John of the Cross Quotes
1542–1591 Spain
Saint John of the Cross, or San Juan de la Cruz (24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591) was a Spanish Carmelite mystic and poet.
Also known as: Saint John of the Cross, St. John of the Cross, Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, Juan de la Cruz, San Juan de la Cruz
Random John of the Cross quote
39 quotes
Whoever flees prayer flees all that is good.
God is pleased with nothing but love … All our works, and all our labours, how grand soever they may be, are nothing in the sight of God.
If you wish to attain holy recollection, you will do so not by receiving but by denying.
Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!
He who loves is not ashamed before men of what he does for God, neither does he hide it through shame though the whole world should condemn it.
Therefore, anyone who now wants to ask God for visions or revelations would seem to be doing God an injustice by not fixing their eyes entirely on Christ and wanting anything else or anything new.
My sole occupation is love.
All my occupation now is the practice of the love of God, all the powers of soul and body, memory, understanding, and will, interior and exterior senses, the desires of spirit and of sense, all work in and by love. All I do is done in love; all I suffer, I suffer in the sweetness of love.
Deny your desires and you will find what your heart longs for. For how do you know if any desire of yours is according to God?
I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.
In search of my Love
I will go over mountains and strands;
I will gather no flowers,
I will fear no wild beasts;
And pass by the mighty and the frontiers. ~ 3
Not all the faculties and senses have to be employed in things, but only those that are required; as for the others, leave them unoccupied for God.
Although you perform many works, if you do not deny your will and submit yourself, losing all solicitude about yourself and your affairs, you will not make progress.
O crystal well!
Oh that on Thy silvered surface
Thou wouldest mirror forth at once
Those eyes desired
Which are outlined in my heart! ~ 12
My soul is occupied,
And all my substance in His service;
Now I guard no flock,
Nor have I any other employment:
My sole occupation is love. ~ 28
Souls will be unable to reach perfection who do not strive to be content with having nothing, in such fashion that their natural and spiritual desire is satisfied with emptiness; for this is necessary in order to reach the highest tranquility and peace of spirit. Hence the love of God in the pure and simple soul is almost continually in act.
The little white dove
Has returned to the ark with the bough;
And now the turtle-dove
Its desired mate
On the green banks has found. ~ 34
A thousand graces diffusing
He passed through the groves in haste,
And merely regarding them
As He passed
Clothed them with His beauty. ~ 5
In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.
O killing north wind, cease!
Come, south wind, that awakenest love!
Blow through my garden,
And let its odours flow,
And the Beloved shall feed among the flowers. ~ 17