May She pray for us to have the necessary graces and virtues to live a life of prayer, reparation and self denial as She has lived.

It is good to read the works of St. John of the Cross to understand what to ask for but to rely on ourselves alone to accomplish this is foolish. Surrendering our will and Praying are needed.... prayer especially to Our Lady will help us achieve this in a secure way.

Below is a video of Fr. Ripperger on the Crisis in the Church and it covers the need for sacrifice. May we pray to St. John of the Cross to embrace our cross and to Our Lady for the necessary graces to be truly mortified, to make sacrifices, to pray, to make reparation and to ultimately love God above all things.

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The Crisis in the Church - Need for Sacrifice