# The Living Flame of Love - OCDS Ongoing Formation Volume II Required Reading: St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love: Study Edition. Translated and prepared by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. ICS publications. (Please note: If participants already own The Collected Works of John of the Cross, they should not be required to purchase the Study Edition.) Additional resources: YouTube sessions, CarmelCast – Season 8, “The Living Flame of Love by St. John of the Cross.” Episodes 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56. Note: These episodes cover all four stanzas of the Living Flame of Love. ## Introduction Required Reading: Prologue and Introduction to The Living Flame of Love. St. John of the Cross, in his commentaries on The Spiritual Canticle, explained in detail the highest degree of perfection attainable in this life. John didn’t stop there; he went on to compose another poem, The Living Flame of Love. He wrote a commentary on the poem for Doña Ana de Peñalosa, a widow who went to him for spiritual direction while he was in Granada. One may pose a question as to the difference between the two poems. Are there any differences? John, in his prologue to The Living Flame, gives us some understanding: “Although in the stanzas [of The Spiritual Canticle] we have already commented on, we speak of the highest degree of perfection one can reach in this life (transformation in God), these stanzas [The Living Flame] treat of a love deeper in quality and more perfect within this very state of transformation. Even though it is true that what these and the other stanzas describe is all one state of transformation, and as such one cannot pass beyond it; yet, with time and practice, love can grow deeper in quality, as I say, and become more ardent. We have an example of this in the activity of fire: Although the fire has penetrated the wood, transformed it, and united it with itself, yet as this fire grows hotter and continues to burn, so the wood becomes much more incandescent and inflamed, even to the point of flaring up and shooting out flames from itself” (LF Prologue, para. 3, emphasis added). Living Flame of Love – Introduction p.106 “It should be understood that the soul now speaking has reached this enkindled degree, and is so inwardly transformed in the fire of love and elevated by it that it is not merely united to this fire but produces within it a living flame. The soul feels this and speaks of it thus in these stanzas with intimate and delicate sweetness of love, burning in love’s flame, and stressing in these stanzas some of the effects of this love” (LF Prologue, para. 4, emphasis added). The compelling image of flame, working on the wood, dispelling the moisture, turning it black, then giving it the qualities of fire, appeared first in The Dark Night, Book 2 ch. 10 and 11, to explain the purification process from senses to spirit and beyond. In The Spiritual Canticle it turns up again in the serene night toward the end of the poem, a flame that is painless, comforting and conformed to God. “In the serene night/with a flame that is consuming and painless” (SC. stanza 39). John tells us this burning flame is the love of the Holy Spirit. Now, having grown hotter and sometimes flaring up, it impels John to write more verses about the sublime communion taking place in the deepest center of this soul (see Introduction to LF, first para., Collected Works). In his introduction, Fr. Kavanaugh states it is important to note that the experiences John describes in The Living Flame point to the present moment. “There is no progressive movement from stage to stage. The focus is on the present, on what is taking place now.” However, John did not fail to look back on the previous suffering and dark night moments that led him to this marvelous union. “Once obscure and blind/now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely/both warmth and light to their Beloved.” Apparently, John begins The Living Flame of Love where he left off in The Spiritual Canticle. “This is a new country to which he brings us. Now he speaks more of glorification than of purification.” “It seems, because it is so forcefully transformed in God, so sublimely possessed by him, and arrayed with such rich gifts and virtues, that it is singularly close to beatitude – so close that only a thin veil separates it” (LF.1:1, note: pg. 641, Collected Works). Consequently, the soul is not merely united to the fire (God) but produces within itself a living flame that overflows and touches the whole world in the service of humanity. “... love is never idle, but in continual motion, it is always emitting flames everywhere like a blazing fire...” (LF.1:8). “Thus in this state the soul cannot make acts because the Holy Spirit makes them all and moves it toward them. As a result all the acts of the soul are divine, since both the movement to these acts and their execution stem from God” (LF.1:4). The ecclesial value of the Carmelite charism of prayer is felt in this union. St. John of the Cross burned with the desire to spread The Living Flame of Love to the people of God. He sings his heart out in the joy of spreading the good news of the Gospel: I will go and tell the world, spreading the word of your beauty and sweetness and of your sovereignty. Poetry: Romances 9. Incarnation: 7. Living Flame of Love – Introduction p.107 “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Mark. 16:15 “Taking into account the origins of Carmel and the Teresian charism, [one of] the fundamental elements of the vocation of Teresian Secular Carmelites [is] ‘to seek mysterious union with God’ by way of contemplation and apostolic activity, indissolubly joined together, for service to the Church.” OCDS Constitutions, 9 Living Flame of Love – Session One p.108 ## Stanza 1 Commentary 1-17 (May take multiple sessions, as needed.) Essential Points to Discuss:  The Holy Spirit plays a dominant role in the transformed soul. “This flame of love is the Spirit of its Bridegroom, who is the Holy Spirit. The soul feels him within itself not only as a fire that has consumed and transformed it but as a fire that burns and flares within it,... And that flame, every time it flares up, bathes the soul in glory and refreshes it with the quality of divine life. Such is the activity of the Holy Spirit in the soul transformed in love” (LF.1:3).  “The interior acts he produces shoot up flames, for they are acts of inflamed love, in which the will of the soul united with that flame, made one with it, loves most sublimely. Thus these acts of love are most precious; one of them is more meritorious and valuable than all the deeds a person may have performed in the whole of life without this transformation, however great they may have been” (LF.1:3).  “Thus in this state the soul cannot make acts because the Holy Spirit makes them all and moves it toward them. As a result all the acts of the soul are divine, since both the movement to these acts and their execution stem from God” (LF.1:4). Note: “In this respect, John speaks of ‘our Lady, the most glorious Virgin’ as the supreme example; see A.3.2.8-10” (LF.1, footnote 1).  “It seems to such persons that every time this flame shoots up, making them love with delight and divine quality, it is giving them eternal life, since it raises them up to the activity of God in God” (LF.1:4). Side note: Toward the end of her life, St. Thérèse of Lisieux experienced that it was not her, but God who was working in every act of her charitable deeds: “Yes, I feel it, when I am charitable, it is Jesus alone who is acting in me, and the more united I am to Him, the more also do I love my Sisters” (Story of a Soul, Study Edition, Manuscript C, pg. 344).  “Since this soul is so close to God that it is transformed into a flame of love in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are communicated to it, how can it be thought incredible that it enjoy a foretaste of eternal life?” (LF.1:6, emphasis added). Note: By using different terminologies, John emphasizes that the transformed person, here and now, truly lives a “divine life,” “God’s life,” “eternal life.” And this flame of love, this divine life, has an apostolic dimension to it.  “Yet it does not enjoy eternal life perfectly since the conditions of this life do not allow it” (LF.1:6).  Nevertheless, “... The delight and joy of the soul is so much more intense because God is the doer of all without the soul’s doing anything.... its sole occupation now is to receive from God, who alone can move the soul and do his work in its depths. Thus all the movements of this soul are divine” (LF.1:9).  John uses the analogy of a rock to describe the soul’s capacity to reach the “deepest center.” “... The rock always possesses the power, strength, and inclination to go deeper and reach the ultimate and deepest center; and this it would do if the hindrance were Living Flame of Love – Session One p.109 removed. When once it arrives and no longer has any power or inclination toward further movement, we declare that it is in its deepest center. The soul’s center is God” (LF.1:11-12). Note: “In this stanza and generally throughout Flame the term ‘substance of the soul’ stands for the deepest and most intimate part of one’s being” (LF.1, footnote 2, Collected Works). “It is noteworthy, then, that love is the inclination, strength, and power for the soul in making its way to God, for love unites it with God. The more degrees of love it has, the more deeply it enters into God and centers itself in him” (LF.1:13).  According to John, there are different degrees and levels of the soul’s deepest center. “Hence, for the soul to be in its center – which is God, as we have said – it is sufficient for it [the soul] to possess one degree of love, for by one degree alone it is united with him through grace. Should it have two degrees, it becomes united and concentrated in God in another, deeper center. Should it reach three, it centers itself in a third. But once it has attained the final degree, God’s love has arrived at wounding the soul in its ultimate and deepest center, which is to illuminate and transform it in its whole being, power, and strength, and according to its capacity, until it appears to be God” (LF.1:13). Note: However, John reminds the reader that the soul cannot reach the perfect state of glory in this mortal life.  Some people, not understanding God’s mercy and love, may believe John is grossly exaggerating! But John affirms God’s generosity that makes such experience possible: “Yet I reply to all these persons that the Father of lights [Jas. 1:17], who is not closefisted but diffuses himself abundantly as the sun does its rays, without being a respecter of persons [Acts 10:34], wherever there is room – always showing himself gladly along the highways and byways – does not hesitate or consider it of little import to find his delights with the children of the earth at a common table in the world [Prov. 8:31]” (LF.1:15, emphasis added). Side note: St. Thérèse in her Story of a Soul confirms John’s teaching when she writes: “I understood, too, that Our Lord’s love is revealed as perfectly in the most simple soul who resists His grace in nothing as in the most excellent soul… These are the wildflowers whose simplicity attracts Him. When coming down in this way, God manifests His infinite grandeur. Just as the sun shines simultaneously on the tall cedars and on each little flower as though it were alone on the earth, so Our Lord is occupied particularly with each soul as though there were no others like it. And just as in nature all the seasons are arranged in such a way as to make the humblest daisy bloom on a set day, in the same way, everything works out for the good of each soul” (Story of a Soul, Study Edition, page 15, emphasis added).  John goes on to state: “It should not be held as incredible in a soul now examined, purged, and tried in the fire of tribulations, trials, and many kinds of temptations, and found faithful in love, that the promise of the Son of God be fulfilled, the promise that the Most Blessed Trinity will come and dwell in anyone who loves him [Jn 14:23]” (LF.1:15). Living Flame of Love – Session One p.110  “The Blessed Trinity inhabits the soul by divinely illumining its intellect with the wisdom of the Son, delighting its will in the Holy Spirit, and absorbing it powerfully and mightily in the unfathomed embrace of the Father’s sweetness” (LF.1:15). Living Flame of Love – Session Two p.111 ## Stanza 1 Commentary 18-36 Explanatory note: Participants are asked to read and reflect on the purifying nature of the flame described in LF.1.18-26. “... you no longer afflict or distress or weary me as you did before” (LF.1:18). The flame is the central image of the poem. Before continuing the discussion regarding the gentle flame in the state of union, John believes it is necessary to look back at what the soul has undergone in order to reach this high state. John covers this briefly in his commentary LF.1.18-26. The purifying action of the Holy Spirit is discussed at greater length in The Dark Night (see The Living Flame Study Edition Interpretive Notes, pg. 54). Essential Points to Discuss:  A central teaching of John is that this fire, described as glorifying the soul, is the same fire that previously played a crucial role in purging the soul and causing it great suffering. “The very fire of love that afterward is united with the soul, glorifying it, is what previously assailed it by purging it, just as the fire that penetrates a log of wood is the same [fire] that first makes an assault on the wood, wounding it with the flame, drying it out, and stripping it of its unsightly qualities until it is so disposed that it can be penetrated and transformed into the fire” (LF.1:19, emphasis added).  “In this preparatory purgation the flame is not bright for a person but dark. If it does shed some light, the only reason is so the soul may see its miseries and defects. It is not gentle but afflictive. Even though it sometimes imparts the warmth of love, it does so with torment and pain. And it is not delightful, but dry” (LF.1.19).  “Neither is the flame refreshing and peaceful, but it is consuming and contentious, making a person faint and suffer with self-knowledge" (LF.1:19, emphasis added).  “Since in this fashion God mediates and heals the soul of its many infirmities, bringing it to health, it must necessarily suffer from this purge and cure according to its sickness.... All the soul’s infirmities are brought to light; they are set before its eyes to be felt and healed” (LF.1:21). Whatever is holding a person from union with God must go. John reminds the reader again that “It is easy to reach God when all the impediments are removed and the veils that separate the soul from union with him are torn” (LF.1:29). Living Flame of Love – Session Three p.112 ## Stanza 2 Commentary 1-15 O sweet cautery, O delightful wound! O gentle hand! O delicate touch that tastes of eternal life and pays every debt! in killing you changed death to life. Explanatory note: In this stanza, John explains the dominant role of the Holy Trinity and the effect each of the Persons produces: “The cautery is the Holy Spirit, the hand is the Father, and the touch is the Son. The soul here magnifies the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, stressing the three admirable favors and blessings they produce in it, having changed its death to life, transforming it in the Trinity” (LF.2:1). Essential Points to Discuss:  John observes that the Holy Spirit produces the delightful wound (love); the Son gives the taste of eternal life; and the Father transforms the soul with the touch of His gentle hand (see LF.2.1).  “Although it names the three according to the properties of their effects, it speaks only to one, saying ‘You changed death to life,’ because all of them work together; and accordingly it attributes everything to one, and everything to all” (LF.2:1).  John describes this state as “an infinite fire of love.” “Because the soul in this case is entirely transformed by the divine flame, it not only feels a cautery, but has become a cautery of blazing fire” (LF.2:2).  “... it does not consume and destroy the soul in which it so burns. And it does not afflict it; rather, commensurate with the strength of the love, it divinizes and delights it, burning gently within it” (LF.2:3).  John observes: “The happy soul that by great fortune reaches this cautery knows all things, tastes all things, does all it wishes, and prospers; no one prevails before it and nothing touches it. This is the soul of which the Apostle speaks: The spiritual person judges all things and is judged by no one [1 Cor. 2:15]. And again: The spirit searches out all things, even the deep things of God [1Cor. 2:10]” (LF.2:4).  “There is nothing else to say about the soul’s enjoyment here except that it realizes how appropriately the kingdom of heaven was compared in the Gospel to a grain of mustard seed that, by reason of its intense heat grows into a large tree, despite its being so small [Mt. 13:31-32]. For the soul beholds itself converted into the immense fire of love that emanates from that enkindled point at the heart of the spirit” (LF.2:11).  “One does not attain to this peak without surpassing and leaving aside the activity of the senses” (LF.2:14). However, John notes that sometimes the effect of the spirit is felt in the senses, although it is not the activity of the senses. “Yet it is sometimes quite different when an effect of the spirit overflows into the senses. When this is true, the effect in the senses proceeds from an abundance of spirit, as in the event of the wounds that proceed from the inner strength and appear outwardly. This happened with St. Paul, whose immense compassion for the sufferings of Christ redounded in the body, as he explains to the Galatians: I bear the wounds of the Lord Jesus in my body [Gal. 6:17]” (LF.2:14). Living Flame of Love – Session Four p.113 ## Stanza 2 Commentary 16-20 Participants are asked to contribute two or three discussion points. These can be something from the reading they have questions about or that spoke to them personally. Fr. Donald Kinney, O.C.D., suggests questions that are especially appropriate:  What did I read that had something for me to learn?  What, if anything, does the Holy Spirit want me to share with the other members?  What can I take from what I read to incorporate into my daily Carmel life? Explanatory note: In his commentaries from 2.16-20, John’s focus is on the verse “O gentle hand! O delicate touch.” Having been touched by the gentle hand of the Father, John uses interjectory words such as “O” and “Oh” to express his feelings and gratitude. At times his expression overflows into prayers of transformation and union: “For you, O divine life, never kill unless to give life, never wound unless to heal... You have wounded me in order to cure me, O divine hand, and you have put to death in me what made me lifeless, what deprived me of God’s life in which I now see myself live… O you, then, delicate touch, the Word, the Son of God, through the delicacy of your divine being, you subtly penetrate the substance of my soul and, lightly touching it all, absorb it entirely in yourself in divine modes of delights and sweetnesses unheard of in the land of Canaan and never before seen in Teman [Bar. 3:22]” (LF.2.16-17). “This work of the Trinity in the deeper center of the soul does not seek thoughts and ideas but glorification and praise; all dogma must lead to praise” (LF Study Edition, Interpretive Notes, para. 1, pg. 82). Note: Read LF.2.16-20 slowly and meditatively for a better understanding of John’s perception of transformation and union. They are prayers of gratitude and praise. Living Flame of Love – Session Five p.114 ## Stanza 2 Commentary 21-36 Explanatory note: John goes on to answer the question of why so few people reach this high state of perfect union with God: “It should be known that the reason is not that God wishes only a few of these spirits to be so elevated; he would rather want all to be perfect, but he finds few vessels that will endure so lofty and sublime a work. Since he tries them in little things and finds them so weak that they immediately flee from work, unwilling to be subject to the least discomfort and mortification… As a result he proceeds no further in purifying them and raising them from the dust of the earth through the toil of mortification” (LF.2:27). The major hindrance that John observes is that they “seek the broad road of their own consolation… They do not want to be guided by the path of trials that leads to it” (LF.2:27). “The vessel must be a strong one in order to hold a full measure of God’s self-communication. God wants to give more; humans tend to balk at the strengthening process. The strengthening comes not through the trials in themselves but through the growth of the theological virtues” (LF.2, footnote 10, Collected Works, emphasis added). Essential Points to Discuss:  “... The soul knows in this state that everything has ended well... For God repays the interior and exterior trials very well with divine goods for the soul and body, so there is not a trial that does not have a corresponding and considerable reward” (LF.2:31).  John goes on to describes the complete transformation of the human faculties: “The intellect, which before this union understood naturally by the vigor of its natural light by means of the natural senses, is now moved and informed by another higher principle of supernatural divine light… Accordingly, the intellect becomes divine, because through its union with God’s intellect both become one” (LF.2:34, emphasis added).  “And the will, which previously loved in a base and deadly way with only its natural affection, is now changed into the life of divine love… By means of this union God’s will and the soul’s will are now one” (LF.2:34, emphasis added).  “And the memory, which by itself perceived only the figures and phantasms of creatures, is changed through this union so as to have in its mind the eternal years mentioned by David [Ps. 77:5]” (LF.2:34, emphasis added).  The soul is now “... moved and satisfied by another principle: the delight of God, in which it is more alive. And because it is united with him, it is no longer anything else than the appetite of God” (LF.2:34).  “Finally all the movements, operations, and inclinations the soul had previously from the principle and strength of its natural life are now in this union dead to what they formerly were, changed into divine movements, and alive to God. For the soul, like a true daughter of God, is moved in all by the Spirit of God, as St. Paul teaches in saying that those who are moved by the Spirit of God are children of God himself [Rom. 8:14]” (LF.2:34). Note: “... John identifies the ‘children of God’ with those who are transformed in God and united to him, and explains how they are habitually moved by God and not by themselves in their operations” (LF 2. Footnote 16, Collected Works). Living Flame of Love – Session Five p.115  “Accordingly, the intellect of this soul is God’s intellect; its will is God’s will; its memory is the eternal memory of God; and its delight is God’s delight; and although the substance of this soul is not the substance of God, since it cannot undergo a substantial conversion into him, it has become God through participation in God, being united to and absorbed in him, as it is in this state” (LF.2:34).  “The soul can well repeat the words of St. Paul: I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me [Gal. 2:20]. The death of this soul is changed to the life of God” (LF.2:34).  “Speaking of itself, the soul declares in this verse: ‘In killing you changed death to life’” (LF.2:34). Side note: Teresa has a similar teaching in the seventh dwelling places of the Interior Castle. She refers to the metaphor of the butterfly (soul), and describes how after the waves of trials, it has now found repose in Christ. “... His Majesty has brought the soul to it through union. And he also says: ‘For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain’ [Phil. 1:21]. The soul as well, I think, can say these words now because this state is the place where the little butterfly we mentioned dies, and with the greatest joy because its life is now Christ” (IC.VII.2:5).  “In this state of life so perfect, the soul always walks in festivity, inwardly and outwardly, and it frequently bears on its spiritual tongue a new song of great jubilation in God, a song always new, enfolded in a gladness and love arising from the knowledge the soul has of its happy state” (LF.2:36). Note: Such a union is possible in this perfect state of spiritual life, yet not as perfectly as in the next life (see LF.2:34). Living Flame of Love – Session Six p.116 ## Stanza 3 Commentary 1-17 O lamps of fire! in whose splendors the deep caverns of feeling, once obscure and blind, now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely, both warmth and light to their Beloved. Explanatory note: Throughout his teaching, John reminds the reader that purification of human faculties leads to growth in self-knowledge, which in turn leads to truer knowledge of God. “The soul will be clothed in a new understanding of God in God (through removal of the old understanding) and in a new love of God in God, once the will is stripped of all the old cravings and satisfactions. And God will vest the soul with new knowledge when the other old ideas and images are cast aside [Col. 3:9].... As a result, one’s activities, once human, now become divine. This is achieved in the state of union when the soul, in which God alone dwells, has no other function than that of an altar on which God is adored in praise and love” (A.1.5:7, emphasis added). John asserts that this union with the knowledge and love of God is the shortest prayer that is independent of time. “Although, as we asserted, the prayer lasts a long while, it seems of short duration to these souls since they have been united with pure knowledge, which is independent of time. This is the short prayer that, it is said, pierces the heavens [Ecclus. (aka. Sirach) 35:17]. It is short because it is not in time, and it pierces the heavens because the soul is united with heavenly knowledge. When these persons return to themselves they observe the effects this knowledge produced in them without their having been aware of it. These effects are: an elevation of the mind to heavenly knowledge and a withdrawal and abstraction from all objects, forms, and figures and from the remembrance of them” (A.2.14:11). John further explains in the commentaries of the Living Flame that the heavenly knowledge (loving knowledge) contains all the attributes of God Himself. In this union, the soul receives the pure knowledge of God that encompasses the full spectrum of qualities attributed to the divine Wisdom: “omnipotence, wisdom, goodness, mercy, and so on” (LF.3:2). In the end, John proclaims that God leads the soul to a deeper kind of knowing — knowing from the center of the soul as opposed to the shallow and superficial knowledge of God (such as that which comes from natural reasoning, reading, visions, locutions, etc.). As a result, the soul sees and does everything in light of this loving knowledge of God. “One’s activities, once human, now become divine” (A.1.5:7). Essential Points to Discuss: “O lamps of fire!”  John, by using the symbolic language “O lamps of fire!” begins to explain “... that lamps possess two properties: They transmit light [knowledge] and give off warmth [love]” (LF.3:2). Living Flame of Love – Session Six p.117  He goes on to describe the attributes that are unique to God: “He is almighty, wise, and good; and he is merciful, just, powerful, loving, and so on.... Since each of these attributes is the very being of God in his one and only suppositum [substance], which is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… Each of these attributes is a lamp that enlightens the soul and gives off the warmth of love” (LF.3:2).  “It [the soul] states that by means of this union it receives abundant and lofty knowledge of God, which is all loving and communicates light and love to its faculties and feeling” (LF.3:1, emphasis added). Note: John tells us that the true gifts from God encompass a deeper spiritual richness. God is sharing the very attributes of Himself, that is, wisdom — the clear knowledge of God Himself. Through this knowledge, the soul is inflamed in love (see LF.3:3).  “In this communication and manifestation of himself to the soul, which in my opinion is the greatest possible in this life, he is to it [the soul] innumerable lamps giving forth knowledge and love of himself” (LF.3:3).  Citing Exodus 34:6-8, John explains Moses receiving the lofty knowledge of God Himself: “In this passage it is clear that the greatest attributes and powers that Moses knew there in God were those of God’s omnipotence, dominion, deity, mercy, justice, truth, and righteousness; this was the highest knowledge of God. Because love was communicated to him in accord with the knowledge, the delight of love and the fruition he enjoyed there were most sublime” (LF.3:4).  “All these lamps of the knowledge of God illumine you in a friendly and loving way, … God communicates himself to your faculties according to his attributes and powers! When individuals love and do good to others, they love and do good to them in the measure of their own nature and properties” (LF.3:6). Note: John draws our attention to the ecclesial value of a soul’s transformation and union in God. Participation of the soul in God extends even to sharing the very attributes of God with others. As it receives, so it gives. All the attributes of God (love, wisdom, mercy, humility, and so on) that the soul receives are shared and communicated to others.  “Thus the spirit of God, insofar as it is hidden in the veins of the soul, is like soft refreshing water that satisfies the thirst of the spirit; insofar as it is exercised in the sacrifice of loving God, it is like the living flames of fire.... The soul calls them flames here because it not only tastes them like water within itself, but also makes them active, like flames, in the love of God. Since in the communication of the spirit of these lamps, the soul is inflamed and placed in the activity of love, in the act of love, it calls them lamps rather than waters, saying: ‘O lamps of fire!’” (LF.3:8, emphasis added).  “All that can be said of this stanza is less than the reality, for the transformation of the soul in God is indescribable. Everything can be expressed in this statement: The soul becomes God from God through participation in him and in his attributes, which it terms the ‘lamps of fire’” (LF.3:8).  In a moment of joy, John marvels at the beauty of a transformed soul: “All these lamps of the knowledge of God illumine you in a friendly and loving way, O enriched soul; how much light and happiness of love will they beget in you,... How remarkable, how Living Flame of Love – Session Six p.118 advantageous, and how multifaceted will be your delight; in all and from all you receive fruition and love, since God communicates himself to your faculties according to his attributes and powers!” (LF.3:6).  “In whose splendors.” “To understand what these splendors of the lamps are and how the soul is resplendent in them, it should be known that they are the loving knowledge that the lamps of God’s attributes give forth from themselves to the soul. United with them in its faculties, the soul is also resplendent like them, transformed in loving splendors” (LF.3:9, emphasis added).  John goes on to explain that the flickering and flaring up of flames are not produced by the soul alone, but they are the work of both the soul and God. “Thus these movements of both God and the soul are not only splendors, but also glorifications of the soul. These flames and their activity are the happy festivals and games that the Holy Spirit inspires in the soul...” (LF.3.10).  John assures us that eternal life is guaranteed in this transformation, and it’s happening here and now. “It seems in these that he is always wanting to bestow eternal life and transport it completely to perfect glory by bringing it into himself. All the gifts, first and last, great and small, that God grants to the soul, he always grants in order to lead it to eternal life” (LF.3:10).  Having felt the perfect glory in eternity, John bursts into prayer: “By your purity, O divine Wisdom, many things are beheld in you through one. For you are the deposit of the Father’s treasures, the splendor of the eternal light, the unspotted mirror and image of his goodness [Wis. 7:26], in whose splendors — the deep caverns of feeling” (LF.3:17). Living Flame of Love – Session Seven p.119 ## Stanza 3 Commentary 17-29 Essential Points to Discuss:  John goes on to explain the line the deep caverns of feeling. “These caverns are the soul’s faculties: memory, intellect, and will. They are as deep as the boundless goods of which they are capable since anything less than the infinite fails to fill them” (LF.3:18).  “In regard to the first cavern — the intellect — its void is a thirst for God …This thirst is for the waters of God’s wisdom, the object of the intellect” (LF.3:19).  “The second cavern is the will, and its void is a hunger for God … This hunger is for the perfection of love after which the soul aims” (LF.3:20).  “The third cavern is the memory, and its void is a yearning and melting away of the soul for the possession of God …” (LF.3:21).  “The capacity of these caverns is deep because the object of this capacity, namely God, is profound and infinite” (LF.3:22).  “In this matter it is worth noting the difference between the possession of God through grace in itself and the possession of him through union, for one lies in loving and the other lies also in communicating. The difference resembles that between betrothal and marriage” (LF.3:24). Note: John reminds us that the process is gradual. “This preparation takes time, for some more than for others, since God carries out this work according to the mode of the soul” (LF.3:25).  John further observes: “In the first place it should be known that if anyone is seeking God, the Beloved is seeking that person much more” (LF.3:28).  In addition, John explains the conduct that is necessary for the soul to progress in prayer: “The soul, then, should advert that God is the principal agent in this matter. He acts as guide of the blind, leading it by the hand to the place it knows not how to reach (to supernatural things of which neither its intellect nor will nor memory can know the nature). It should use all its principal care in watching so as not to place any obstacle in the way of God, its guide on this road ordained for it by him according to the perfection of his law and of the faith, as we said” (LF.3:29). Side note: John comments in detail on the three blind guides that are major impediments to one’s progression in prayer, transformation, and union: a misguided spiritual director, the devil, and the soul itself. John warns about the first blind guide, misguided spiritual directors (LF.3:29-62). He goes on to expose the second blind guide, the devil (LF.3:63-65). The third blind guide is the soul itself (LF.3:66-67). Participants are asked to read, reflect, and make these blind guides part of their discussion. Session Eight continues to focus on transformation, union, and the effects of such perfection in one’s life and the world. Living Flame of Love – Session Eight p.120 ## Stanza 3 Commentary 30-50 Explanatory note: In stanza 3:32, John gives an excellent summary of one’s spiritual progress from senses to spirit: “For a better understanding of this beginner’s stage, it should be known that the practice of beginners is to meditate and make acts and discursive reflections with the imagination. Individuals in this state should be given matter for meditation and discursive reflection, and they should by themselves make interior acts and profit in spiritual things from the delight and satisfaction of the senses. For by being fed with the relish of spiritual things, the appetite is torn away from sensual things and weakened in regard to the things of the world [inordinate affections and appetites]. “But when the appetite has been fed somewhat and has become in a certain fashion accustomed to spiritual things and acquired some fortitude and constancy, God begins to wean the soul, as they say, and place it in the state of contemplation. This occurs in some persons after a very short time, especially with religious; in denying the things of the world more quickly, they accommodate their senses and appetites to God and pass on to the spirit in their activity, God thus working in them. They accommodate their senses and appetites to God and pass on to the spirit in their activity, God thus working in them. This happens when the soul’s discursive acts and meditations cease, as well as its initial sensible satisfaction and fervor, and it is unable to practice discursive meditation as before or find any support for the senses. The sensory part is left in dryness because its riches are transferred to the spirit, which does not pertain to the senses. “Since the soul cannot function naturally except by means of the senses, it is God who in this state is the agent; the soul is the receiver. The soul conducts itself only as the receiver and as one in whom something is being done; God is the giver and the one who works in it, by according spiritual goods in contemplation (which is knowledge and love together, that is, loving knowledge), without the soul’s natural acts and discursive reflections, for it can no longer engage in these acts as before” (LF.3:32, emphasis added). Essential Points to Discuss:  John goes on to explain: “Therefore directors should not impose meditation on persons in this state, nor should they oblige them to make acts or strive for satisfaction and fervor. Such activity would place an obstacle in the path of the principal agent who, as I say, is God, who secretly and quietly inserts in the soul loving wisdom and knowledge, without specified acts; … individuals also should proceed only with a loving attention to God, without making specific acts. They should conduct themselves passively, as we have said, without efforts of their own but with the simple, loving awareness, as when opening one’s eyes with loving attention” (LF.3:33).  “Since God, then, as the giver communes with individuals through a simple, loving knowledge, they also, as the receivers, commune with God through a simple and loving knowledge or attention, so knowledge is thus joined with knowledge and love with love” (LF.3:34). Note: According to John, it is this loving knowledge that guides the soul throughout the spiritual journey. In every phase of the journey, God imparts this loving knowledge to the soul: “This loving knowledge is communicated in the beginning through the exercise Living Flame of Love – Session Eight p.121 of interior purgation, in which the individual suffers, as we said, and afterward in the delight of love” (LF.3:34).  John goes on to explain that any discursive reflection at this stage “... would impede and disquiet them and make noise in the profound silence of their senses and their spirit, which they possess for the sake of this deep and delicate listening. God speaks to the heart in this solitude, which he mentioned in Hosea [Hos. 2:14], in supreme peace and tranquility while the soul listens...” (LF.3:34).  John goes even further, and clarifies that the soul will eventually need to forget the practice of loving attention and come to the state of active listening: “When it happens, therefore, that souls are conscious in this manner of being placed in solitude and in the state of listening, they should even forget the practice of loving attentiveness I mentioned so as to remain free for what the Lord then desires of them. They should make use of that loving awareness only when they do not feel themselves placed in this solitude or inner idleness or oblivion or spiritual listening. So they may recognize it, it always comes to pass with a certain peace and calm and inward absorption” (LF.3:35).  “It is impossible for this highest wisdom and language of God, which is contemplation, to be received in anything less than a spirit that is silent and detached from discursive knowledge and gratification. Isaiah speaks of it in these words: Whom will he teach knowledge and whom will God make understand the hearing? And Isaiah replies: Those that are weaned from the milk (that is from satisfaction) and drawn away from the breasts (from particular knowledge and apprehensions) [Is. 28:9]” (LF.3:37).  “... for the more solitude it obtains and the nearer it approaches this idle tranquility the more abundantly will the spirit of divine wisdom be infused into its soul. This wisdom is loving, tranquil, solitary, peaceful, mild, and an inebriator of the spirit, by which the soul feels tenderly and gently wounded and carried away, without knowing by whom or from where or how. The reason is that this wisdom is communicated without the soul’s own activity” (LF.3:38).  John dramatizes his thoughts and feelings with an interjection: “Wipe away, O spiritual soul, the dust, hairs, and stains, and cleanse your eye; and the bright sun will illumine you, and you will see clearly... O Spiritual master, guide it to the land of promise flowing with milk and honey [Ex. 3:8,17]” (LF.3:38).  John further observes that at this stage “The soul has already reached the negation and silence of the senses and of meditation, and has come to the way of the spirit that is contemplation. In contemplation the activity of the senses and of discursive reflection terminates, and God alone is the agent who then speaks secretly to the solitary and silent soul” (LF.3:44).  “There is as much difference between what the soul does itself and what it receives from God as there is between a human work and a divine work, between the natural and the supernatural. In one, God works supernaturally in the soul; in the other, only the soul works naturally. What is worse is that by the activity of their natural operations individuals lose inner solitude and recollection and, consequently, the sublime image God was painting within them” (LF.3:45). Living Flame of Love – Session Eight p.122  John explains that a person will not advance if he retains even one particular knowledge about something that he cherishes. For example: visions, ideas and images, heavenly pleasures, affections, and so on. “... it should avoid busying itself with particular knowledge, for it cannot reach God through this knowledge, which would rather hinder it in its advance toward him” (LF.3:48).  John’s focus is on contemplative prayer. “But in the contemplation we are discussing (by which God infuses himself into the soul), particular knowledge as well as acts made by the soul are unnecessary. The reason for this is that God in one act is communicating light and love together, which is loving supernatural knowledge… Love is therefore present in the will in the manner that knowledge is present in the intellect” (LF.3:49, emphasis added).  This knowledge, John observes, is dark to the intellect because it is contemplative knowledge, which is a ray of darkness for the intellect. “Since God is unintelligible in this life, knowledge of him is dark, as I say, and the love present in the will is fashioned after this knowledge” (LF.3:49). Living Flame of Love – Session Nine p.123 ## Stanza 3 Commentary 67-85 Essential Points to Discuss:  John’s teaching on “loving knowledge” in relation to the three spiritual faculties continues to play an important role in transformation and union. “... through these faculties a person tastes the wisdom and love and communication of God. The soul here calls these three faculties (memory, intellect, and will) ‘the deep caverns of feeling’ because through them and in them it deeply experiences and enjoys the grandeurs of God’s wisdom and excellence” (LF.3:69).  “In this transformation the eye of the soul’s feeling is so illumined and agreeable to God that we can say God’s light and that of the soul are one. The natural light of the soul is united with the supernatural light of God so that only the supernatural light is shining; just as the light God created was united to the light of the sun and now only the sun shines even though the other light is not lacking [Gen. 1:14-18]” (LF.3:71).  “Having been made one with God, the soul is somehow God through participation. Although it is not God as perfectly as it will be in the next life, it is like the shadow of God. Being the shadow of God through this substantial transformation, it performs in this measure in God through God what he through himself does in it. For the will of the two is one will, and thus God’s operation and the soul’s are one” (LF.3:78). Note: All along, John’s teaching is that the soul’s identity is not lost in this transformation but perfected.  The soul in this transformation is aware of its status as the adopted child of God. “It is conscious there that God is indeed its own and that it possesses him by inheritance, with the right of ownership, as his adopted child through the grace of his gift of himself” (LF.3:78).  “A reciprocal love is thus actually formed between God and the soul…” (LF.3:79).  John goes on to describe the three exquisite qualities of love: o “The first is that the soul here loves God, not through itself but through him.” o “The second exquisite quality is to love God in God, for in this union the soul is ardently absorbed in love of God, and God in great ardor surrenders himself to the soul.” o “The third exquisite quality of love is to love him on account of who he is. The soul does not love him only because he is generous, good, glorious, and so on, to it; but with greater intensity it loves him because he is all this in himself essentially” (LF.3:82, emphasis added). Living Flame of Love – Session Ten p.124 ## Stanza 4 Commentary 1-17 How gently and lovingly you wake in my heart, where in secret you dwell alone; and in your sweet breathing, filled with good and glory, how tenderly you swell my heart with love. Explanatory note: In his final stanza 4, John describes in greater detail the state and effect of the divine transformation of the soul in God. The first effect is an awakening of God in the soul. “... this awakening is the communication of God’s excellence to the substance of the soul” (LF.4:10). The divine life and harmony of every creature are revealed to the soul in an entirely new way. John describes this awakening as a movement from natural, human ways of knowing and relating to God to supernatural vision of contemplation. The flame of love catches fire and awakens the soul to a new life – allowing the loving wisdom of God to enter the world. Ultimately, it teaches humanity to seek the common good in all things. As explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the common good concerns the life of all. It is always oriented towards the progress of people of all walks of life. The common good requires peace, that is, the stability and security of a just order. This order is founded on truth, built in justice, and animated by love (see CCC 1905-1912). The divine life of contemplation in the writings of St. John of the Cross is an invitation to recognize and rejoice in the interconnectedness of every living thing in our world. This awareness can inspire a more conscious and compassionate way of living. Carmel has never separated the apostolic from the contemplative life. John sings his heart out in the joy of spreading the living flame of love to the whole nation: I will go and tell the world, spreading the word of your beauty and sweetness and of your sovereignty. Poetry, Romances 9,7. Essential Points to Discuss:  “The first effect is an awakening of God in the soul, brought about in gentleness and love. The second is the breathing of God within it, and this is brought about through the good and glory communicated to it in this breathing” (LF.4:2).  “For this awakening is a movement of the Word in the substance of the soul, containing such grandeur, dominion, glory, and intimate sweetness that it seems to the soul that all the balsams and fragrant spices and flowers of the world are commingled, stirred, and shaken so as to yield their sweet odor, and all the kingdoms and dominions of the world and all the powers and virtues of heaven are moved; not only this, but it also seems that all the virtues and substances and perfections and graces of every created thing glow and make the same movement all at once” (LF.4:4). Living Flame of Love – Session Ten p.125  “Since, as St. John says, all things in him are life [Jn. 1:3-4], and in him they live and are and move, as the Apostle declares [Acts 17:28], it follows that when, within the soul, this great Emperor moves.... all things seem to move in unison” (LF.4:4).  “Even this comparison is most inadequate; for in this awakening they not only seem to move, but they all likewise disclose the beauties of their being, power, loveliness, and graces, and the root of their duration and life. For the soul is conscious of how all creatures, earthly and heavenly, have their life, duration, and strength in him... Although it is indeed aware that these things are distinct from God, insofar as they have created being, nonetheless what it understands of God, by his being all these things with infinite eminence, is such that it knows these things better in God’s being than in themselves” (LF.4:5, emphasis added).  In this remarkable awakening: “The soul knows creatures through God and not God through creatures” (LF.4:5).  The divine life and harmony of every creature with this awakening in God are revealed to the soul in an entirely new way. There is a movement and awakening of the soul from the natural vision to supernatural vision of contemplation. “... in this movement it is the soul that is moved and awakened from the sleep of natural vision to supernatural vision. Hence it adequately uses the term ‘awakening’” (LF.4:6).  “... God in His infinite goodness has ordained man for a supernatural end, to participation, namely, in the divine goods which altogether surpass the understanding of the human mind, since ‘eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him’ [1 Cor. 2:9]” (Chapter 2 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith (Dei Filius); the First Vatican Council, 1870 by Pope Pius IX).  “Yet, since everything in human beings comes from God, and they of themselves can do nothing good [Jas. 1:17], it is rightly asserted that our awakening is an awakening of God and our rising is God’s rising” (LF.4:9). Only God could open our eyes and bestow on us this awakening and communicating knowledge and love (see LF.4:15). Hence, we pray with Our Holy Father John: Awaken and enlighten us, my Lord, so we might know and love the blessings that you ever propose to us, and we might understand that you have moved to bestow favors on us and have remembered us. (LF.4:9) ## Bibliography St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love: Study Edition. Translated and prepared by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. ICS publications. St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love YouTube sessions, CarmelCast – Season 8: Episode 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56. ICS Publications. The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, ICS Publications, 1991. Appendix – Summary p.126 --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Ongoing Formation Volume II: Human Transformation and Union According to the Writings of St. John of the Cross* (US National Formation Program, 2025).