Tag Archives: St. Paul of the Cross

Prayer is a Rock

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Letter 3, St. Paul of the Cross

“When the sea is swept by storms, the wind raises the waters and they swell in huge billows. The waves hit the rocks and beat on them as if they would break them up and smash them to pieces. But not so! They beat on the rocks, yes, but the rocks don’t break nor are they smashed to pieces, although a small chip may be knocked off here and there. No matter how great the waves may be, the rocks are so hard that there’s no danger they will be shattered.

Similarly, the soul at prayer is a rock that God holds fast in his infinite love. It may even be called a rock of strength because the Sovereign Good imparts  strength to it.”

Faith Comes Alive in the Dark

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St. Paul of the Cross, Letter 594

“By God’s high providence, you find yourself struggling in darkness. That’s where humility and self-knowledge are found. So don’t give up prayer,  interior solitude, acceptance of God’s Holy Will and all other virtues. Faith come alive in the dark. With love, then, detached from everything else, reach out to God in the silence and alone. Search for God carefully and peacefully.

But what am I saying? Isn’t God always with us? With naked faith, go to the depths of your soul and find your highest Good. Stay there and you’ll find all riches. We know that; remember it.”

Thinking About Yourself

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Letter 160, St. Paul of the Cross

As you  look at what you’re going through, don’t philosophize and reflect  so much about yourself. Stop thinking about yourself and just do what’s right. Love God’s Will and stay beneath the Holy Cross without getting involved in useless subtleties. By thinking too much about yourself, you lose sight of the Sovereign Good.

With regard to prayer, if you can’t put in much time, it’s not important. You always pray by doing what is right.”

Work around the house, do what you have to do there, and be attentive to God by frequently plunging your spirit into the immense sea of divine love, but don’t check up minutely whether this plunge was done well. I repeat, go about doing good simply as children do…

Take care of your health, eat what’s necessary, and get the sleep you need. In that way you build up your strength, if that is God’s wish and for your good.


The Presence of God

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I’m reading the Letters of St. Paul of the Cross and for the next few weeks I leave some excerpts:

“You may not be able to give much time to prayer and other spiritual practices now, but I will give you–with confidence Jesus Christ would agree–a rule about praying always. One prays always who does what is right. For this, I ask you to stay faithfully in the Presence of God in all that you do.

God will help you acquire this practice little by little. You may spend hours preoccupied and not remembering God’s Presence. That doesn’t matter, because your original intention empowers all you do.

But keep your heart and spirit aware of your beloved good God, yet do this gently, not straining your heart and  mind. Say, for example, “I don’t want to forget you, O God.” “My God, you are with me, in me, I live entirely in you and because of you.” God lives in you. You breathe in God, you walk with God, you work in God, who is joy, love, fire.

Get accustomed to making acts like that.. When God enters your heart as you are making those acts of love, stop, and like a bee take in the honey.

Letter 39

Belief Comes From His Wounds

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Reading the letters of St. Paul of the Cross you notice how often he wishes the one to whom he’s writing to be placed in the “wounds of Christ” or the “holy Side of Jesus” or his “Sacred Heart.”.  “I am in a hurry and leave you in the holy Side of Jesus, where I ask rich blessings for you.”

Expressions like these seem to be pious phrases until we read the story of Thomas from John’s gospel. Jesus shows the doubting disciple the wounds in his hands and side, and Thomas believes.

Belief is not something we arrive at by our own powers of reason or will. Faith is a gift that God gives through Jesus Christ.

Ash Wednesday and Mystical Death

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An excerpt from a letter of St. Paul of the Cross about mystical death may help us celebrate Ash Wednesday.

“Life for true servants and friends of God means dying every day: ‘We die daily; for you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ This is the mystical death I want you to undergo.

I’m confident that you will be reborn to a new life in the sacred mysteries of Jesus Christ, as you die mystically in Christ more and more each day, in the depths of the Divinity. Let your life be hidden with Christ in God…

Think about mystical death. Dying mystically means thinking only of living a divine life, desiring only God, accepting all that God sends and not worrying about it. It means ignoring everything else so that God can work in your soul, in the sanctuary of your soul, where no creature, angelic or human, can go. There you experience God working and being born as you mystically die.

But I’m in a hurry, and this note is getting too mystical, so listen to it with a grain of salt, because we don’t get it.”    (Letter, Dec 28, 1758)

On Ash Wednesday, ashes are placed on our foreheads in the form of a cross and some simple words are said: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

A reminder we will die. Yet, so much more is said in this brief symbolic act. A daily mystical death is also taking place within us. Our physical life will end, the ashes tell us;  the day and hour are unknown. But ashes in the form of a cross tell us Jesus Christ changes death. “Dying, you destroyed our death. Rising, you restored our life.” Jesus Christ has made his risen life ours. Though his gift is hidden, we will experience it when we enter his glory.

Meanwhile, the mystery of his death and resurrection is at work in us now. Share this mystery mystically,  St. Paul of the Cross says in the letter quoted above. Daily, deliberately, attentively turn to God working within you. A new life is being born in you, though you may not see it.  Desire it, accept it in whatever God sends, without worry. God is working within through the mystery of the Lord’s cross.

Yet the saint, like the rest of us, has to hurry off to something else. He’s going somewhere, or has something to do, or someone to see, and he tells his correspondent that you can’t think about deep things too long. It’s a mystery beyond us.

And so, we only glimpse this mystery as ashes are placed on us. Still, may we hear the Lord’s voice in the day’s readings and in the signs of the liturgy. Ash Wednesday is an ambassador sent by God reminding us of his work for us; he will send his graces through the days of Lent and Easter. Yes, through all the days of our life.

Let us embrace his cross each day and die mystically and be born anew.

If you’re interested in more on Ash Wednesday and Lent, go here.