Turning to St. John of the Cross

James Finley (0:04)

The song of the soul.

Mirabai Starr (1:10)

En la noche dichosa, En secreto que nadie me veía, Ni yo miraba cosa, Sin otra luz seguía, Sino la que en el corazón ardía.

James Finley (1:23)

This light led the way more clearly than the risen sun, To where he was waiting for me, The one I knew so intimately, In a place where no one could find us.

Mirabai Starr (1:36)

Aquesta me guiaba, Más cierto que la luz del mediodía, A donde me esperaba, Quien yo bien me sabía, En parte donde nadie parecía.

James Finley (1:49)

O night that guided me, O night sweeter than sunrise, O night that joined lover with beloved, Lover transformed in beloved.

Mirabai Starr (2:13)

Transformada.

James Finley (2:15)

Upon my blossoming breast, Which I cultivated just for him, He drifted into sleep, And while I caressed him, A cedar breeze touched the air.

Mirabai Starr (2:28)

En mi pecho florido, Que entero para él solo se guardaba, All that was left for him was to sleep, All that was left for him was to sleep, Y yo le regalaba, Y el ventaille de cedros aeredaba.

James Finley (2:41)

Wind blew down from the tower, Parting the locks of his hair. With his gentle hand he wounded my neck, And all my senses were suspended.

Mirabai Starr (2:51)

El aire de las almenas, Cuando yo sus cabellos esparcía, Con su mano serena en mi cuello hería, Y todos mis sentidos suspendía.

James Finley (3:04)

I lost myself, forgot myself.

I lay my face against the beloved's face. Everything fell away, And I left myself behind, Abandoning my cares among the lilies, Forgotten.

Mirabai Starr (3:19)

Quédeme y olvídeme, El rostro recliné sobre el amado. Ceso todo y dejeme, Dejando mi cuidado Entre las azucenas, Olvidado.

James Finley (3:47)

Greetings, I'm Jim Finley.

Kirsten Oates (3:49)

And I'm Kirsten Oates.

James Finley (3:51)

Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Kirsten Oates (4:00)

Thank you, Jim and Mirabai Starr, for that absolutely beautiful reading of St. John of the Cross' poem, Songs of the Soul. What a beautiful way to start this season.

I'm just gonna take a pause and a breath to let that soak in a minute.

Welcome, everyone, to Turning to the Mystics, season three. I'm here with Jim, and we're very excited to be launching a new season, focusing on another 16th-century Spanish mystic, John of the Cross. I thought it might be helpful to listeners for us just to go back through where we've come from. So we launched in season one with inviting people to understand this practice of Lectio Divina, and then Thomas Merton was the first mystical text we looked at, and then in the second season, we looked to Teresa of Avila, and now we're turning to St. John of the Cross, another 16th-century mystic who was actually a friend of Teresa of Avila's. So can you just reflect on where we've come from and why you have chosen that path?

James Finley (5:20)

Yes, yes.

First of all, I think what I'm doing here with this whole series is very personal, in a way. And what I'm really doing is sharing the mystics whose teachings have had the most effect on my life personally. That is, the mystics starting when I was in the monastery that I was introduced to by Thomas Merton, and which I've been reading over the years and then teaching on retreats. And so I started with Thomas Merton because when I was 14 years old and started reading Thomas Merton in high school, and through high school, Thomas Merton was the first teacher that I was exposed to, mystic teacher. And then because when I went to the monastery, he became my teacher in person for three years. So I started with him for that reason. I also started with him because he's contemporary, and therefore, he speaks our language, you know, he's like the present day mystical dimension of discipleship and of life in the world. So it's a personal reason. He's the first teacher I had, the teacher that helped form me in his writings and in his life. And also for the students, he's a good place to start because his language is contemporary. Unlike the others, we have to do some translation from other centuries. With him, we don't need to do that. So that's why I started with Thomas Merton.

Then next to that same kind of personal way, what happened for me actually was the first classical text of the mystics Thomas Merton helped me in was St. John of the Cross.

But what I'm trying to do here in this series, basically, is to go back and forth between a woman and a man mystic, back and forth. So because we started with Merton, then after I started reading St. John of the Cross, then I got into Teresa.