John of the Cross — resignation, mortification, the virtues, solitude
The companion to the Cautions, entire. The Spanish is John’s, established from the page images of the 1912 critical edition; the English was made here and given away. — the commentary
There is no public-domain English of this treatise. David Lewis did not include it in his 1864 volumes, and the modern translations are in copyright. So the English here was made from the Spanish for this edition and dedicated to the public domain under CC0 — free to copy, alter, print or sell, without permission or attribution.
The Spanish is kept beside it so that the translation can be checked rather than trusted — folded away to keep the page short, and one tap from view.
Jesus
Pidióme su Santa Caridad mucho en pocas palabras, para lo cual era necesario mucho tiempo y papel. Viéndome, pues, falto de todas estas cosas, procuraré de resumirme y poner solamente algunos puntos o avisos, que en suma contienen mucho, y que quien perfectamente los guardare alcanzará mucha perfección. El que quisiere ser verdadero religioso y cumplir con el estado que tiene prometido a Dios, y aprovechar en las virtudes y gozar de las consolaciones y suavidad del Espíritu Santo, no podrá, si no procura ejercitar con grandísimo cuidado los cuatro avisos siguientes, que son: 1.º Resignación; 2.º Mortificación; 3.º Ejercicios de virtudes; 4.º Soledad corporal y espiritual.
Your Holy Charity asked me for a great deal in few words — a thing for which much time and much paper would have been needed. Finding myself short of both, I shall try to be brief, and set down only a few points, or counsels, which hold much in little; and whoever keeps them perfectly will reach great perfection.
Whoever would be a true religious, and fulfil the state he has promised to God, and profit in the virtues, and enjoy the consolations and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, will not be able to, unless he takes the greatest care to practise the four counsels that follow. They are: first, Resignation; second, Mortification; third, the Exercise of the virtues; fourth, Solitude of body and of spirit.
Para guardar lo primero, que es Resignación, le conviene que de tal manera viva en el Monasterio como si otra persona en él no viviese: y así jamás se entrometa ni de palabra ni de pensamiento en las cosas que pasan en la comunidad, ni de los particulares, no queriendo notar ni sus bienes, ni sus males, ni sus condiciones; y aunque se hunda el mundo, ni querer advertir, ni entrometerse en ello, por guardar el sosiego de su alma, acordándose de la mujer de Lot, que porque volvió la cabeza a mirar los clamores y ruido de los que perecían, se volvió en dura piedra.
To keep the first, which is Resignation, it is fitting that he live in the monastery as though no other person lived in it. So let him never meddle, by word or by thought, in the things that go on in the community, nor in those of individuals, wanting to take note neither of their goods, nor of their ills, nor of their characters. Though the world should fall in, let him not want to notice it or to meddle in it, so as to keep his soul at rest — remembering Lot’s wife, who, because she turned her head to look at the outcry and the noise of those who were perishing, was turned into hard stone.
Esto há menester guardar con gran fuerza, porque con ello se librará de muchos pecados e imperfecciones, y guardará el sosiego y quietud de su alma con mucho aprovechamiento delante de Dios y de los hombres. Y esto se mire mucho, que importa tanto que, por no lo guardar muchos religiosos, no sólo nunca les lucieron las otras obras de virtud y de religión que hicieron, más fueron siempre hacia atrás de mal en peor.
This he needs to keep with great force, for by it he will be delivered from many sins and imperfections, and will keep the rest and quiet of his soul with much profit before God and before men. Let this be well looked to, for it matters so much that, through not keeping it, many religious not only never got any lustre from the other works of virtue and of religion that they did, but went always backward, from bad to worse.
Para obrar lo segundo y aprovecharse en ello, que es Mortificación, le conviene muy de veras poner en su corazón esta verdad, y es, que no ha venido a otra cosa al convento si no para que le labren y ejerciten en la virtud, y que es como la piedra, que la han de pulir y labrar antes que la asienten en el edificio. Y así ha de entender que todos los que están en el convento no son más que oficiales que tiene Dios allí puestos para que le labren y pulan en mortificación; y que unos le han de labrar con la palabra, diciéndole lo que no quisiera oír; otros con la obra, haciendo contra él lo que no quisiera sufrir; otros con la condición, siéndole molestos y pesados en sí y en su manera de proceder; otros con los pensamientos, sintiendo en ellos o pensando en ellos que no le estiman ni aman; y todas estas mortificaciones y molestias debe sufrir con paciencia interior, callando por amor de Dios, entendiendo que no vino a la religión para otra cosa, sino para que lo labrasen, y así fuese digno del Cielo: que si para esto no fuera, no había para qué venir a la religión, sino estarse en el mundo buscando su consuelo, honra y crédito, y sus anchuras.
To work the second and profit by it, which is Mortification, it is fitting that he set this truth in his heart in good earnest: that he has come to the convent for nothing else than that they should work him and exercise him in virtue; and that he is like the stone, which must be polished and dressed before it is set in the building. So he is to understand that all who are in the convent are no more than workmen whom God has stationed there to dress and polish him by mortification. Some are to work him with the word, telling him what he would rather not hear; others with the deed, doing against him what he would rather not suffer; others with their temper, being irksome and heavy to him in themselves and in their way of proceeding; others with their thoughts, in that he feels in them, or supposes of them, that they neither esteem nor love him. All these mortifications and annoyances he ought to bear with inward patience, keeping silence for the love of God, understanding that he came to religion for nothing else but that they should work him, and so make him worthy of heaven. Were it not for this, there would have been no reason to come to religion at all: he might have stayed in the world looking for his comfort, his honour and credit, and his ease.
Y este segundo aviso es totalmente necesario al religioso para cumplir con su estado y hallar la verdadera humildad, quietud interior y gozo en el Espíritu Santo. Y si así no lo ejercita, ni sabe ser religioso, ni aun a lo que vino a la religión, ni sabe buscar a Cristo, sino a sí mismo; ni hallará paz en su alma, ni dejará de pecar y turbarse muchas veces; porque nunca han de faltar ocasiones en la religión, ni Dios quiere que falten, porque como trae allí a las almas para que se prueben y purifiquen, como el oro con fuego y martillo, conviene que no falten pruebas y tentaciones de hombres y de demonios, fuego de angustias y desconsuelos. En las cuales cosas se ha de ejercitar el religioso, procurando siempre llevarlas con paciencia y conformidad con la voluntad de Dios, y no llevarlas de manera que en lugar de aprobarle Dios en la probación, le venga a reprobar por no haber querido llevar la Cruz de Cristo con paciencia. Por no entender muchos religiosos que vinieron a ésto, sufren mal a los otros, los cuales al tiempo de la cuenta se hallarán muy confusos y burlados.
And this second counsel is wholly necessary to a religious if he is to fulfil his state and to find true humility, inward quiet, and joy in the Holy Spirit. If he does not practise it so, he does not know how to be a religious, nor even what he came to religion for; he does not know how to seek Christ, but only himself; nor will he find peace in his soul, nor cease from sinning and being troubled many times over. For occasions will never be wanting in religion, nor does God wish them to be wanting: since he brings souls there to be tried and purified, as gold is with fire and hammer, it is fitting that there be no lack of trials and temptations from men and from devils, of the fire of anguish and desolation. In these things the religious must exercise himself, taking care always to bear them with patience and with conformity to the will of God, and not to bear them in such a way that, instead of God approving him in the testing, he should come to be rejected for having refused to carry the Cross of Christ with patience. Because many religious do not understand that they came for this, they bear badly with the others; and at the time of the reckoning they will find themselves greatly confounded and cheated.
Para obrar lo tercero, que es Ejercicio de virtudes, le conviene tener constancia en obrar las cosas de su religión y de la obediencia, sin ningún respeto de mundo, sino solamente por Dios; y para hacer esto así y sin engaño, nunca ponga los ojos en el gusto o disgusto que se le ofrece en la obra para hacerla o dejarla de hacer, sino a la razón que hay de hacerla por Dios. Y así ha de hacer todas las cosas sabrosas o desabridas con este solo fin, de servir a Dios con ellas.
To work the third, which is the Exercise of the virtues, it is fitting that he keep constancy in doing the things of his religion and of obedience, with no regard for the world, but only for God. And to do this so, and without self-deception, let him never set his eyes on the liking or the dislike he finds in a work, to do it or to leave it undone, but only on the reason there is for doing it for God. So he must do all things, agreeable or disagreeable, with this single end: to serve God by them.
Y para obrar fuertemente, y con esta constancia, y salir presto a luz con las virtudes, tenga siempre cuidado de inclinarse más a lo dificultoso que a lo fácil, a lo áspero que a lo suave, y a lo penoso de la obra y desabrido, que a lo sabroso y gustoso de ella, y no andar escogiendo lo que es menos cruz, pues es carga liviana; y cuanto más carga, más leve es, llevada por Dios. Procure también siempre que los hermanos sean preferidos a él en todas las comodidades, poniéndose siempre en el más bajo lugar, y esto muy de corazón; porque este es el modo de ser mayor en lo espiritual, como nos dice Dios en su Evangelio: Qui se humiliat exaltabitur.
And to work strongly, and with this constancy, and to come out quickly into the light with the virtues, let him always take care to incline rather to the difficult than to the easy, to the rough than to the smooth, to what is laborious and disagreeable in the work rather than to what is tasteful and pleasant in it; and let him not go about choosing whatever is less cross, since it is a light burden — and the more the load, the lighter it is, when it is carried for God. Let him also take care always that the brothers be preferred before him in every comfort, putting himself always in the lowest place, and this very heartily; for this is the way to be greater in spiritual things, as God tells us in his Gospel: Qui se humiliat exaltabitur.1
Para obrar lo cuarto, que es Soledad, le conviene tener todas las cosas del mundo por acabadas, y así cuando por no poder más las hubiere de tratar, sea tan desasidamente como si no fuesen.
To work the fourth, which is Solitude, it is fitting that he hold all the things of the world to be finished and done with; so that when, being unable to do otherwise, he must deal with them, it should be as detachedly as though they were not.
Y de las cosas de allá fuera no tenga cuenta ninguna, pues Dios le ha sacado y descuidado de ellas; el negocio que pudiere tratar por tercera persona, no lo haga por sí mismo; ni querer ver a nadie, ni que nadie le vea. Y advierta mucho, que si a cualquiera de los fieles há Dios de pedir estrecha cuenta de una palabra ociosa, ¿cuánto más al religioso que tiene su vida y obras consagradas a Dios, se las ha de pedir todas el día de su cuenta?
Of the things outside let him take no account at all, since God has drawn him out of them and freed him from their care. The business he could transact through a third person, let him not transact himself; and let him neither wish to see anyone, nor that anyone should see him. And let him mark this well: if God is to require of any one of the faithful a strict account of a single idle word, how much more of the religious, whose life and works are consecrated to God — will he not require an account of them all on the day of his reckoning?
No quiero decir por esto, que deje de hacer el oficio que tiene, y cualquiera otro que la obediencia le mandare con toda la solicitud posible y que fuese necesaria, sino que de tal manera lo haga, que nada se le pegue en él de culpa, porque esto no lo quiere Dios, ni la obediencia. Para esto procure ser continuo en la oración, y en medio de los ejercicios corporales no la deje; ahora coma, ahora beba, o hable o trate con seglares, o haga cualquiera otra cosa, siempre ande deseando a Dios y aficionando a él su corazón, que es cosa muy necesaria para la soledad interior, en la cual se requiere no dejar el alma parar ningún pensamiento que no sea enderezado a Dios, y en olvido de todas las cosas que son y pasan en esta mísera y breve vida. En ninguna manera quiera saber cosa, sino sólo cómo servirá más a Dios y guardará mejor las cosas de su instituto.
I do not mean by this that he should leave off doing the office he holds, or any other that obedience may lay upon him, with all the diligence possible and such as may be necessary; but that he should do it in such a way that nothing of fault cleaves to him in it — for God does not want that, nor does obedience. To this end let him take care to be continual in prayer, and not to leave it off in the middle of bodily exercises: whether he eat or drink, or speak or deal with seculars, or do anything else, let him go always desiring God and setting the affection of his heart upon him. This is very necessary for interior solitude, in which the soul is required to let no thought settle that is not directed towards God, and to be in forgetfulness of all the things that are and that pass in this brief and wretched life. Let him in no way wish to know anything, except only how he may better serve God and better keep the things of his institute.
Si estas cuatro cosas guardare su Caridad con cuidado, muy en breve será perfecto: las cuales de tal manera se ayudan una a otra, que si en una faltare, lo que por las otras fuere aprovechando y ganando, por aquella en que falta se le va perdiendo.
If your Charity keeps these four things with care, you will very shortly be perfect. They so help one another that, if one of them be lacking, whatever is being profited and gained by the others begins to be lost through the one in which he fails.
Grados de Perfección — Nine numbered maxims that follow this treatise in the Baeza manuscript, printed by the 1912 editor immediately after it. They are a separate piece, and the editor records that Fray Andrés de la Encarnación doubted they belonged with the Four Counsels at all. They are not printed here.
translation-log.md.counsels.json by build_john_of_the_cross.py and is never hand-edited.