Perhaps you will find this as beautiful and meaningful as I do...
Verses on the Ecstasy of Deep Contemplation
Translated from the Spanish poem
by San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross) 1542-1591
I entered where I never knew,
and I was left without knowing,
transcending all knowledge.
I never knew where I was entering,
but when I found myself there,
without knowing where I was,
I understood important matters.
I don’t say what I felt,
for I was left without knowing,
transcending all knowledge.
It was the perfect knowledge of peace and piety,
a straight road well understood in deep solitude.
It was something so secret that I was left babbling,
transcending all knowledge.
I was drawn into it,
so absorbed and taken out of myself,
that my feeling was left devoid of all feeling
and my mind was endued with an understanding
by not understanding,
transcending all knowledge.
He who really reaches that point
faints away from himself, he scorns
all that he formerly knew;
and his knowledge increases so much
that he is left without knowing,
transcending all knowledge.
The higher one rises, the less one understands
what the shadowy cloud is
which brightens the night;
therefore he knows
it remains ever unknowing,
transcending all knowledge.
This unknowing knowledge is of such great power
that the scholars can never overcome it by arguing:
for their knowledge does not extend
to this non-understanding
transcending all knowledge.
And this highest way of knowing
is so completely superior
that there is no university
or science that can attempt it:
he who can overcome himself
by a knowing non-knowing will always be
transcending.
And if you want to listen, this highest knowledge
consists of a heightened perception of
the Divine Essence; it is a result of His mercy
to leave one not understanding,
transcending all knowledge.
Original name Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, (born June 24, 1542, Fontiveros, Spain—died December 14, 1591, Ubeda; canonized 1726; feast day December 14), one of the greatest Christian mystics and Spanish poets, doctor of the church, reformer of Spanish monasticism, and cofounder of the contemplative order of Discalced Carmelites. He is a patron saint of mystics and contemplatives and of Spanish poets.
