Today we remember a spiritual friend of St Teresa, the reformer, with her, of the Carmelite religious family: St John of the Cross, known as Doctor mysticus, “Mystical Doctor”. John is considered one of the most important lyric poets of Spanish literature. His major works are four: “The Ascent of Mount Carmel”, “The Dark Night”, “The Spiritual Canticle” and “The Living Flame of Love”.

All that exists, created by God, is good. Through creatures we may arrive at the discovery of the One who has left within them a trace of himself. Faith, in any case, is the one source given to the human being to know God as he is in himself, as the Triune God. All that God wished to communicate to man, he said in Jesus Christ, his Word made flesh. to attain to the perfect love of God, every other love must be conformed in Christ to the divine love. From this derives the insistence of St John of the Cross on the need for purification.

-Holiness is not a very difficult action of ours but means exactly this “openness”: opening the windows of our soul to let in God’s light.