The
Spiritual Canticle of St John of the Cross
Introduction
Carmelite
Conversations
Philip
Harvey
Wednesday
the 7th of December 2022
Recently
I have been reading the emails between Sister Wendy Beckett and Robert Ellsberg,
letters in email written between 2015 and her death in 2018. Amongst the many
wise things said in this correspondence, Sister Wendy says that God wishes to
have a conversation with us, but the conversation won’t happen if we don’t do
something about it. In other words, prayer is available at any time, it is up
to us to take up the conversation, as God is ready to engage. I find that St
John of the Cross has the same attitude to prayer. Whoever we are and wherever
we find ourselves, the simple act of making ourselves available to God through
prayer is the start, whatever our present prayer life happens to be.
Elsewhere,
Sister Wendy gets tetchy about manuals of prayer. She questions the usefulness
of books about how to pray, as though prayer were a set of exercises. Putting
aside the fact that we all have to talk about prayer who are in the business of
praying, talk that may extend to putting the words in a book, Sister Wendy is
getting at the fact that in prayer life we find our own way, that the main
impetus is being called to prayer, of simply living a prayerful existence, in a
place where how-to books become fairly superfluous. The writings of St John of
the Cross are not how-to books. However, they are all about prayer, what is
happening, and how we might better understand it. Like his companion Teresa of
Avila, he also shows that prayer life happens in real life and is real life.
That everything about prayer is going on through change.
“Where there is no love, put love, and you
will find love.”
These
words of St John of the Cross (1542-1591) serve as one way of learning about
this poet and saint. They put us at ease, speak to whatever reality we find
ourselves in at the time, and can be used to inspire us as we delve into the
poetry. Although his writing can be unusual, multilayered, and difficult at
times, our persistence is rewarded as we discover that he is in the business of
putting love into the world in order that we will find love.
Composed
in a monastic prison and copied out later from memory, ‘The Spiritual Canticle’
of St John of the Cross is a long poem that was never published in his lifetime.
Intrinsic to the poem is his commentary, which is an in-depth description of
the spiritual life in different stages, written with remarkable and subtle insight
into human consciousness and behaviour. The more we read into the commentary,
the greater our appreciation of the images and language of the Canticle itself,
the poem serving at one level as shorthand for the longer exposition and as a
memory game for things said in the commentary.
Context
is important, so I quote Benedict Zimmerman OCD in his introduction to David
Lewis’s 19th century translation. “The Canticle was composed during
the long imprisonment St. John underwent at Toledo from the beginning of
December 1577 till the middle of August of the following year. Being one of the
principal supporters of the Reform of St. Teresa, he was also one of the
victims of the war waged against her work by the Superiors of the old branch of
the Order. St. John’s prison was a narrow, stifling cell, with no window, but
only a small loophole through which a ray of light entered for a short time of
the day, just long enough to enable him to say his office, but affording little
facility for reading or writing. However, St. John stood in no need of books.
Having for many years meditated on every word of Holy Scripture, the Word of
God was deeply written in his heart, supplying abundant food for conversation
with God during the whole period of his imprisonment. From time to time he
poured forth his soul in poetry; afterwards he communicated his verses to
friends.” (Lewis xii)
This
morning I will identify main turning points in the Canticle. I hope that these
close readings will open up understanding of this remarkable and very personal
poem. ‘The Spiritual Canticle’ is a Spanish poem of 40 stanzas. Typically, the
words track the relationship of the Soul to God in terms of a lover and the Beloved,
drawing especially on the Song of Songs. Bride and Bridegroom are
interchangeable words, though I prefer Lover and Beloved. I will read the first
21 stanzas in John Venard’s modern English translation, then offer readings of
two stanzas. We will then have an interval in which Alex Safran will talk to us
about an icon he is ‘writing’ based on St John of the Cross. Then, after
discussion on Alex’s work, we will return to finish reading the Canticle, looking
in depth at two stanzas from the second half.
You
will be disappointed to hear that these readings lack the colourful digressive
style and accompanying joie de vivre of Michael Brundell O.Carm., the pioneer
of this December session, however I hope they will open up appreciation of John’s
words, but more especially awaken thoughts about your own prayer life. At the
same time, I will be following Michael’s practice of taking different stanzas
of the chosen poem, offering some established readings of their meanings, and
including my own lived experience of prayer.
