The Ascent Of Mount Carmel
- The Ascent Of Mount Carmel
16th Century spiritual treatise by Spanish Christian mystic and poet St John of the Cross. "The Ascent Of Mount Carmel" is part of four works by John dealing with the so-called "Dark Night Of The Soul", when the individual Soul undergoes earthly and spiritual privations in search of union with God. Along with the other three, "The Dark Night Of The Soul", "The Living Flame of God", and the "Spiritual Canticle" it is regarded as one of the greatest works of mysticism in Christianity and in the Spanish language.
Written between 1578 and 1579 in El Calvario after his escape from prison, "the Ascent" is illustrated by a diagram of the process outlined in the text of the Soul's progress to the summit of the metaphorical Mt Carmel where God is encountered. The work is divided into three sections and is set out as a commentary on four poetic stanzas by John on the subject of the "Dark Night". John shows how the Soul sets out to leave all worldly ties and appetites behind to achieve "nothing less than transformation in God".
John's spiritual method of inner purgation along the 'negative way' was an enormous influence on T. S. Eliot when he came to write the "Four Quartets" and contains the famous lines of self-abnegation leading to spiritual rebirth:
:"To reach satisfaction in all:"desire its possession in nothing.:"To come to possession in all:"desire the possession of nothing.:"To arrive at being all:"desire to be nothing.:"To come to the knowledge of all:"desire the knowledge of nothing.:"To come to the pleasure you have not:"you must go by the way in which you enjoy not.:"To come to the knowledge you have not:"you must go by the way in which you know not.:"To come to the possession you have not:"you must go by the way in which you possess not.:"To come by the what you are not:"you must go by a way in which you are not.:"When you turn toward something:"you cease to cast yourself upon the all.:"For to go from all to the all:"you must deny yourself of all in all.:"And when you come to the possession of the all:"you must possess it without wanting anything.:"Because if you desire to have something in all:"your treasure in God is not purely your all.":::::"(trans Kieran Kavanaugh OCD - Paulist Press ISBN 080912839X)"
Links
*Christianity
*St John of the Cross
*Mysticism
References
*"John of the Cross: Selected Writings" - translated & introduced by Kieran Kavanaugh OCD. Preface by Ernest Larkin, O. Carm. Paulist Press ISBN 080912839X
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