This month I’m going to continue sharing from reflections I wrote in 2020 for the Spiritual Classics course I took while studying to be certified as a spiritual director. We read You Set My Spirit Free: A 40-Day Journey in the Company of John of the Cross.
St. John of the Cross (1542–1591) was a Spanish mystic, poet, and Carmelite reformer whose writings, especially The Dark Night of the Soul, explore the soul’s journey to union with God through deep prayer and purification. John speaks with rare honesty about the struggles and beauty of the spiritual journey. His life was marked by suffering, imprisonment, and deep contemplation, but he remains a towering figure in Christian mysticism, emphasizing God’s transforming love.
You Set My Spirit Free is a devotional that offers paraphrased daily reflections from the writings of the 16th-century mystic, interwoven with Scripture and prayer. The goal is to make the deep, and sometimes challenging, spirituality of John of the Cross more accessible and applicable for modern readers seeking renewal and inner freedom.
Here is my reflection:
I was particularly drawn to the reflections RULE OF LIFE (#12) and APPROVAL (#16). I sensed them setting the overall framework of our God as supreme and in charge while pointing out a major snare for us in surrendering to God’s lordship of our life.
In RULE OF LIFE, God’s Spirit is described as a river flowing and issuing graces. God desires union with all souls. He makes this invitation to all, but first we need to be purified completely of our human selfishness. The soul must be stripped of its own small and self-centered ways of looking at the world. Stripped of what it thinks are its strengths. In another reflection, John challenges us to loosen our hold on what we think we know. I’ve also heard this process described as shedding one’s skin. These past few months, I have felt God desiring to get my attention in this area. He is showing me what John calls our hidden desire to take over God’s place of rulership. Years ago, when I began the practice of centering prayer and was instructed to choose a sacred word, I felt God chose the word “Lord” for me to remind me of the essential truth that God is Lord. As John says, God cannot be domesticated.
The words in this reflection that most affected me were: “So, we must strip ourselves of the desire to stay bound up in others—that is, our striving to have others love and esteem us as we believe we must be loved by them.” This speaks of detachment—so necessary to spiritual growth. When we are overly attached, we hold others in this trap with us. This over-attachment prevents us from oneness with God. So, we must pray for the grace to receive the pure love of God that transforms. I pray for this grace daily as I pray the Litany of Humility.
As John declares, there can only be one ruler. I want to choose God, the One who governs with grace. I long to be meek and humble of heart like Jesus. I think of Mary’s wise and humble words, “May it be done unto me.” I pray for the grace to let life happen and enjoy the wonder and awe of it.
The reflection APPROVAL continues with the theme of detachment and speaks specifically of when one feels disapproval or misunderstanding. John describes this as the “fire of God” showing one how much that person desires the approval of others. He says that person’s “spirituality is thin.” Those words stood out to me as I don’t want a thin spirituality. I want the fullness of God’s kingdom.
John suggests that the people who misunderstand or disapprove of us are the ones God uses to expose our pride. A seemingly hurtful response from another may have the power to make me more like Christ. I feel God has also been speaking this truth to me of late. John concludes the reflection by reminding us that God wants our hearts to be open—no matter what is said about us—to listen for God’s voice and God’s opinion. I want to take up John’s challenge: “Mere flattery and comfort will blind you. Your one desire should be to remain on the low and lighted and good path of humility.”
I pray that John’s words, written long ago, may come to life in each of us as we ask the Lord what He may be inviting us to—to set our spirits free to love Him and others more deeply.
