Lenten Meditation - April 6, 2006

God, when loved readily, listens to the prayer of the one who loves Him. He says Himself, ‘If you live on in me, and my words live on in you, everything you ask for shall be yours.’

The soul may with truth call the Bridegroom ‘Beloved’ when it is wholly His, and the heart has no attachments but Him, and when all the thoughts are continually directed to Him.

Some there are who call the Bridegroom their Beloved, but He is not really beloved, because their heart is not wholly with Him. Their prayers therefore are not so effective before God, and they shall not obtain what they ask until, by persevering in prayer, they fix their minds more constantly on God, and their hearts more wholly on Him with loving affection; for nothing can be obtained from God but by love.

This is a test to discern the true lover of God. Is he satisfied with anything less than God? For the satisfaction of the heart is not found in possessions, but in detachment from all things and poverty of spirit.

- St. John of the Cross, Collected Works: Spiritual Canticle, st. I