In darkness and in safety, by the secret ladder, disguised.Stanza II
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The Book
The Ascent describes the soul’s active passage through the dark night: first the desires of sense, then the understanding under faith, and finally memory and will under hope and charity. Its aim is union with God, and its governing method is detachment from everything that is not God.
John is exacting, but he does not prescribe the destruction of sensation or personality. He distinguishes involuntary natural movements from chosen attachment, warns against abandoning meditation before its proper time, and repeatedly places the whole ascent under grace and the imitation of Christ.
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The Text
93 reading pagesBook I — The Nature of the Obscure Night: the Night of Sense and Desire
The active night of sense: the desires are emptied so that the soul may be free for God.
- I.1Two kinds of this night, corresponding with the division of the soul into higher and lower.
- I.2The nature and cause of the obscure night.
- I.3The first cause, the privation of the desire.
- I.4The necessity of passing truly through the obscure night of sense, which is the mortification of the desire.
- I.5Continuation of the same subject. Proofs from Scripture.
- I.6Two great evils of the desires: negative and positive. Proofs from Scripture.
- I.7The desires torment the soul. Proofs and illustrations.
- I.8The desires darken the soul. Proofs and illustrations.
- I.9The desires pollute the soul. Proofs from Scripture.
- I.10The desires make the soul lukewarm, and enfeeble virtue. Proofs and illustrations.
- I.11The necessity of freedom from all desires, however slight, for the Divine union.
- I.12The nature of those desires which suffice to injure the soul.
- I.13How the soul enters by faith into the night of sense.
- I.14Explanation of the second line of the stanza, With anxious love inflamed,
- I.15Explanation of the last lines.
Book II — Faith, the Proximate Means of Union: the Second Night of the Spirit
The active night of the understanding: faith, not an image or apprehension, is the proximate means of union.
- II.1Explanation of the Second Stanza
- II.2The second part, or cause of this night—Faith. Two reasons why it is darker than the first and third.
- II.3Faith, the dark night of the soul. Proofs from reason and the Holy Scriptures.
- II.4How the soul must be in darkness, in order to be duly guided by faith to the highest contemplation.
- II.5The union of the soul with God. A comparison.
- II.6The three Theological virtues perfect the powers of the soul, and bring them into a state of emptiness and darkness. Proofs from S. Luke and Isaias.
- II.7The straitness of the way of life. The detachment and freedom necessary for those who walk in it. The detachment of the intellect.
- II.8No creature, no knowledge, comprehensible by the intellect, can subserve as proximate means of union with God.
- II.9Faith is the proximate and proportionate means of the intellect by which the soul may attain to the Divine union of love. Proofs from the Holy Scriptures,
- II.10The divisions of the apprehensions and acts of the intellect.
- II.11Of the hurt and hindrance resulting from intellectual apprehensions supernaturally produced through the instrumentality of the exterior senses. How the soul is to be guided under such circumstances.
- II.12Of natural and imaginary apprehensions. Their nature. They cannot be proportionate means of union. The evil results of not knowing how to detach oneself from them in time.
- II.13The signs to be observed by the spiritual man that he may know when to withdraw the intellect from imaginary forms and discursive meditations.
- II.14The fitness of these signs. The necessity of observing them for spiritual progress.
- II.15Of the occasional necessity of meditating and exerting the natural faculties on the part of those who begin to enter on the contemplative state.
- II.16Of imaginary apprehensions supernaturally represented to the fancy.
- II.17Of the ends and way of God in communicating spiritual blessings to the soul through the interior senses. Answer to the question proposed.
- II.18How souls are injured because their spiritual directors do not guide them aright through these visions. How these visions, though from God, become occasions of error.
- II.19Visions, Revelations, and Locutions, though true and from God, may deceive. Proofs from Holy Scripture.
- II.20Proofs from Scripture that the Divine Locutions, though always true, are not always certain in their causes.
- II.21God is at times displeased with certain prayers, though He answers them. Illustrations of His anger with such prayers.
- II.22It is not lawful, under the New Law, as it was under the Old, to enquire of God by supernatural ways. This doctrine profitable for the understanding of the mysteries of our Holy Faith. Proofs from S. Paul.
- II.23Of the purely Spiritual Apprehensions of the Intellect.
- II.24Of the two kinds of Spiritual Visions which come by the supernatural way.
- II.25Of Revelations: their nature and division.
- II.26The Intelligence of pure truths. Two kinds thereof. The conduct of the soul therein.
- II.27Of the second kind of Revelations, the disclosure of secrets and hidden mysteries. How they may subserve and hinder the Divine union. Of the many delusions of the devil incident to them.
- II.28Of the interior Locutions which occur supernaturally. Their different kinds.
- II.29Of the first kind of words formed by the mind self-recollected. The causes of them. The advantages and disadvantages of them.
- II.30Of Interior Words formally wrought in a Supernatural way. Of the dangers incident thereto; and a necessary caution against delusions,
- II.31Of the Interior Substantial Locutions: the difference between them and the Formal. The profitableness of them. The resignation and reverence of the soul in respect of them.
- II.32Of Intellectual Apprehensions resulting from the Interior Impressions supernaturally effected. The sources of them. The conduct to be observed by the soul, so that these apprehensions shall not hinder it on the Way of Union.
Book III — The Purgation and Active Night of the Memory and the Will
The active night of memory and will: hope empties memory, and charity orders every joy toward God.
- III.1Of the Natural Apprehensions of the Memory: which is to be emptied of them, that the soul, according to that faculty, may be united with God.
- III.2Three kinds of Evils to which the soul is liable, when not in darkness, with respect to the knowledge and reflections of the Memory. Explanation of the first.
- III.3Of the second evil, coming from the evil spirit through the Natural Apprehensions of the Memory.
- III.4Of the third evil, proceeding from the Distinct Natural Knowledge of the Memory.
- III.5The profitableness of forgetfulness, and emptiness with regard to all thoughts and knowledge, which naturally occur to the Memory.
- III.6Of the second kind of Apprehensions: the Imaginary and Supernatural.
- III.7The evils inflicted on the soul by the knowledge of Supernatural things if reflected upon. Their number.
- III.8Of the second evil: the danger of self-conceit and presumption.
- III.9Of the third evil: the work of the devil through the Imaginary Apprehensions of the Memory.
- III.10Of the fourth evil of the Distinct Supernatural Apprehensions of the Memory: the impediment to Union.
- III.11Of the fifth evil, resulting from the Imaginary Supernatural Apprehensions: low and unseemly views of God.
- III.12The benefits of withdrawing the soul from the Apprehensions of the Imagination, Answer to an objection. The difference between the Natural and Supernatural Imaginary Apprehensions.
- III.13Of Spiritual Knowledge as it relates to the Memory.
- III.14General directions for the guidance of the spiritual man in relation to the Memory.
- III.15Of the Obscure Night of the Will. Proofs from Deuteronomy and the Psalms. Division of the affections of the Will.
- III.16Of the first affection of the Will. What Joy is. Its diverse sources.
- III.17Of Joy in Temporal Goods. How it is to be directed.
- III.18Of the Evils resulting from Joy in Temporal goods.
- III.19The benefits resulting from withdrawing our Joy from Temporal things.
- III.20The Joy of the Will in Natural Goods is Vanity. How to direct the Will to God therein.
- III.21The evils of the Will’s rejoicing in Natural Goods.
- III.22The benefits of not rejoicing in Natural Goods,
- III.23Of the third kind, Sensible Goods. Their nature and varieties. The regulation of the Will with respect to them.
- III.24The Evils which befall the soul when the will has joy in Sensible Goods.
- III.25The spiritual and temporal benefits of self-denial in the Joy of Sensible things.
- III.26The fourth kind of goods: Moral Goods. How the will may lawfully rejoice in them.
- III.27Seven Evils to which men are liable if the Will rejoices in Moral Goods.
- III.28The benefits of repressing all Joy in Moral Goods.
- III.29The fifth kind of goods, in which the Will has Joy: the Supernatural. Their nature, and the difference between them and Spiritual Goods. How Joy in them is to be directed unto God,
- III.30The evils resulting from the Will’s rejoicing in this kind of goods.
- III.31The benefits of self-denial in the Joy of Supernatural graces.
- III.32The sixth kind of Goods in which the Will rejoices. Their nature. The first division of them,
- III.33Of the Spiritual Goods distinctly cognisable by the Intellect and, the Memory. The conduct of the Will with respect to Joy in them.
- III.34Of the Sweet Spiritual Goods which distinctly affect the Will. Their diversities,
- III.35The subject continued. The ignorance of some people in the matter of Images.
- III.36How the Joy of the Will in Sacred Images is to be referred to God, so that there shall be no hindrance in it, or occasions of error.
- III.37Motive Goods continued. Oratories and places of prayer.
- III.38The right use of Churches and Oratories. How the soul is to be directed through them unto God.
- III.39Continuation of the same subject.
- III.40Of some evils to which men are liable who indulge in the sensible sweetness which results from objects and places of devotion,
- III.41Of the three kinds of devotional places. How the will is to regulate itself in the matter.
- III.42Of other motives to Prayer adopted by many; namely, many Ceremonies,
- III.43How the Joy and Strength of the Will is to be directed in these devotions.
- III.44Of the second kind of Distinct Goods in which the Will vainly rejoices.
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The Translation
David Lewis’s English first appeared in 1864. This edition prints that public-domain translation from the first volume of his Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross. Its Victorian diction is retained.
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This Edition
The reading column was established from the Internet Archive scan and its coordinate-bearing OCR; running heads and the printed outer-margin summaries were excluded. Line-end hyphenation and unmistakable OCR slips were repaired. Printed page numbers are retained in the margin. This is an open reading edition, not a new critical translation; the source scan remains the final witness where wording is in doubt.