Quote of the day, 20 July: St. John of the Cross

There are three different kinds of places, I find, by which God usually moves the will. […]

The third kind of place comprises those in which God chooses to be invoked and worshipped.

Examples are:

• Mount Sinai, where he presented the law to Moses [Ex 24:12];
• the place he marked for the sacrifice of Abraham’s son [Gn 22:2];
• also, Mount Horeb, to which he sent our Father Elijah that he might appear to him there [1 Kgs 19:8];
• and, Mount Garganus, the place St. Michael dedicated to God’s worship by appearing to the Bishop of Siponto and telling him how he guarded that place so a chapel might be dedicated to God there in memory of the angels;
• and, the site in Rome that the Blessed Virgin, through the miracle of snow, pointed out for a church she wanted Patritius to build in her name.

God alone knows why he chooses one place in which to receive praise more than another.

What we should know is that he does all for our own benefit and so he may hear our prayers in these places—or anywhere we beseech him with integral faith.

Yet those places consecrated to his worship are more appropriate as places for our prayers to be heard since the Church has so marked and dedicated them.

Saint John of the Cross

The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book III, Chap. 42, nos. 1, 5–6

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.

Featured image: Elia in de grot (Elijah in the cave) is an etching by Dutch printmaker Jan Luyken (1649–1712) that dates to 1704. Image credit: Rijksmuseum (Public domain).