Sayings of Light and Love #26
Prayer of a Soul Taken with Love
Sayings of Light and 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?”*
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*The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and Otilio Rodriguez OCD, translators, ICS Publications, Washington, D.C., 1991.
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Saint John of the Cross, O.C.D. (1542-1591), a priest and Doctor of the Church, is considered to be the Doctor of Mystical Theology, and was a reformer of the Carmelite Order, along with Saint Teresa of Avila (Saint Teresa of Jesus), who founded the Discalced Carmelites … and who talked him into remaining a Carmelite instead of becoming a Carthusian. He was very familiar with both Holy Scripture and with Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. Known as the Doctor of Mystical Theology, he is also known for his writings (especially his poetry), including: The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Counsels to a Religious, Dark Night of the Soul, Living Flame of Love, Precautions (Cautions), Spiritual Canticle, Spiritual Maxims: Words of Light, Points of Love and Other Counsels. He was canonized in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII and was named a Doctor of the Church in 1926 by Pope Pope Pius XI based on his eminent sanctity, eminent doctrine and the solemn declaration of the Roman Pontiff himself. Pope Benedict XIII.
