Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen - Union with God : According to St. John of the Cross

Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD

Union with God

According to St. John of the Cross

Translated from the Italian
by Sister Miriam of Jesus, OCD

Carmel of Maria Regina Eugene, Oregon,
with the kind permission of
The Carmel of St. Joseph Rome, Italy

Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 1990 by The Carmel of Regina Maria; 2019 by Dan Burke

Union with God: According to St. John of the Cross was previously published with ecclesiastical approval by the Carmel of Maria Regina, Eugene, Oregon, in 1990.

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover design by David Ferris Design.

On the cover: Portrait of St. John of the Cross by an unknown artist, Spain, seventeenth century; Bridgeman Images (DGA575757).

Scripture quotations in this work are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition , copyright 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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ePub ISBN 978-1-622828-593

Contents

Introduction

On December 14, 1591, just after midnight, St. John of the Cross died in beda, Spain, at the early age of forty-nine. In his own words, he went to sing matins in heaven, where the darkness of faith gave way to the light of glory and union with God became eternal beatitude.

Union with God had been the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price for which he sacrificed everything else and to which he showed others the way by his teaching, his spiritual direction, and his writings. His gentle single-mindedness is expressed in one of the maxims we find among his writings: One human thought alone is worth more than the whole world; hence, God alone is worthy of it. This profound respect for every person is reflected in his ministry. While, by reason of the various offices he held in the Discalced Carmelite Order, his teaching and direction were addressed primarily to his brothers and sisters in Carmel, we know that he gave much of his time to the instruction and spiritual direction of the poor and the simple people in the neighborhood of Duruelo in Segovia.

St. John was canonized in 1726 and proclaimed a doctor of the Church in 1926, but he has never become what one might call a popular saint. His austere image and the language such as the all and the nothing and the dark night associated with his writings tend to put people off.

The year 1926, during which St. John was proclaimed a doctor of the Church, also marked the beginning of Father Gabriels ministry as teacher and spiritual director in Rome. Like St. John, his teaching and spiritual direction were primarily addressed to Carmelite students and to some communities of Carmelite nuns. I had the privilege of attending his lectures in spiritual theology for two years. What impressed one most was the enthusiastic conviction with which he spoke. And that was particularly true when he illustrated the universal call to holiness and showed how the teaching of St. John of the Cross was so relevant and valid for all. Later, when he was much in demand as a lecturer and a spiritual director, it was this same message that he brought to the hundreds of laypeople who attended his conferences throughout Italy and in other European centers. And the more he studied St. John of the Cross, the more he became convinced that here was a saint and doctor of the Church who deserved to be more widely known, whose writings contained such clear and relevant teaching for people of every walk of life.

In this book, Father Gabriel set out to do exactly that. Union with God was written for all those, especially laypersons, who are sincerely seeking God. Father Gabriel was well aware that many people who pick up the writings of St. John for the first time are put off by the austere, uncompromising logic of The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul , the first of the saints writings they will come up against in the various editions of his works. Father Gabriels advice is to begin with The Spiritual Canticle , where they will find a description of the fullness of life that God offers to those who seek Him. Only when they have gotten a glimpse of the goal will they be prepared to undertake the journey of faith and renunciation that leads to perfect love.

Union with God is a compendium of St. Johns teaching, presented by one who lived it before he wrote it. It is a handbook, a guide on the journey of faith and on the way of prayer and Christian perfection to total conformity with Gods will. Laypeople will find it both helpful and encouraging, not because it waters down in any way St. Johns teaching, but because of the clarity with which it applies to their state of life the demands of detachment and renunciation, without which total surrender to the action of the Holy Spirit is not possible.

Like any handbook or guide, this is not a book to be read quickly and then put aside. It is for readers who are committed to a genuine life of prayer and Christian perfection and who will continue to consult it as they continue on their ascent to holiness.

For many people, this English translation may be their first acquaintance with the teaching of St. John of the Cross. It is to be hoped that this book will dispel any fears that keep them from reading his works and discovering for themselves the beauty and depth of spirituality they contain. If it succeeds in that, I think that both the author of the Italian original and Sister Miriam, who did the translation, will feel fully rewarded.

Father Finian Monahan, OCD

Preface

This book owes its origin to the request of the publisher Salani, who wanted a volume for his new series of books that would present to persons living in the world the spiritual life in that integral fullness with which St. John of the Cross, doctor of the Church and master of union with God, offers it.

Having to speak of the doctrine of St. John of the Cross to persons who live in the world, I did not want to present it in an attenuated form; to me, that would have seemed like a betrayal.

There are not two doctrines of St. John of the Cross, one for religious and one for seculars. There is only one, which applies to all Christians indiscriminately and requires not a special state of life but only a disposition of will namely, the disposition of not wanting to be confined to mediocrity and therefore of not refusing generous renunciation at every privation required for attaining a more intimate union with God. In other words, the doctrine of the saint applies to all souls who do not want to live a Christian life by halves, but who want to correspond in full measure to their vocation as children of God and truly give God the place in their hearts that belongs to Him: the place of absolute preference above all others.

God does not forbid us to love creatures; on the contrary, He often commands us to do so, but He wants us to love them in conformity to His will and without attaching our hearts to them, in such a way that, while enjoying the use of created goods, we do not refuse God the preference owed to Him.

The world suffers and feels itself out of balance because it is alienated from God. Unfortunately, good souls are also far from Him, in the sense that they are not sufficiently united to Him; and that results from the fact that they live too immersed in creatures. Good souls grieve because today the world is far from God, and they believe that they themselves do not belong to the world either; but the world is the totality of individuals, and therefore, the practical way to lead the world to God is first to return to Him ourselves.