SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

The following Fr Matt Blake video talks on St John of the Cross’s poem and treaty ‘The Living Flame of Love’ was given at the Carmelite Retreat Centre in Boars Hill, Oxford, on 12-14 December 2014

Part 1: St John of the Cross: “The Living Flame” by Fr Matt Blake, OCD

1. O living flame of love
   that tenderly wounds my soul
   in its deepest center! Since
   now you are not oppressive,
   now consummate! if it be your will:
   tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!

2. O sweet cautery,
O delightful wound!
O gentle hand! O delicate touch
that tastes of eternal life
and pays every debt!
In killing you changed death to life.

Part 3: St John of the Cross: “The Living Flame” by Fr Matt Blake, OCD

3. O lamps of fire!
in whose credits
the deep caverns of feeling,
once obscure and blind,
now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,
both warmth and light to their Beloved.

Part 4: St John of the Cross: “The Living Flame” by Fr Matt Blake, OCD

4. How gently and lovingly
you wake in my heart,
where in secret you dwell alone;
and in your sweet breathing,
filled with good and glory,
how tenderly you swell my heart with love.

Part 5: St John of the Cross: “The Living Flame” by Fr Matt Blake, OCD

Part 6: St John of the Cross: “The Living Flame” by Fr Matt Blake, OCD

Part 7: St John of the Cross: “The Living Flame” by Fr Matt Blake, OCD