Feast Day of St. John of the Cross

Never fail, whatever may befall you, be it good or evil, to keep your heart quiet and calm in the tenderness of love.  ~St. John of the Cross in The Living Flame of Love

Ave Maria!  This morning I woke up remembering the above words from the writings of St. John of the Cross.  They've been stored in my spiritual survival kit for over 30 years now, and they speak more than ever to my inmost heart.  St. John suffered terribly at the hands of his brothers in religious life who vehemently opposed his reformations to the Carmelite Order.  They even captured him and threw him into prison, where he wrote one of the world's greatest and most famous spiritual poems, "The Dark Night of the Soul."  Later, this remarkable mystic of burning love wrote a treatise on this poem, all of which can be found here.  I don't easily gravitate to some of what St. John says, but I always listen to him because his words were purified by that Living Flame of Love which consumed his entire being, Christ Crucified, his only Lord and Master.

Forget creation,
Remember the Creator,
Seek within,
There forever be loved by the Lover.

~St. John of the Cross

Dear Mary, Virgin of Advent, teach me to seek within that I may find the true Lover.  Amen.