The Complete Works of St. John of the Cross - Volume 3

Item Details:

Volume 3 - Living Flame of Love, Cautions, Spiritual Sentences and Maxims, Letters, Sundry Documents, etc.

Translated from the critical edition of P Silverio De Santa Teresa, C.D. and edited by E. Allison Peers.

Imprimatur, 1933. 470 page book.

The third and concluding volume opens with The Living Flame of Love, the shortest and among the most sublime of St. John of the Cross’s major mystical treatises. Where the earlier works describe purification, longing, and the soul’s approach to union, The Living Flame considers the soul already transformed by Divine love and drawn into an increasingly profound communion with God. Through the image of the living flame, St. John describes the action of the Holy Spirit within the purified soul, the tenderness and intensity of Divine love, and the soul’s desire for the perfection of eternal union. The volume includes both the first and second redactions of this work.

Volume III then gathers St. John’s shorter spiritual writings and personal documents, including his Cautions, counsels for religious seeking perfection, spiritual sentences and maxims, and surviving letters. It also preserves documents written or signed by him, spiritual sayings attributed to him, and extensive historical appendices concerning his life, writings, and reputation, followed by a bibliography and detailed indices. This final volume moves beyond his great mystical treatises to reveal St. John as spiritual director, religious superior, correspondent, and historical figure.