The Essential St. John of the Cross

By St. John of the Cross

Collected here in this omnibus edition are all three of St. John of the Cross' major works as well as twenty of his magnificent poems. The Ascent of Mount Carmel is the third major work of St. John of the Cross and is considered to be the introductory work on mystical theology. Dark Night of the Soul is one of the greatest religious poems ever written. This masterpiece of Mystic Christianity examines faith and how to keep faith when all seems lost. Think of it as guide to making it through the dark night of the soul to the brighter, happier, faith filled tomorrow that awaits. In A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ, St. John states: "I do not purpose here to set forth all that greatness and fullness the spirit of love, which is fruitful, embodies in it. Yes, rather it would be foolishness to think that the language of love and the mystical intelligence - and that is what these stanzas are - can be at all explained in words of any kind, for the Spirit of our Lord who helps our weakness."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Jun 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781627932097

Reviews for The Essential St. John of the Cross

[g026r · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Barnstone produces a terrible translation; he mangles or creates phrases from whole cloth so that stanzas fit the rhyme scheme he's attempting to imitate. Those poems where he isn't trying to force the result into the original rhyme scheme are decent, but they're few and far between.

[wisewoman_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Upon a darkened nightThe flame of love was burning in my breastAnd by a lantern brightI fled my house while all in quiet rest...I was first introduced to this famous poem by 16th-century mystic St. John of the Cross through Loreena McKennitt's song on her album "The Mask and Mirror." It's a beautiful piece of work describing the soul's union with God, and I was interested to read the theological treatise he wrote later in his life about it. Unfortunately, the poem is much better read by itself than painstakingly expounded.The "dark night of the soul" is a term that denotes a period of spiritual dryness, when all devotional activities feel particularly flat and stale, and the soul is assailed by doubts and confusion. As a description of spiritual drought — something I think every Christian experiences — it's excellent, but where I just don't follow St. John is in his insistence on the details of every stage of the dark night. His wandering, belabored descriptions quickly become tedious, and the result is irrelevant to the vigorous pursuit of holiness taught by the New Testament.Biblically speaking, is the dark night supposed to be the defining theme of the Christian life? I'm not convinced it is. In the New Testament, Christians are urged to live wisely, serve one another, grow in knowledge and wisdom, work hard, examine themselves, bear fruit, be humble, and love faithfully. One thing we aren't told to do is spend our lives analyzing our spiritual depression and contemplating the vicissitudes of our inner man. Focusing so much energy and time on what's going on inside seems a little narcissistic, even if it is a spiritualized introspection. The Bible doesn't emphasize the experience of spiritual dryness and I think it's a mistake for us to do so. I'm not denying that spiritual dryness exists, but I think wallowing in it encourages a focus on self to the exclusion of other things like serving others and being faithful regardless of our feelings.St. John's biblical exegesis is weak; he only quotes Scripture when it supports his point (rather than Scripture being the starting point and his point being drawn from it), and he often has to twist it dreadfully to make it mean what he wants it to. Occasionally even the interpretations he wrests from his spare lines of poetry are also a stretch; at times he is extremely literal and other times the meaning is, of course, highly symbolic. There is no consistency in his interpretative principles.What I'm gathering from the Catholic mystics I've read thus far is that they are just like mystics of any other religion: they spout lots of man-made ideology and structures, they are absorbed in their own spiritual lives to the point of being self centered, and occasionally they say something that is true and beautiful. For the Christian seeking biblical truth, this will not satisfy.

[strokeboy_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beutiful poetry even for a novice like myself. The depth would be unreachable without Johns outstanding commentary.

[vpfluke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a superb translation of the poetry of St. John of the Cross. Ken Krabbenhoft has caught the beauty of the Spanish original. The poems grow upon you with rereading. One of the two poems that particularly captured my imagination was "I entered I knew not where", which continues "and remained without knowing,/ there transcending all knowledge". This is a paean to the intuitive way of knowing, which for St. John comes through the knowing of God but always remains a counter sense of not knowing. this is where your heart feels path but which your brain is unable to describe accutely.The other poem that I've read over a number of times is "Surely I know the spring that swiftly flows", which continues "even during the night". There is rhythm in this poetry, always anchored by the last line of each verse "even during the night" (Spanish "aunque es de noche") which pulls one into the depths of his soul, and the reader is drawn into his own depths, not revealed fully but now seen darkly.