The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross is a 1995 book that is 178 pages long. It should be noted at the outset that this text contains a significant amount of poetry. St. John of the Cross lived in Spain between 1542 and 1591. He is one of the 37 doctors of the church. He was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest, mystic, poet, and Carmelite friar. John of the Cross is known for his writings, summarized neatly in The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross.
Excerpts from St. John of the Cross
The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross is a summary of the writings of St. John of the Cross. In that way, it is a useful book. He was mentored by Teresa of Ávila, so they were famous friends. Both his poetry and his studies on the development of the soul are considered among the greatest works of all Spanish literature.
Seeking the beloved in sensible to
St. John of The Cross. This is a wonderful and inspiring book,
The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross is worth your time. This summary discusses the Saint, his poetry, and his doctrine. He writes in a poem:
To come to savor all
Seek to find savor in nothing;
To come to possess all,
Seek possession in nothing,
To come to be all,
Seek in all to be nothing…
To come to what you know not
You must go by the way where you know not
To come to what you are not
You must go by a way where you are not.
The author of this book loves this poem and the doctrine of
St. John of the Cross. The author of
The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross is a
Discalced Carmelite himself like
St. John of the Cross. As stated on the jacket, “John of the Cross testifies to a God who longs to meet us and to love us in our deepest need.”
John of the Cross writes love poems out of encounter with Christ. Here is an example from The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross about Easter morning.
My beloved, the mountains,
Lonely wooded valleys,
Rare islands,
Thundering rivers,
The whisper of love, carried by the breeze.
The tranquil night
At one with the rising dawn,
The silence of music,
The mighty sound of solitude
The feast where love makes all new.
Here is one of the best quotes from
The Impact of God: Soundings from St John of the Cross. “So our needs–for answers or love or solutions to our problems ache is the price of our dignity. If we are meant for this much, we shall suffer that hunger. That — our incompleteness — is
our dignity, and when we feel it we are most truly ourselves. When we utter our appeal from there, we are being mature, being what we were meant to be. That appeal is prayer. For the human person, then, prayer is a supreme value.”
The book has Chapter names including: “Prayer a ‘Being With'”, “The Gospel Has Eyes”, “The Right Kind of Emptiness”, “There is Somewhere to Go”, “It Has to be
God“, and “The Experience of God”. If you find the words by
St. John of the Cross The Impact of God: Soundings from St John of the Cross that resonates with you, then, you should read this book.
St. John of the Cross’s Biography
St John of the Cross was the youngest child of Gonzales of Yepes and was born at Fontibere in 1542. The death of his father left his mother destitute with three little children, with whom she settled at Medina. John learned the first elements of letters at a college. At 21, to satisfy his devotion to the mother of God, he became a Carmelite friar at Medina in 1563. He had distinguished himself in his course of theological studies and in 1567 at 25 he was promoted to the priesthood.
St. Teresa was then busy in establishing her reformation of the Carmelites, and coming to Medina del Campo heard speak of the extraordinary virtue of St John of the Cross. They worked together and established a second convent at Pastrane, and in 1568 a third at Manreza, whither she translated that from Durvelle, and in 1577 a fourth at Alcala.
St. John of the Cross died on December 14, 1591, at forty-nine years old. Many miracles were attributed to him; including the cure of a nun of the Annunciation, at Neuf-Chateau, in Lorrain, struck with a palsy, in 1705, effected on the ninth day of a Novena of devotion to this saint, was juridically proved in the court of the Bishop of Toul. St. John was canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726. He was a writer, poet, mystic, and Priest, and his writings are summarized in The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross.
Conclusion
The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross is a good book to read because it summarizes the work of the saint. You could read all of his works or this well-written summary. In that way it is useful. It is a good thing for Catholics to learn about the Saints during Lent and one can do that by reading this book.
