Explore Quotes by John Of The Cross

When there is no love, pour in love and you shall draw out love.

Yearning: It needs to hurt in order to be worthy of the word. Otherwise it is just wanting.

Live in faith and hope, though it be in darkness, for in this darkness God protects the soul. Cast your care upon God for you are His and He will not forget you. Do not think that He is leaving you alone, for that would be to wrong Him.

Let all find COMPASSION in YOU.

Live as though only God and yourself were in this world, so that your heart may not be detained by anything human.

Desolation is a file, and the endurance of darkness is preparation for great light.

Silence is God's first language.

Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.

Abide in peace, banish cares, take no account of all that happens, and you will serve God according to his good pleasure and rest in him.

It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.

The window of the soul cleansed perfectly and made completely transparent by the divine light

If you lose an opportunity you will be like one who lets the bird fly away; you will never get it back.

Never relax, for you will not attain to the possession of true spiritual delights if first you do not learn to deny your every desire.

For true devotion must issue from the heart, and consist in the truth and substances alone of what is represented by spiritual things; all the rest is affection and attachment proceeding from imperfection; and in order that one may pass to any kind of perfection it is necessary for such desires to be killed.

The soul that walks in love neither tires others nor grows tired.

The divine awakening produces in the soul of the perfect a flame of love which is a participate of that living flame which is the Holy Spirit Himself...this is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the soul that is transformed in love.

The conditions of a solitary bird are five: The first, that it flies to the highest point; The Second, that it does not suffer for company, not even of its own kind; The Third, that it aims its beak to the skies; The Fourth, that it does not have a definite color; The Fifth, that it sings very softly.

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved. The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.

See that you are not suddenly saddened by the adversities of this world, for you do not know the good they bring, being ordained in the judgments of God for the everlasting joy of the elect.

The soul that journey's to God, but doesn't shake off it's cares and quiet it's appetities, is like someone who drags a cart of dirt uphill.

They say, "God told me", or "God replied to me". And yet most of the time they are talking to themselves.