The Ascent of Mount Carmel by John of the Cross – a Personal Journey
The “The Ascent of Mount Carmel” by John of the Cross is a guide for spiritual growth and contemplative prayer. This is our summary and my personal journey.
INTRODUCTION
The stage was set for my own journey into Contemplative Prayer back when I was a child, when I learned the rudiments of spoken prayer.
The stage was further set for my own contemplative journey during my college years, when I began a meditative practice.
Then my own contemplative journey actually began in the late 1980s, when I felt led to pray simply by a loving attention to God. Later I would later learn this is an aspect of Contemplative Prayer.
For several years I did not have a suitable spiritual guide. Then in 1991 I happened to read The Ascent of Mount Carmel by John of the Cross. I came to cherish this book as a trustworthy guide for spiritual development and mystical prayer.
Since 1991 I have reread Ascent many times. Now I am sharing with you what I have learned, both from study and from direct experience.
THE POEM
Upon my first reading of the Ascent, in 1991, what I found most helpful was the poem. Here it is:
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.
Translation courtesy of Wikipedia
In the many decades since 1991, the poem has continued to be very helpful.
The concepts in the poem put into authoritative voice the path that the Lord had been leading me for years. John’s words were life-giving drinks of cool water to my parched soul.
BOOK ONE
In Book One, John provides a general introduction to what he calls the active night of sense and of the mortification of the appetites.
For the disciple seeking union with God, the active night of sense is a dark night that must be pushed through in order to progress toward the goal.
People arrive at this stage in their spiritual life when they no longer find consolation in meditation. Now they must pray simply by a loving attention to God.
For me, I tentatively began praying like this a few years before reading John of the Cross. But without an authoritative voice to lend certitude to my practice, I never trusted it fully.
Then after reading John, I knew that this general loving attention was perfectly suitable.
John writes:
God gives many souls the talents and grace
to pass through this dark night of the senses (Ascent, Prologue, 3)
I drew comfort from this statement. I share it with people who are wondering if they are capable of contemplative prayer. John of the Cross says many people are capable.
The active night of sense begins with a habitual desire to imitate Christ. It grows into the purification of legions of our disordered voluntary appetites, any of which stymies us spiritually.
In the purifying realm of the darkness, these disorders are re-ordered to the will of God.
As I reread John’s words, I find myself wondering what disordered voluntary appetites I have, and I might not even be aware of them? By God’s grace, there can be further growth in the days to come.
BOOK TWO
Book One of the Ascent presents growth in discipleship as the foundational step in the life of prayer. Book Two of the Ascent builds upon discipleship by calling for faith.
Faith is the secret ladder.
Faith is a gift from God, and the Christian can say, with Paul, that “We live by faith, not by sight!” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
It is into the darkness of faith that the seeker now leans (Ascent, 2, 4, 2).
Book Two is a general introduction to the active night of the spirit and its expressions in the active night of the intellect in faith.
The former purification was the active night of sense. It only purged the senses. This next purification goes more to the root of the matter and begins purifying the spirit.
Things such the following are purged from the soul:
- Dullness of mind
- A lack of sensitivity to the Holy Spirit
- Lowly and natural modes of communion with God
- Esteem of visions and prophetic revelations
- Pride, especially spiritual pride
- Undue security drawn from one’s spiritual experiences
The secret ladder represents faith, because all the rungs or articles of faith are secret to, and hidden from, both the senses and the intellect” (see Ascent, 2, 1).
A switch to faith is a switch to darkness.
But as the Psalmist indicates, “Night will be my illumination” (Psalm 139:11). Faith remains as the dark beacon guiding one toward deeper fellowship with God.
By means of this active night of the spirit, the intellect, memory and will are molded to operate in a more godly fashion. Here is how John maps it out:
- The virtue of faith perfects the intellect by unknowing
- The virtue of hope perfects the memory by forgetting
- The virtue of love perfects the will by choosing
See Ascent, 2, 6
All the cozy feelings in prayer are now gone. There is great pain over seeming to have lost great closeness to God, so much so that it almost feels like a rejection by the Divine.
After this active night of the spirit, the soul is rendered delicate, simple, refined and pure enough so that the final transformation may take place later. The majority of the soul’s imperfections have now been burned away by the divine fire or else pulled up by their roots.
John’s words bring into sharp focus the motivations behind one’s spiritual activities. Why do we have a spiritual practice?
- Because it feels good?
- Because people will think I am a spiritual person?
- Because it brings greater honor and glory to God?
Those are important questions. They give significant food for thought.
There is a great and urgent need for both the seeker and the spiritual director to discount the significance of unusual spiritual experiences during this stage. For example: apprehensions, visions, locutions, fantasies and the like.
The danger is that if we value these spiritual apprehensions, then we will subject ourselves to serious errors:
- We might become puffed up with secret pride
- We might interpret them literally
- We might stagnate in growth at this level and not proceed further
I am especially thankful to John of the Cross for this last item. Many years ago, as an eager member of a Pentecostal group, I was trained to value and to seek such phenomenon.
As time went on, however, and I became more familiar with the movement and its members, I began to discern that the “paranormal” phenomenon we experienced were not helping us to grow in the fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:22-23).
We were not growing in unity, nor did some of our prophetic utterances come true. We interpreted them literally and acted accordingly, often without experiencing the blessing we anticipated.
Contrary to the prevailing opinions at the time, I came to the conclusion that such phenomenon were not to be valued.
When years later I read the words in Ascent Book 2, I saw in hindsight that I had indeed been led in the right direction.
If you are involved in a church or Small Group, you have probably met someone who talks about their visions and revelations. Such people place great value on those phenomenon. They almost never accept contrary input on those experiences. Reading Book 2 of the Ascent is an excellent refresher-course on such matters.
BOOK THREE
This book treats of the purgation of the memory and the will in the active night.
The idea is that our faculties are to be made empty in order to reach union with God.
Purgation of the Memory
By forgetting, the memory can be filled with hope. By directing the soul toward the love of God, the will can be filled with charity.
The memory is filled with sensory memories that are to be purged by forgetting. God can touch the memory with union to help it forget.
This may, for a time, produce lapses of memory. But later on, the memory will have been purified and it will recall things appropriate to its life because God will make it know what it must know.
There are many types of harm that can arise should one cling to memories:
- Subjection to many evils
- Subjection to the devil
- Impediment to moral good
John writes:
It is better to learn to silence and quiet the faculties (Ascent, 3, 3, 4, )
In regard to supernatural experience, there are problems induced by not forgetting them as well:
- Delusion
- Vanity
- Influence from the devil
- Union with God impeded
- A false concept of the nature of God
Purgation of the Will
The will is to be purified of all inordinate appetites and emotions. Thus it will be changed to be more like the divine will.
John writes:
The more people rejoice over something outside God, the less intense will be their joy in God (Ascent, 3, 16, 2)
The four emotions to be purified are these:
- Joy
- Hope
- Sorrow
- Fear
John provides a lengthy discussion on the bridling of those emotions.
RESOURCES
Great Books about Contemplative Prayer
Contemplative Prayer Terminology
Bible Verses on Contemplative Prayer
Homepages:
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.