May I never boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.   Galatians: 6: 14

On this the last of our obligatory Advent Memorials this year (having supplanted Saint Lucy yesterday with the Sunday observance), we praise God for the life and suffering of Saint John of the Cross.  Who would ever be so foolish as to boast in something so shameful as the Cross, unless of course they had come to realize its stunning wisdom?

There is no sanctity without suffering; suffering, that is, in the knowledge that all of our sufferings are a sharing in the sufferings of the One who suffered freely for all.  Such love moves hearts to be unmoved by the world.

Advent Post Series, 2015