St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Seven Capital Sins and Best Type of Close Friend

Today we will learn and reflect on the first section of
the book by St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the
Soul. In this book, St John of the Cross seeks to
experience the Love of God as a lover would
experience this love, but he teaches us that before
we can do this, we must first work on purging our
base instincts leading us to the capital spiritual sins.

So, this first part is similar to other monastic
handbooks like the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St
John Climacus, and the Spiritual combat by Dom
Lorenzo Scupoli, on which we plan another series of
videos/blogs.

When I first dipped into the Dark Night, I thought that the danger
of the abstruse discussions of spiritual things could lead us away
from God rather than towards Him. But the unique insight St John
of the Cross teaches us about how we should choose our best
friends was a true pearl of wisdom that stuck with me personally,
making Dark Night of the Soul one of my favorite monastic works.
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this
video. Please feel free to follow along our PowerPoint script
posted to SlideShare. Please, we welcome interesting questions
in the comments. Let us learn and reflect together!

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St John of the Cross is a Doctor of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. Early
in his priesthood he met St Teresa of Avila, who was a Carmelite nun, and he
adopted her program of ascetic discipline and stricter fasting, seeking to rejuvenate
the monastic spiritual life. He followed St Teresa, she founded a new convent, he
founded a monastery, and he became the spiritual director for her community,
according to required practice of the Church at the time.
There was a great deal of tension among the Spanish Carmelite friars and nuns
rebelling against these strict practices. St John of the Cross was actually imprisoned
by rebellious monks, living under a brutal regime that included whippings, little
food, and a cramped cell, until he escaped eight months later, it took several
months for St Teresa and the hospital to nurse him back to health. Eventually they
received papal permission to found a new stricter order of Discalced Carmelites.

Christ of Saint John of the
Cross, by Salvador Dalí, 1951.
Crucifixion
sketch by
St. John of
the Cross,
which
inspired
Dalí

Who is the intended audience of the Dark Night of the Soul? Monks and
nuns, St John of the Cross wrote Dark Night of the Soul to provide his
experience as a spiritual director guiding the prayer life of his monks so
their prayers would be genuine. We must first recognize that since “all
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” that means that WE
must get back to the basics spiritually, confessing our sins each week.
When we, as laymen, study these monastic guides, we must allegorize
how to apply this advice to our daily lives, since our daily lives and
struggles differ from the monastics, in part because monks do not marry
or have children, or have formal secular jobs. Also, we must realize that
monasteries were more at the center of ancient and medieval culture
than they are in the modern world.

St Benedict admitting Saints into the Order, by Lorenzo Monaco, 1400's

Incidents in the Life of Saint, by Lorenzo Monaco, 1400's

-
Why would these monks imprison St John? It is misleading to compare
modern monasteries to medieval monasteries, in modern times
monasteries and convents are few and scattered, in medieval times they
were large and numerous. Most young men today who are not sure what
they want to do with their life, and do not wish to attend college, sign up
for military service. Young men in medieval Europe did not have this
option, there were no large standing armies where you could learn life
and career skills, so monasteries were the choice for young men who felt
they had few other options. This was true to a greater extent for young
women, they found greater independence and opportunities as nuns
than were available to other medieval women. More women were
widows in medieval times, convents meant they were not forced to
remarry to survive.

Saint Benedict and
Saint Scholastica and
Two Companions,
attributed to Jean
Baptiste de
Champaigne, 1600's

Ora et Labora, Pray and Work, monks at work
in the fields, by John Rogers Herbert, 1862.

Which meant that, indeed, monasteries were a type
of spiritual boot camp for these young men and
women, who needed far more remedial spiritual
training than the often college-educated spiritual
men who seek to enter the monasteries of today.
In medieval society there were three classes in
society, those who fought, the kings and nobles;
those who worked, the peasants and serfs; and those
who prayed, the monks and nuns.

The social order of the Middle Ages: Oratore, those
who pray; Bellatores, those who fight; and
Laboratores, those who work, from 1200’s.
Monks spent much of the day and night praying:
Monastic Prayer Schedule
• Matins (during the night, at about 2 a.m.
• Lauds or Dawn Prayer, at dawn, about 5 a.m.
• Prime or Early Morning Prayer, First Hour, 6 a.m.
• Terce or Mid-Morning Prayer, Third Hour, 9 a.m.
• Sext or Midday Prayer, Sixth Hour, 12 noon
• None or Mid-Afternoon Prayer, Ninth Hour, 3 p.m.
• Vespers or Evening Prayer, lighting of the lamps, 6 p.m.
• Compline or Night Prayer, before retiring, 7 p.m.

In the medieval monasteries there was often competition about who prayed the
best and who prayed the most, and many monks prayed for extended periods
between the hours. St John of the Cross warns us how even this dedication to a life
of prayer can lead to envy and pride and thus lead the unwary monk down the path
of imperfection if not sin.
The first book talks how easy it is fall victim to list of vices, the capital sins, even
when you think you are living a life of prayer, this can easily be adapted to be useful
for the layman. Even if we cannot lead a life of pray like a monk is able to do, even if
do not prayer deeply seeking to experience the blinding spiritual light of the beatific
vision, which very few monks truly experience, and St Thomas Aquinas only
experienced at the end of his life, we can simply interpret the most obvious lesson
that St John of the Cross implicitly teaches to all Christians, laymen included, that
we should pray more, and more earnestly.

Convent of Norbertine Sisters in Kraków-Zwierzyniec

St Catherine’s Monastery, the oldest monastery continually in use, Mt Sinai, Egypt

.
St John Climacus, who wrote a similar
guide for monks, The Ladder of Divine
Ascent, gives advice to laymen who
wish to adopt the solitary monastic life
as best they can in their daily lives:
“Some people living carelessly in the
world have asked me: ‘We have wives
and are beset with social cares. How can
we live the solitary life?’”

.
St John Climacus replies, “‘Do all the good
you can; do not speak evil of anyone; do
not steal from anyone; do not lie to anyone;
do not be arrogant to anyone; do not hate
anyone; do not be absent from the divine
services; be compassionate to the needy;
do not offend anyone; do not wreck
another man’s domestic happiness; and be
content with what your own wives can give
you. If you behave in this way, you will not
be far from the Kingdom of Heaven.”

The Dark Night of the Soul also quotes quite often Job’s prayers in the
Book of Job. Job played the role of both a layman and a monk, and the
Book of Job tells us the story of his Dark Night of the Soul, which is both a
story of a material dark night as a layman who lost all his possessions and
children in a fortnight, and as a story of a spiritual dark night as Job
wrestled with God, but never cursing God, seeking the true face of God in
a world of injustice.
The Dark Night of the Soul is also very similar to the Song of Songs, a
story of the deep love between the lover and her beloved, an allegory of
the deep love between the praying Christian and the God he loves. St
John of the Cross also wrote a short canticle on the Song of Songs:

- The examination of
Job, Satan pours on
the plagues of Job,
by William Blake,
circa 1821

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-spiritual-canticle/
Forty Stanzas total

This canticle reminds me of the
beginning of Psalm 42:
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?

The first book of the Dark Night of the Soul begins
with purging the capital sins that keep from us from a
deep Love of God, the first capital sin is:

CAPITAL SIN OF PRIDE
First, we must overcome the bad habits which
arise from the capital sin of pride, a pride that
comes to us “through our imperfections, a
certain kind of secret pride, where we are
satisfied with our works and with ourselves,”
where we seek to “speak of spiritual things” in
the earshot of others, seeking to be teachers
rather than learners, acting like the Pharisee,
“praising God for our own good works and
despising the Publican.” Of course, we always
see that our brother is the Pharisee, as we
imagine ourselves to be the Publican, as we can
never admit that we are, indeed, the Pharisee.
Parable of Pharisee and Publican

Most laymen, out of practicality, do not have a spiritual director to closely
monitor the extent of their daily devotions, and indeed it may not be
healthy to have a spiritual director giving such advice blindly to laymen.
Abbots or monastic spiritual directors are aware of the daily spiritual
struggles of the brothers in their care, they have a feel for the rhythms of
their inner life, something that is impossible to monitor for laymen living
in the world, whom they only see on occasion. But in the spirit of this
teaching, laymen should seek to develop a relationship with a confessor
who can more effectively guide them in their spiritual life. We should also
choose our priest and confessor with care, so we would be sufficiently
trusting in their spiritual direction, so that we would follow the advice
they offer when we consult with them any the major life decisions we
may be facing, even when their advice we may find hard to follow.

Before Confession,
by Alexey Ivanovich
Korzukhin, 1876

The confession of the
Giaour, by Eugène
Delacroix, 1800’s
Giaour means Christian.
The Giaour is an 1813
poem by Lord Byron,
inspired by his Grand Tour
in Athens, which was under
Muslim rule. Giaour is an
offensive Turkish word for a
Muslim infidel or non-
believer.
There was a Turkish custom
of throwing a woman found
guilty of adultery into the
sea wrapped in a sack.
(From Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giaour

The devil seeks to increase the fervor of those
whose spirituality is for show to impress their
brother, for the devil knows that without pure
motives that “these works and virtues you
perform are not only worthless, but they can
also even become vices.” St John of the Cross
teaches us that those who are so deceived
sometimes seek to deceive their spiritual
director, not confessing their real sins, but
rather confessing sins that do not seem so bad,
or sometimes even confessing their real sins to
another confessor so they can make
themselves look good to their spiritual director.
The confession, by Édouard Brandon, 1861

St John of the Cross notes that
these unfortunate souls
“dislike praising others and
love to be praised themselves;
sometimes they seek out such
praise. They are like the foolish
virgins, who, when their lamps
could not be lit, sought oil
from others.”
The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins,
by William Blake, 1822

Those who seek God with a pure heart and
genuine humility are not as susceptible to the
deceptions of the Deceiver and more quickly
progress to perfection with humility, “having
little satisfaction with their own progress,
considering all others as far better, usually
having a holy envy of them, with an
eagerness to serve God as they do.” St John
of the Cross continues, “They rejoice when
others are praised; they grieve only because
they do not serve God with the same fervor.”
“These souls will give their heart’s blood to
anyone who serves God.”

CAPITAL SIN OF AVARICE
Although the novice has vowed to follow a life of
poverty, giving up all his possessions, he is still
subject to the capital sin of avarice. Many medieval
monks sought to accumulate religious trinkets,
crosses, images and rosaries that they become
attached to.

St John of the Cross teaches us,
“Many can never have enough of
listening to counsels and learning
spiritual precepts, reading many
spiritual books, and they spend
time on all these things rather than
on works of mortification and the
perfecting of the inward poverty of
spirit which should be theirs.”
St Theresa and St John of the Cross,
Notre Dame Cathedral

How can I defend myself against this accusation from
St John of the Cross? Certainly, it is better to read
spiritual books than watch television and
entertaining videos. This is yet another reminder
simply that we should pray more and pray that our
spiritual readings will truly improve our soul.

CAPITAL SIN OF LUXURY:
My most vivid memory of the teachings of St John of the Cross when I
first read it many years ago was his teachings on who you should permit
to be your closest friends. This is found in his teachings on how the
spiritual life can be hindered by the capital sin of luxury. These spiritual
luxuries are those sensual delights and remembrances that hinder our
prayer life and our spiritual life. These include the sensual thoughts that
creep into our minds to distract us when we attempt to pray deeply to
our God in earnestness.
What does St John of the Cross mean when says that sometimes the
“pleasure which human nature takes in spiritual things” can be a spiritual
luxury hindering our spiritual growth?

We need to choose our close friends with
care, lest they be a spiritual luxury that
clouds our soul and hinders our spiritual
life. St John of the Cross teaches us,
“When our friendship is purely spiritual,
the Love of God grows with it; and the
more the soul remembers it, the more it
remembers the Love of God, and the
greater the desire it has for God.” But a
sensual friendship decreases in us our
Love of God and obstructs our spiritual
progress. “If that sensual love grows, the
soul’s love of God will grow colder, and
will forget God as it remembers the
sensual love.”
The Marriage at Cana, by Maerten de Vos, 1596

By analogy, when we fall in love, when we seek to marry, do we seek
someone who will make us happy? But if our marriage is both happy and
successful, each spouse must first seek to be kind to the other, each
putting the other’s needs first, each seeing the marriage as a monastic
calling.
Does St John of the Cross teach us that the same is true in our spiritual
lives, that our spiritual life will be like seed sown among the thorns if we
only pray to God to solve our problems and ensure our success? Or that
our spiritual life will be shallow if we pray to God that we be happy and
content and not be tested, so we can enjoy the “pleasure which human
nature takes in spiritual things?”

The Wedding at Cana, by Adam van Noort , early 1600’s

The Wedding at Cana, also by Adam van Noort , early 1600’s

When we draw an analogy from the writings of St John of the
Cross to our lives as laymen, and specifically to our lives of
friendship and love and marriage, we should only welcome the
love that is both sensual and spiritual, we should only welcome
this only if our love for our spouse or our friend increases in our
heart our Love for God. For all our close friendships, and our
marriages, we need to ask ourselves: Do we bring out the best in
each other? Or, do we bring out the worst in each other? Our
marriage is a monastic calling, our marriage should be for our
children. The prospective bride should ask herself the key
question, Will he be a good father? Will he be good with our
children?

The Wedding
Feast at Cana,
by Paolo
Veronese, 1563,
Musée du
Louvre, Paris

My comments here are colored by the advice offered in the
divorce group support DVD’s in the non-denominational
DivorceCare program, which has both Protestant churches and
Catholic parishes hosting these support groups,
And I would also like to mention there is a Catholic specific
program, which is beneficial since it covers the Catholic Church’s
teachings on annulments.

https://www.divorcecare.org/
Please, if you anyone who is facing divorce, let them know support is available.

https://www.catholicsdivorce.com/
Please, if you anyone who is facing divorce, let them know support is available.

There are many unhappy marriages in the Old Testament, and many
less than perfect though somewhat happy marriages, but we do have
one example of a marriage that is truly happy according to earthly
standards, but this was a marriage that ended in tragedy and death, a
marriage that was cursed by God because their love for each other
decreased their Love of God and decreased in their hearts their love
for their neighbor.
Which marriage was this? This was the marriage between King Ahab
and Queen Jezebel, we can infer they were truly in love as theirs was
one of the few royal monogamous marriages in the Old Testament.
Scriptures tell us that she showed genuine concern for Ahab’s troubles.

Jezebel Devoured
by the Dogs, by
Luca Giordano,
painted 1680

We read in 1 Kings that Ahab “lay down on
his bed, turned away his face, and would not
eat.” His wife Jezebel came to him and said,
“Why are you so depressed that you will not
eat?” He said to her, “Because I spoke to
Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give
me your vineyard for money; or else, if you
prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it’;
but he answered, ‘I will not give you my
vineyard,’” because he wanted to keep the
vineyard in his family. His wife Jezebel said to
him, “Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat
some food, and be cheerful; I will give you
the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
Naboth in his Vineyard, by James Smetham, 1856

The evil Jezebel then framed Naboth on a false charge
of blasphemy and had him stoned to death so her
Ahab would be happy once more.

Then the Lord
instructs Elijah to
proclaim a curse
on Ahab: “In the
place where dogs
licked up the
blood of Naboth,
dogs will also lick
up your blood.”
Concerning his
doting wife, “the
dogs shall eat
Jezebel within the
bounds of
Jezreel.” Jezebel Devoured by the Dogs, by Luca Giordano, 1680
Concerning his
doting wife, “the
dogs shall eat
Jezebel within the
bounds of Jezreel.”

Many years later, after Jehu overthrew King Joram,
son of Ahab, with Elisha's blessing and urging, he
marched into Jezreel. We read in 2 Kings that when
the deliciously wicked Jezebel heard Jehu was
coming, “Jezebel heard of it; she painted her eyes,
and adorned her head, and looked out of the
window” of her palace, taunting Jehu.

Jehu yelled up to the eunuchs, and they showed
their loyalty to him by throwing Jezebel out the
window. We read in 2 Kings, “Some of her blood
spattered on the wall and on the horses, which
trampled on her. Then Jehu went in and ate and
drank; he said, ‘See to that cursed woman and bury
her; for she is a king’s daughter.’ But when they
went to bury her, they found no more of her than
the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.”

Death of Jezebel,
Phoencian princess,
wife Ahab and
bitter enemy of
Elijah, illustrations
by Julius Schnorr
von Carolsfeld,
1860.

Jezebel may have been devoured alive by the
vicious wild dogs that today only live in Africa;
their range was likely more widespread in the
ancient world.

Ahab also met an early death, but Ahab’s curse was
realized nobly, twice removed. From a perspective of
a pagan warrior culture, the Lord permitted him to
die the noble death of a warrior, since he died in
battle gaining kleos, or glory, gaining a pagan
immortality of sorts as they would be remembered in
stories retold by their ancestors, as we explored in
our videos and blogs on the warrior culture of the
Iliad.

https://youtu.be/DpmuhZJUJn0
https://youtu.be/7lI2ZQ50wRc
https://youtu.be/bGHHD7XTvr0
https://youtu.be/ynIx-AVI2f8

Ahab died from a spear thrown at him in the thick of
battle, he died standing, his blood flowing onto the
floor of his chariot. Unlike Jezebel, the dogs did not
touch his body, but rather when his blood was
washed from his chariot, the dogs licked up this
water mixed with his noble blood. Maybe his divine
curse was mixed with a divine pity that he married
such an evil woman who ruined his formerly noble
soul.

Death of Ahab, Julius
Schnorr von Carolsfeld,
before 1883

We told the story of Ahab and Jezebel because it is
such a vivid example of how we can use Scripture to
allegorize the teachings of St John of the Cross on
how we should carefully select our best friends to
our lives as laymen.

The Wedding at Cana, by Frans Francken the Younger, 1620

CAPITAL SIN OF WRATH
St John of the Cross teaches us
that the capital sin of wrath
“happens when we become
irritated at the sins of others,
and keep watch on them with
uneasy zeal,” this tempts us to
see the faults of others but
ignore our own faults.
El Greco's landscape of Toledo depicts the priory
in which John was held captive, 1600

This reminds us of the Prayer of St Ephrem:
O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despair,
lust of power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my
own transgressions,
and not to judge my brother,
for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages.
Amen.

We see an example of vicious wrath in an early story
of two brothers who lived a monastic existence with
few possessions, who lived their lives solely for the
favor the Lord showed them for their offerings.

For example, Cain was
angry when the Lord
showed no favor for his
offering, and in response
to his anger and
impatience the Lord
asked Cain, “Why are you
angry, and why has your
countenance fallen? If
you do well, will you not
be accepted? And if you
do not do well, sin is
lurking at the door; its
desire is for you, but you
must master it.” Cain slaying Abel, by Abraham Bloemaert, 1590

St John of the Cross ,
St Catharine of Siena
Church, Columbus, OH
CAPITAL SIN OF SPIRITUAL GLUTTONY
St John of the Cross teaches the novice to be wary of the capital sin of
spiritual gluttony. In a monastery each monk is assigned a spiritual director
who directs him in his penitential and spiritual exercises, his prayer life, so
it is sufficient but not excessive. But many monks, “lured by the sweetness
and pleasure which they find in such spiritual exercises, strive more after
spiritual sweetness than after spiritual purity and discretion.” The spiritual
gluttony of some “continually go to extremes,” ignoring moderation,
“killing themselves with penances, weakening themselves with fasts,
performing more than their frailty can bear, without the order or advice”
of their spiritual director.
St John of the Cross warns us that we should not strive with great effort
for “prayer that consists of only experiencing sensible pleasures and
devotion,” that we should not “think that we have accomplished nothing,
lest we lose true devotion and spirituality, which can be gained only with
perseverance, patience, and humility,” seeking only to please God.

We can allegorize these teachings so they apply to us laymen. Don’t
we often pray to God with a list of requests, to spare us from life’s
trials and tribulations, to spare us and our family from suffering and
death? How often have we heard that those who suffer from life’s
tribulations, how they often become angry when they think God is
ignoring their prayers and requests? Then they wonder: Is there really
a God, since He is so obviously ignoring them? We should instead
realize that prayer is its own reward. The best prayer we can pray in
times of troubles and tribulations to pray for the strength to endure
our trials and temptations, that we may live a godly life, and that today
we may live a life without sin.

Allegory of 1755
earthquake, by
João Glama. In
the upper-left
corner is an
angel holding a
fiery sword,
personifying
divine
judgement.

We even have a word for this belief: Theodicy, or why does God permit bad things to
happen to good people? Voltaire and other Enlightenment philosophers similarly
asked the question, if God is Almighty, why does God permit natural disasters such as
the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, an earthquake and tsunami that destroyed Lisbon
when the churches were full of the faithful on a religious holiday? Tens of thousands
died, most of the buildings were destroyed, and candles lit by the faithful were
knocked over, starting a massive fire that burned for hours.
The term “theodicy” tells us more about ourselves than it tells us about God, the
very term itself implies we are more concerned about our own well-being, and how
God should take care of us, than how we should always, regardless of our
circumstances, seek to love our neighbor as ourselves, and Love our God. We may
cut a video on theodicy in the future.

Gottfried Leibniz coined
"theodicy" to justify God's
existence in light of the apparent
imperfections of the world.
Ruins of the Patriarchal Church Square, following the 1755
Lisbon earthquake, by Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, 1757

Ruins of the
Lisbon
Cathedral,
following the
1755 Lisbon
earthquake, by
Jacques-
Philippe Le Bas,
1757

CAPITAL SINS OF SPIRITUAL ENVY AND SLOTH
St John of the Cross warns us against the bad
habits and capital sins of spiritual envy and sloth.
Envy is the gateway sin of impure thoughts that
leads to all other mortal sins like anger, murder,
theft, and adultery. When we fall prey to the sin
of spiritual envy, “we prefer not to hear others
praised, we become displeased at other’s virtues”
and sometimes beat down their praises,
“contrary to the spirit of charity, which, as St Paul
states, rejoices in goodness. And, if charity has
any envy, it is a holy envy, grieving us when we do
not have the virtue of others, but also see joy in
the virtue of others, and we delight when others
surpass us in the service of God.” Virgin of the Carmen with St Theresa & St John
of the Cross, by Juan Rodríguez Juárez, 1700

Spiritual sloth and envy endanger our love for our
neighbor, and any spiritual exercise that does not
increase in us our love for our neighbor is futile,
misdirected, and is a waste of time.

St John of the Cross teaches
us that we are guilty of
spiritual sloth when we “fail
to find in prayer the
satisfaction which our taste
requires,” when we abandon
prayer and the “way of
perfection, seeking instead
the pleasure and sweetness
of our own will,” rather than
God’s will.

St John of the Cross warns us that we
should not “find it irksome when we
are commanded to do that which
gives us no pleasure,” rather, “we
should have the fortitude to bear the
trials of perfection.” We should not
be like those “who are softly
nurtured and who run fretfully away
from everything that is hard, and
take offence at the Cross, in which
they can find the delights of the
spirit.”

Anywhere there are large communities, like the medieval
monasteries, there is also peer pressure. The monastic
handbooks warn us that demonic forces seek to twist
even this benign peer pressure into malignity, into a bad
thing. An excellent description of this hidden warfare is
the work by CS Lewis depicting how demons seek to drag
down the faithful in his Screwtape Letters. This is also a
predominant theme in Dark Night of the Soul.

The Torment
of Saint
Anthony, by
Michelangelo,
1488
Anonymous,
Upper Rhine,
circa 1520

These observations by St John the Cross in Dark Night
of the Soul contains a great spiritual truth and
perhaps a glimpse into the history of the times:

St John in Ecstasy before the Cross, by
Antoine Ranc, circa 1705
When the soul who has only begun its spiritual
journey, it “finds delight in spending long periods,
sometimes whole nights, in prayer; penances are
its pleasures; fasts its joys; and its consolations
are to make use of the sacraments and to occupy
itself in Divine things. In these Divine things
spiritual persons often find themselves, spiritually
speaking, very weak and imperfect. For since they
are moved to these Divine things and spiritual
exercises by the consolation and pleasure that
they find in them, and since, too, they have not
been prepared for them by the practice of earnest
striving in the virtues, they have many faults and
imperfections” in their spiritual life.

Put simply, you can pray all night, you can burn
candles all day, you can fast all week, make a show of
being all sad and penitential, but if you don’t show
kindness and love to your neighbor, all your spiritual
efforts are in vain; if you don’t love your neighbor,
then you don’t Love God, which others have put
simply and elegantly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epArSqlMQ-E

This video will be followed by the next chapters where St
John of the Cross discusses the Dark Night of the Soul, and
reveals that he was inspired by the writings of Dionysius
writing a thousand years before, particularly the famed
Mystical Theology, which is simply grand theological poetry.
We have also cut a video on the interesting history of
Dionysius and his mystical works, and how ancient,
medieval, and modern theologians and scholars interpret
these highly influential works. This video also has book
reviews on Dionysius and St John of the Cross.

DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
Our source is the Dark Night of the Soul. There were
about a dozen manuscripts discussed in the
introduction, all of them copies or copies of copies of
the original. Like many works written before the
invention of the printing press, the original has been
lost. The main manuscripts appear to be complete,
with few if any missing pages, and appear to be
reasonably accurate.

https://www.meetup.com/Reflections/

https://www.patreon.com/seekingvirtueandwisdom

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Seven Capital Sins and Best Type of Close Friend

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