“Love which is not humble is a devil.”
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
Servant of God John of St. Samson , also known as Jean du Moulin or Jean de Saint-Samson, was a French Carmelite friar and mystic of the Catholic Church. He is known as the soul of the Touraine Reform of the Carmelite Order, which stressed prayer, silence and solitude. John was blind from the age of three after contracting smallpox and receiving poor medical treatment for the disease. He insisted very strongly on the mystical devotion of the Carmelites. He has been referred to as the "French John of the Cross" by students of Christian mysticism. Wikipedia
“Love which is not humble is a devil.”
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
“The forgetting of all things and of one's self, combined with contemplation, makes a man divine”
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From The Epithalamium
From Prayer, Aspiration, and Contemplation
From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God
From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God
Variant: Aspiration, practiced as a familiar, respectful and loving conversation with God, is such an excellent method, that, by means of it, one soon arrives at the summit of all perfection, and falls in love with Love.
From Prayer, Aspiration, and Contemplation
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From Prayer, Aspiration, and Contemplation
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
“My exercise consists in a total elevation of the spite above all created and sense-objects.”
From The Exercise of Elevation of the Spirit to God
Context: My exercise consists in a total elevation of the spite above all created and sense-objects. By this exercise I am securely concentrated within myself and gaze steadily at God who in a simple manner draws me to the state of simple unity and nakedness of spirit, which is called “simple idleness.” In this state of simplicity of rest I am passively possessed and held above every sense-image. This rest remains mine, whether I am by myself doing nothing or whether I am engaged in activity that is exterior or interior and mental. This is what I can tell you about my interior life: my condition is simple, naked, darkened and without knowledge even of God, in nakedness and darkness of spirit. I am lifted above every kind of illumination existing below this level; in this state I cannot bring into play my interior faculties. They are all without exception drawn and held under the influence of this unique and simple “image.” This image, in fact, holds them in a state of naked simplicity above vision and essence at the highest level of spirit, beyond spirit. It is there that I find myself in the nakedness and darkness of the all-incomprehensible depths, incomprehensible because of their darkness, where everything of the senses, everything specific and created melts down and blend into the unity of spirit, or rather into the simplicity of essence or spirit.
“To possess nothing and to be nothing is to be full of God.”
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
Context: Whoever refuses to follow Christ in His poverty will never possess Him in the abundance of His graces and virtues in this life, nor in His glory in the next. To possess nothing and to be nothing is to be full of God.
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
Context: The corruption of the world and of the worldliness is a consequence of the fact that men have no eye whatever for the majesty of God in and around themselves; therefore has God delivered them to the natural and brutal motions of their heart.
“Sing boldly, O spouses of a Bridegroom such as mine!”
From The Epithalamium
Context: Sing boldly, O spouses of a Bridegroom such as mine! you, I say, whom are my companions in this fate and enjoyment so happy as ours! Sing at my happy insistence as I will sing by yours, a new song containing endless praises of the infinitely excessive grandeur and love of our Bridegroom, coming to so admirably espouse us, to deiformly deify us of him and in him, and to make us oneself of oneself.
From Prayer, Aspiration, and Contemplation
From The Holy Sepulchre Canticle
“Nothing ever astonishes the really simple person.”
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From The Epithalamium
From, A Letter to a Religious
“Desire, abide, suffer and die unknown for all time; this is true sanctity!”
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God
“Modesty enables physical deformity.”
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
Among his last words, after receiving the final Sacraments
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
“It is much more trying to be continually tormented by evil men than by devils.”
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God
From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From Prayer, Aspiration, and Contemplation
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
As quoted in Traditions of Spiritual Guidance (1987) by Michael Brundell.
From Prayer, Aspiration, and Contemplation
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From Prayer, Aspiration, and Contemplation
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God