The Ascent of Mount Carmel
Overview
St. John of the Cross portrays Mount Carmel as the mystical height of Christian spirituality and union with God. In Ascent of Mount Carmel, St. John of the Cross dissects each phase of Christian spiritual growth—both triumphs and defeats—in order to produce a manual for Christian asceticism. The spiritual considerations of St. John of the Cross have encouraged the spiritual growth of Christians for over four centuries—including the academic and spiritual development of Pope John Paul II.
Top Highlights
“In a dark night.’—The journey of the soul to the divine union is called night for three reasons. The first is derived from the point from which the soul sets out, the privation of the desire of all pleasure in all the things of this world, by detachment therefrom. This is as night for every desire and sense of man. The second, from the road by which it travels; that is faith, for faith is obscure, like night, to the understanding. The third, from the goal to which it tends, God, incomprehensible and infinite, Who in this life is as night to the soul. We must pass through these three nights if we are to attain to the divine union with God.” (Page 11)
“The desires fatigue, torment, darken, defile, and weaken the soul.” (Page 29)
“These two evils flow from one single act of desire; for it is clear that the instant we set our affections upon any one created thing, our capacity for union with God is diminished in proportion to the intensity of that act of affection.” (Page 27)
“For it is well known that on the spiritual road not to go on overcoming self is to go backwards, and not to increase our gain is to lose.” (Page 49)
“What I say—and it is to the purpose—is, that every single desire, though it be but the slightest imperfection, darkens the soul, and hinders its perfect union with God.” (Page 42)
- Title: The Ascent of Mount Carmel
- Author: St. John of the Cross
- Translator: David Lewis
- Publisher: London: John M. Watkins
- Publication Date: 1905
- Pages: 265
St. John of the Cross was born in 1542 in Spain and was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation. He died in 1591.
