The Living Flame of Love
by St. John of the Cross
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St. John of the Cross was a Carmelite friar and mystic who lived in Spain in the second half of the sixteenth century. He helped Teresa of Avila with her reform of the Carmelite Order and was imprisoned for political reasons. He wrote this beautiful poem on the love between the soul and God while in prison in Toledo. The work consists of the poem and a prose commentary on it.Tags
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> Par Elisabeth Libraire, Ysé Masquelier (In: Revue Française de Yoga, n°1 (Nouvelle série), 1990. p. 194) : [Bibliographie détaillée et critique]
Ecrite par un Carme, donc du même ordre que le grand mystique espagnol, à une époque où l’on redécouvrait en France, après des décennies de rationalisme, la vigueur de la poésie spirituelle, cette biographie demi-centenaire reste superbe. Elle met en relief le rôle de catalyseur de Saint-Jean-de-la-Croix, aussi bien vis-à -vis de la conscience chrétienne de l’époque, que vis-à -vis de l’évolution personnelle de ceux et celles dont il a été le conseiller.
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Desclée de Brouwer, 1936
Ecrite par un Carme, donc du même ordre que le grand mystique espagnol, à une époque où l’on redécouvrait en France, après des décennies de rationalisme, la vigueur de la poésie spirituelle, cette biographie demi-centenaire reste superbe. Elle met en relief le rôle de catalyseur de Saint-Jean-de-la-Croix, aussi bien vis-à -vis de la conscience chrétienne de l’époque, que vis-à -vis de l’évolution personnelle de ceux et celles dont il a été le conseiller.
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Desclée de Brouwer, 1936
Feb 12, 2019 (Edited)French
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St. John of the Cross represents the pinnacle of Spanish mysticism. In contrast to St. Teresa's works, which refer frequently to things of this world, St. John's poetry works on a purely spiritual, abstract plane. His poems consist of allegorical descriptions of the journey of his spirit through mortification of earthly appetites, illumination, show more and purification of the soul to union with God. In his prose commentaries on his own poems he laments the insufficiency of language to communicate his mystical experiences and his interior life. A disciple of St. Teresa, he became the spiritual director of her convent at Avila in 1572 and was responsible for carrying out many of her rigorous new programs for the Carmelite Order. Objections to his extreme reforms led to a period of imprisonment and torture in Toledo. During this time, according to tradition, he wrote Spiritual Canticle. His concentrated symbolic poetry has been studied with enthusiasm by such modern poets as T. S. Eliot, Paul Valery, and Jorge Guillen. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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