"She is a bride, so gentle and affectionate, and the mother of the only true bridegroom. In her abundant goodness she has channeled the spring of reason's garden, the well of living and life-giving waters that pour forth in a rushing stream from divine Lebanon and flow down from Mount Zion until they surround the shores of every far-flung nation. With divine assistance she has redirected these waters and made them into streams of peace and pools of grace. Therefore, when the Virgin of virgins was led forth by God and her Son, the King of kings, amid the company of exulting angels and rejoicing archangels, with the heavens ringing with praise, the prophecy of the psalmist was fulfilled, in which he said to the Lord: At your right hand stands the queen, clothed in gold of Ophir." - Saint Amadeus of Lausanne
Mary the dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;
Mary the gate, Christ the Heavenly Way!
Mary the root, Christ the Mystic Vine;
Mary the grace, Christ the Sacred Wine!
Mary the wheat, Christ the Living Bread;
Mary the stem, Christ the Rose blood-red!
Mary the font, Christ the Cleansing Flood;
Mary the cup, Christ the Saving Blood!
Mary the temple, Christ the temple's Lord;
Mary the shrine, Christ the God adored!
Mary the beacon, Christ the Haven's Rest;
Mary the mirror, Christ the Vision Blest!
Mary the mother, Christ the Mother's Son
By all things blest while endless ages run.
Amen.
Salvete all,
Happy Feast of the Queenship of Mary! My subscription is ending pretty soon so I figured I'd get a journal entry out before that.
And, like promised, I need to give you all my review of Saint John of the Cross' Dark Night of the Soul. I hope it doesn't disappoint and *hopefully* it won't be unbearably long. So, without further ado::+: LORD SHADOWBLADE DISCUSSES: The Dark Night of the Soul:+:
:+: REVIEW AT A GLANCE: :+:
TITLE: Dark Night of the Soul (written 1586 A.D.)
AUTHOR: Saint John of the Cross (June 24th 1542 — December 14th 1591)
GENRE: Spiritual (Catholic Mysticism)
LENGTH: (Dover Thrift Edition) 111 pages
TRANSLATION: E. Allison Peers
DENSITY RATING:
OVERALL RATING:
Context: I first heard of this book from musician Loreena McKennitt's song of the same title, perhaps about seven or eight years ago (You can find it here: Loreena McKennitt: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHbiXC…). I really liked the song, so I was curious to see where it came from (and besides, I just love reading her traveling musings in her CD booklets). I found out it was from a book by St. John of the Cross, and I mentally put it on my To-Read Booklist. Only just this year I got around to purchasing St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle and St. John's Dark Night and I bought them both for the intention of using them as spiritual companions during my prayer time (which I did).
So let me explain my rating and my "density rating." My density rating is just a little tool I think is useful for some people (myself included) to gauge what kind of book this is. I put it on a scale from one to ten, ten being super dense (for example, something that is 1.) structurally or word-wise, very difficult to read and/or 2.) deals with very dense subject matter) and One being pure fluff. So, it's either very easy to read (like a children's book) or the subject matter is very light. Because these are two very different criteria, my rating tends to get balanced out between the two. A lower density rating is not necessarily better or worse than a higher density rating. I would probably rate an engineering textbook at 15 (astronomically obtuse
) and the Chronicles of Narnia would probably be a 3. Lower ratings just mean that the book is probably more accessible to more people, while a higher rating generally indicates a particular specialization or a particularly keen interest in the subject matter. Make sense?I gave this book a 7.5 because the language took me a little getting used to (I found the translation to be a bit clunky in parts, so that's not necessarily St. John of the Cross' fault) and because the subject matter is very deep (i.e. the relationship of the soul with God as it reaches the peaks of Christian perfection) and technical in a spiritual way. However, the writing is still very accessible, very lyrical (quite beautiful, really), and well structured, so I found it fairly easy to follow along with what he was saying. The set-up of my edition of the book, however, was sparsely populated with paragraph indents which may have helped relieve the eye a bit.
So that's that. Of course, people's perceptions of varying densities differ, so this is just what I think. You'll have to read the book yourself to find out what you think. So now I'll explain my overall rating, and then I shall get on with my "review" of the book. I gave it 4.5 stars (out of 5) because I thought it was a very well-written description about the upper reaches of Christian perfection (even though I've never been there, hah), because I found it to be helpful and foundational for my own spiritual life and because, overall, it was a really, really solid book. And St. John of the Cross is a boss. The only reason it didn't get 5 out of 5 stars is simply because I want to reserve the 5 star books for THE MOST AMAZING THINGS EVER PUT INTO PRINT AND OH MY GOSH YOU SHOULD TOTALLY GO READ IT RIGHT NOW.
Like The Lord of the Rings. *ahem* So I want to be somewhat judicious in my giving out of the 5 stars. But it is amazing nonetheless. 
Anyways: Onwards! TO THE REVIEW!
:+: SUMMARY :+:
The Dark Night of the Soul is a poem about the soul's journey through the spiritual "dark night" in its way of perfection and unity towards God. The poem was written by St. John of the Cross in 1585, and a year later he wrote a commentary explaining the meaning of the poem. The way the book is set up is that St. John starts off with the whole poem, and then breaks it up into different stanzas which he then examines line-by-line (and sometimes, word by word). There are two books. Book I deals with the "first" night (the Dark Night of the senses), which he later explains is really only the first part of the whole dark night, and is more of a preparation for the second, more severe dark night. The first book contains 14 chapters. (As a note: each chapter is very short. Most are about a page long, while the longer ones might be four or five). Book II deals with the Dark Night of the Spirit, which is where the real purgation and sanctification of the soul takes place. This second book contains 25 chapters. Unfortunately, St. John of the Cross never completed this spiritual work; the last chapter in the book only just begins with the third stanza, so the commentary of the whole poem is left unfinished.
But before I go on, I'll provide the poem itself, so you, dear reader, can take a look at it yourself, and then I shall continue.
:+: The Poem :+:
The Dark Night of the Soul
On a dark night,
Kindled in love with yearnings
—oh, happy chance!—
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest.
In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder, disguised
—oh, happy chance!—
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at rest.
In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide,
save that which burned in my heart.
This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he
(well I knew who!) was awaiting me
—A place where no one else appeared.
Oh, night that guided me,
Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined
Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!
Upon my flowering breast,
Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping,
and I caressed him,
And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.
The breeze blew from the battlements
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand
He wounded my neck
And caused all my senses to be suspended.
I remained, lost in oblivion;
My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.
As you can see, it's a very beautiful love poem to God. St. John of the Cross was very fond of the Song of Songs in the Scriptures and modeled his poem after it.
Anyway, this poem is written from the view of the soul, who, by this point, as St. John of the Cross says, has reached the state of perfection, and is now looking back at its numerous trials and afflictions which it suffered in attaining to perfect love of God as a great joy and happiness because it realizes that without those trials it would have been able to love so much. 
Part of the reason that he decided to write this spiritual work was because (as he himself said) there was so very little speaking about the Dark Night of the Soul and so if people went through it, they would not have much help figuring out what was going on. But to help me summarize, I'll use the author's own words. St. John of the Cross begins his commentary of the Night of the Senses like this:
"THIS night, which, as we say, is contemplation, produces in spiritual persons two kinds of darkness or purgation, corresponding to the two parts of man's nature—namely, the sensual and the spiritual. And thus the one night or purgation will be sensual, wherein the soul is purged according to sense, which is subdued to the spirit; and the other is a night or purgation which is spiritual, wherein the soul is purged and stripped according to the spirit, and subdued and made ready for the union of love with God. The night of sense is common and comes to many: these are the beginners; and of this night we shall speak first. The night of the spirit is the portion of very few, and these are they that are already practiced and proficient, of whom we shall treat hereafter.
The first purgation or night is bitter and terrible to sense, as we shall now show. The second bears no comparison with it, for it is horrible and awful to the spirit, as we shall show presently. Since the night of sense is first in order and comes first, we shall first of all say something about it briefly, since more is written of it, as of a thing that is more common; and we shall pass on to treat more fully of the spiritual night, since very little has been said of this, either in speech or in writing, and very little is known of it, even by experience.
Since, then, the conduct of these beginners upon the way of God is ignoble, and has much to do with their love of self and their own inclinations, as has been explained above, God desires to lead them farther. He seeks to bring them out of that ignoble kind of love to a higher degree of love for Him, to free them from the ignoble exercises of sense and meditation (wherewith, as we have said, they go seeking God so unworthily and in so many ways that are unbefitting), and to lead them to a kind of spiritual exercise wherein they can commune with
Him more abundantly and are freed more completely from imperfections. For they have now had practice for some time in the way of virtue and have persevered in meditation and prayer, whereby, through the sweetness and pleasure that they have found therein, they have lost their love of the things of the world and have gained some degree of spiritual strength in God; this has enabled them to some extent to refrain from creature desires, so that for God's sake they are now able to suffer a light burden and a little aridity without turning back to a time which they found more pleasant. When they are going about these spiritual exercises with the greatest delight and pleasure, and when they believe that the sun of Divine favor is shining most brightly upon them, God turns all this light of theirs into darkness, and shuts against them the door and the source of the sweet spiritual water which they were tasting in God whensoever and for as long as they desired. (For, as they were weak and tender, there was no door closed to them, as Saint John says in the Apocalypse, iii, 8). And thus He leaves them so completely in the dark that they know not whither to go with their sensible imagination and meditation; for they cannot advance a step in meditation, as they were wont to do afore time, their inward senses being submerged in this night, and left with such dryness that not only do they experience no pleasure and consolation in the spiritual things and good exercises wherein they were wont to find their delights and pleasures, but instead, on the contrary, they find insipidity and bitterness in the said things. For, as I have said, God now sees that they have grown a little, and are becoming strong enough to lay aside their swaddling clothes and be taken from the gentle breast; so He sets them down from His arms and teaches them to walk on their own feet; which they feel to be very strange, for everything seems to be going wrong with them."
So essentially the dark night sucks. But it's good for you. Like working out.
:+: What I liked about it :+:
Pretty much everything.
But some parts I particularly found helpful were the beginning comments he made before he started the exposition of his commentary proper. I found his comments very sobering. He uses his knowledge as a spiritual director to cut to the very heart of things and lays out the path that beginners in the spiritual life must follow to even get to the place they need to be to have the dark night. I could quote whole paragraphs here, so I shall have to content myself with just quoting a little bit, so this journal doesn't become over-long.INTO this dark night souls begin to enter when God draws them forth from the state of beginners—which is the state of those that meditate on the spiritual road and begins to set them in the state of progressives—which is that of those who are already contemplatives—to the end that, after passing through it, they may arrive at the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine union of the soul with God. Wherefore, to the end that we may the better understand and explain what night is this through which the soul passes, and for what cause God sets it therein, it will be well here to touch first of all upon certain characteristics of beginners (which, although we treat them with all possible brevity, will not fail to be of service likewise to the beginners themselves), in order that, realizing the weakness of the state wherein they are, they may take courage, and may desire that God will bring them into this night, wherein the soul is strengthened and confirmed in the virtues, and made ready for the inestimable delights of the love of God.
So that's for the beginners. If you will all indulge me a bit, his passages on spiritual pride are some of my favorites:
CHAPTER II
Of certain spiritual imperfections which beginners have with respect
to the habit of pride.
AS these beginners feel themselves to be very fervent and diligent in spiritual things and devout exercises, from this prosperity (although it is true that holy things of their own nature cause humility) there often comes to them, through their imperfections, a certain kind of secret pride, whence they come to have some degree of satisfaction with their works and with themselves. And hence there comes to them likewise a certain desire, which is somewhat vain, and at times very vain, to speak of spiritual things in the presence of others, and sometimes even to teach such things rather than to learn them. They condemn others in their heart when they see that they have not the kind of devotion which they themselves desire; and sometimes they even say this in words, herein resembling the Pharisee, who boasted of himself, praising God for his own good works and despising the publican…
…Some of these beginners, too, make little of their faults, and at other times become over-sad when they see themselves fall into them, thinking themselves to have been saints already; and thus they become angry and impatient with themselves, which is another imperfection. Often they beseech God, with great yearnings, that He will take from them their imperfections and faults, but they do this that they may find themselves at peace, and may not be troubled by them, rather than for God's sake; not realizing that, if He should take their imperfections from them, they would probably become prouder and more presumptuous still."
And I think I shall end right there. I hope it was alright. I confess I am not very good at these things, but I hope you all got something out of my review in any case.
Oh, and if I may say something almost completely unrelated: I love Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy!
Pax Vobiscum! Valete!
~Omnes ad Iesum per Mariam~
Your Sister in Christ,
* ~ Lord Theophilia Shadowblade ~ *
Art for Other Deviants:
1.) St. Sebastian for ZhaneAugustine
2.) Pope Gregory the Great for alcuin18
3.) Arthur and Morgaine for Alois-Noette
4.) St. Francis and mouse for agentflapjack
5.) Ballad of the White Horse Project with FireFiriel
Personal Artwork:
1.) Self-Portrait Oil Painting
2.) Pater Noster
3.) Dark Night of the Soul – Daethryn
4.) Star of the County Down
5.) Fall of Constantinople Cover
6.) Templar in a Courtyard
7.) Martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket
8.) Soldier of God painting
9.) Bohemond Crosses the Adriatic
10.) Self-portrait with Saints
11.) Psalm 45
12.) Staircase Scene
13.) Rosary Series
14.) Theotokos of Kazan
15.) Our Lady of Grace
16.) Our Lady of Poland
17.) Theotokos of Jerusalem
18.) Our Lady of Fatima
19.) Salus Populi Romani
20.) Our Lady of All Nations
21.) "With Fire and Sword" pictures
22.) How to Wear/Draw Armor Tutorial
23.) Godfrey carrying Baldwin
24.) Malik and Maryam
25.) "I am a worm and no man…"
26.) Tancred von Marienburg pictures
27.) Ballad of the White Horse Title Page (Kells Style)
28.) Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn
…and tons of others….
Comics:
1.) Crown of the World
a. The Graphic Novella of the Prologue
2.) The Battle of Cresson
My Book List
1. Poetic Diction - Owen Barfield
2. Kristin Lavransdatter – Sigrid Undset
3. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet
4. The Confessions - St. Augustine
5. Chronicles of the Crusades - Joinville and Villehardouin
6. Theology of the Body– John Paul II
7. The Chronographia– Michael Psellus
8. Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T.E. Lawrence
9. Woman - Edith Stein
10. Wisdom and Innocence - Joseph Pearce
11. The Crusades - Reginé Pernoud
12. King Lear - Shakespeare
13. Saint Thomas Aquinas - G.K. Chesterton
14. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
15. The Templars - Reginé Pernoud
16. St. Therese of Lisieux: Spouse and Victim - Cliff Ermatinger
17. The Man on a Donkey - H.F.M. Prescott
18. Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul - St. Maria Faustina Kowalska
19. Those Terrible Middle Ages: Debunking the Myths - Reginé Pernoud
20. City of God – St. Augustine
21. Titus Andronicus - Shakespeare
22. Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
23. The Deluge – Henryk Sienkiewicz
24. Fire in the Steppe/Pan Wołodyjowski – Henryk Sienkiewicz
25. Summa Theologica– St. Thomas Aquinas
26. Collected Works– Anton Chekov
27. The Decameron– Boccaccio
28. Chronicles– Jean Froissart
29. The Letters of the Younger Pliny– Pliny the Younger
30. Pensées– Blaise Pascal
31. The Philosophy of Aristotle
32. Doctor Zhivago– Boris Pasternak
33. The Spirit of Thomism– Étienne Gilson
34. The Philosopher and Theology– Étienne Gilson
35. Painting and Reality– Étienne Gilson
36. The History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages– Étienne Gilson
37. Notes from the Underground– Fyodor Dostoevsky
38. Ascent to Mount Carmel– St. John of the Cross
39. Edmund Campion – Evelyn Waugh
40. Two Lives of Charlemagne– Einhard
41. The Rise of the Roman Empire– Polybius
42. The Histories– Herodotus
43. The Gallic Wars– Julius Caesar
44. The Annals of Imperial Rome– Tacitus
45. The Letters of the Younger Pliny– Pliny the Younger
46. The Crusades– Alfred Duggan
Not in any particular order…and not to mention tons of others (about Constantinople in particular).
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