Saint John of the Cross (1542–1591)
The fact that I have not written is not due to a lack of goodwill, for I truly desire your great good, but because it seems to me that much has already been written to work on what matters, and that what is lacking, if anything is lacking, is not writing or speaking, for that generally abounds, but silence and action. Speaking, in fact, has a tendency to distract, whereas silence and action gather and provide strength to the spirit.
As soon as a person knows what has been told to him for his progress, he does not need to hear or speak more, but should silently and carefully bring it to fruition in humility, love, and contempt for himself; and should not then try to seek something new that serves only to satisfy desire for external things, for even those cannot satisfy, and his spirit remains weak and empty without inner virtue. Hence, neither the first nor the second brings any benefit...
What is most needed... is to be able to steal from the devil and our sensibility the body of the spirit, for otherwise, without realizing it, we will be very unadvanced and very distant from Christ's virtues, and when we awaken, we will find that our work and effort have been done in reverse and the lamp, which we thought we carried lit, will turn out to be extinguished, for as we blew into it to ignite it according to our opinion, we perhaps completely extinguished it.
What we need most is to be silent in spirit and tongue before this great God, whose language, which He hears, is only silent love.
I am pleased that God has given you such holy desires, and I will be even more pleased when you fulfill them.
If ever someone should persuade you, whether it is a superior or anyone else, of some comfortable doctrine, even if he were to support it with miracles, do not believe it or accept it; rather, what is needed is more repentance and more detachment from all things and do not seek Christ without the cross.
(from the correspondence of St. John of the Cross)
