Thoughts on St. John's Poem, continued...

In the Dark Night, God transforms the soul, mind, heart. The person becomes stripped of the ego and 

becomes new.

This newness may feel raw, or even a bit scary, as if one is losing a sense of who one thought one was.

But, God is doing the transforming, through the purgation of the senses and the spirit.

This transformation leads finally to a conviction that no matter what the pain and suffering, no matter what the 

sense of loss, God is there.

St. John experienced love in this darkness, like the love one feels when one is looking at a loved one who is sleeping.

One is wounded by love and the neck, which is the Bible is a symbol of pride, is wounded by God, who is destroying

pride.

The senses are suspended because one is being taken out of the world of the senses into the world of "nada", 

the nothingness of self. One must abandon one's self to God's Will as nothing else is left.

The oblivion may be several things, the first being how one feels when one depends totally on Divine Providence,

and not on one's own efforts, ideas, even prayers.

One leaves all cares to God, as one has been humbled so much that one sees that human efforts are useless.

The result of this complete dependence on God, the complete surrender of memory, understanding and will, can be 

a completely new life in Christ, and should be the very beginnings of the Illuminative State.

The key is abandonment.

The love which is growing in the person in the Dark Night is the love of expectation, of desire.

What are the lilies? In the Bible, and in Solomon's Temple, lilies would have looked like our idea of the lily, the

 Lilium candidum 

When one leaves one's cares among the lilies, this means to me that one is content to let God take over the

purification process, one is relying on grace, not effort. All the effort lies in cooperation. 

When one forgets cares, one is also completely no longer distracted by the cares. Cares fade into desire for
the Beloved.

If one is in love, one forgets everything else

but the beloved, and in this case, the Beloved, Christ Himself.

Upon my flowery 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 turret
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.

Thanks to Wiki for the photos...