John of the Cross: Transcending all Knowledge

The Heretic Christian

"Some spiritual fathers are likely to be a hindrance and harm rather than a help to these souls that journey on this road. Such directors have neither understanding nor experience of these ways. ... Hence, it is arduous and difficult for a soul in these periods of the spiritual life when it cannot understand itself or find anyone else who understands it. It will happen to individuals that while they are being conducted by God along a sublime path of dark contemplation and aridity, in which they feel lost and filled with darknesses, trials, conflicts, and temptations, they will meet someone who, in the style of Job's comforters [Jb. 4:8-11], will proclaim that all of this is due to melancholia, depression, or temperament, or to some hidden wickedness, and that as a result God has forsaken them. Therefore the usual verdict is that these individuals must have lived an evil life since such trials afflict them." --St. John of the Cross
John doesn't pull any punches. He was born in 1542, but I've read more posts on Reddit that express this very belief in sad souls about themselves, than there were contemplatives that John directed.
We need him.
I'm Kyrie Dicentis and I teach contemplative prayer, also called the Prayer of Faith or the prayer of quiet. I fairly good at teaching it, but once a person starts down that path, once hey have had their first experience of the Divine, their life changes forever.
Their interior life. Exterior life, or as we say online IRL, doesn't. At least not right away. Contemplation is the trailhead and the path up the Light is long and arduous. But what can we do? Once you have known God, and that experiencing has revealed that you are really clueless about what God is, all you want is to be with Him. That's when we need spiritual direction.
KYRIE DICENTIS IS NOT NOW, NOR WILL EVER BE, A SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR.
But St. John of the Cross was a master and still is because he guides us even now. In this Episode, you will meet him. He'll tell us how we wander off the Way. And in the next St. John episode, how to get back in the path. This I know:
God will never leave you and you are not evil or unforgiveable. You are His beautiful and beloved child.
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The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross Includes The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night, and more.
TEXT Kyrie here.

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CLOUD OF UNKNOWING Evelyn Underhill edition - free
HERETIC'S REDDIT HOME
The Didache [free PDF] Or from Amazon, .99 or K.U. The Didachē is the first foundational Christian text from the first century. This book explores the origins of the Didache which laid the foundation for a unified and organized Apostolic Church. Lost for a 1500 years, found in the New Testament of the 4th century the Codex Sinaiticus.
Revelations of Divine Love [free PDF] Julian of Norwich
What the Gehenna?
The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross