Carmelite spirituality owes just as much to St. John of the Cross as it does to St. Teresa.

The mystical doctor considers mystical life under its essential and complimentary aspects. First, he discusses the work of detachment in a soul advancing toward God; then he examines God's direct action in a soul who submits passively to this divine action. He then sings of the joys and splendors of divine union. In other words, his work embraces the whole question of the transformation of our being and our way of acting under the influence of the Spirit of God.

St. John of the Cross has given us a work that is unique because of its richness of his experience (as much psychological as mystical) and the holiness of his life. He goes beyond pure speculation because he wants lovingly, tenderly, and warmly, to persuade souls to journey along the path to divine union and to show them its treasures. To do this he makes use of a very rare poetic gift that enable him sweetly to communciate to souls the lights he has received and the living flame of his love for God.

With the whole tradition of Carmel to support him, John of the Cross unhesitatingly answers, 'the path of the Bible and the Gospel, that is to say, the path that is Christ.' At Carmel, the soul always draws strength fromthe divine Word. Of course this means both the Old and New Testaments, for Carmel's roots are fixed deep in Scripture.

...What St. John seeks is the path that leads quickly and surely to the summit of the mount of perfection and therefore to union with God. From this point of view the place he gives to faith is better understood. Its mission is to purify the soul's vision of God. In fact, it alone can remove whatever acts as a screen or an obstacle to the possession of God and enable us to see things truthfully, because faith is 'an interior light derived from the light of God which illumines all things in the light of God and makes us see them as He does.'