SCRIPTURE
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.
READING
The soul is incapable of truly acquiring control of the passions and restriction of the inordinate appetites without forgetting and withdrawing from the sources of these emotions. Disturbances never arise in a soul unless through the apprehensions of the memory. When all things are forgotten, nothing disturbs the peace or stirs the appetites. As the saying goes: What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t want.
The Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book Three, Chapter 5
PRAYER
O seraphic St. John of the Cross,
the ardent love which burned always in your heart
led you to see all things only in God
and to seek only His glory.
It was to increase this love
and thus unite yourself more closely to God
that you led such a penitential life.
I beg you, inflame my heart with a love like yours,
so that I may have the courage to mortify myself
and give myself generously to the practice of virtue.
Thus may I truly love God
with all the fervor of which I am capable.
Amen.
Thank you for joining our novena.
Please join us 14 December
for the Solemnity of
Saint John of the Cross
Written at the Greek-Catholic Monastery of the Annunciation in Nazareth
Image kindly provided by the Carmel of Haifa
(All rights reserved)
John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Novena prayer courtesy of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, Carmel of St. Teresa of Jesus, Little Rock, Arkansas
Carmelite Quotes 
That is my favourite Psalm – more so than Ps. 22(23). The saying in my childhood was put as, “What the eye doesn’t see, the heart can’t grieve over”. I love this extract from our Holy Father.
It truly is beautiful.