And thus the soul must be attached to nothing—nay, not even to any kind of meditation or sweetness, whether of sense or spirit.  For the spirit needs to be so free and so completely annihilated that any thought or meditation which the soul in this state my desire, or any pleasure to which it may conceive an attachment, would impede and disturb–that it would introduce noise into the deep silence which it should observe, according both to sense and to spirit, so that it may hear the deep and delicate voice of God which speaks to the heart in this secret place, as He said through Osee, in the upmost peace and tranquility, so that the soul may listen and hear, as David heard, the words of God, when He speaks this peace in the soul.  When this comes to pass, and the soul is conscious of being led into silence, and harkens, it must forget even a loving advertence of which I have spoken, so that it may remain free for that which is then desired of it; for it must practice that advertence only when it is not conscious of being brought into solitude or rest or forgetfulness or attentiveness of the spirit, which is always accompanied by a certain interior absorption

Wherefore at no time or season, when once the soul has begun to enter into this pure and restful state of contemplation, must it seek to gather to itself meditations, neither must it desire to find help in spiritual sweetness or delight, but it must stand in complete detachment above all this and its spirit must be freed from it, as the prophet Habakkuk…’I will stand upon my watch over my senses—that is, leaving them below—and I will fix my step upon the munition of my faculties—that is, not allowing them to advance in thought—and I will watch to see that which will be said to me—that is, I will receive that which is communicated to me’.  For we have already said that contemplation is receiving, and it is not possible that this loftiest wisdom and lineage of contemplation can be received save in a spirit that is silent and detached from sweetness and knowledge.  –St John of the Cross ‘Living Flame of Love’

St John of the Cross. Euclid, Ohio.