Coming Soon: Turning to St. John of the Cross

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James Finley (0:10)

Coming soon on Turning to the Mystics. I think Thomas Merton was the first Christian mystic that I read in high school, in sign of a gemini, which led me to go to the monastery and be with him as my teacher, which is a real grace for me. But then, with Thomas Merton's guidance, I began to read the classical text of these mystics that we're going through in this series. And John of the Cross was the first mystic that I read under his guidance. And I can remember having never read John of the Cross before any of these classical texts. I remember the very first time I took with me my copy of John of the Cross and walked out into the woods and sat on the ground at the base of a tree. And I read this opening sentence. This is the prologue of how he begins his first work, John of the Cross says.

A deeper enlightenment and wider experience than mine is necessary to explain the dark night through which a soul journeys toward that divine light, a perfect union with God, which is achieved insofar as possible in this life through love. The darkness and trials, spiritual and temporal, that fortunate souls ordinarily encounter on their way to the high state of perfection, are so numerous and profound that human science cannot understand them adequately, nor does experience of them equip one to explain them.

I can remember sitting there as 18 years old, and that's the first sentence of the book. And I can remember just thinking like most of this is going right over my head. But when I read it, the music of it, I felt it was accessing me, like somehow it was about me. And it just set in motion this kind of being led by John of the Cross. And the beauty and the depth of his teachings has had an ongoing profound effect on me, his life and his teachings. But the thing is, like with all the mystics, they're beautiful and profound, but he's not easy. And that's why I'm hoping that by our reflections here, once we get the in scape, once we get the sense of what he's saying, something very intimate, really, once we see it, then we can benefit from the beauty of what he's saying. And so that's the hope here, I guess.

Our journey with St. John of the Cross begins on March 8th. Blessings till next time.

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