Customer Reviews
tough reading..but worth it - By: jesus' girl, 12 Nov 2008 
reading this book is like wading through very deep sticky treacle..but when you begin to understand & get his points it is excellent. I would recommend reading a guide/companion book first then reading this, as it's tricky, v tricky...i am by no means a thickie but this was..tricky.
A couple of points he made really made sense to me - eg not always thinking your spiritual directors are correct - if you feel lead a certain way, go with it - you may be holier with a better understanding than them!
Also the ladder of love & 6 stages of faith were v interesting - & so true.
I will prob read it again after reading a help book (elizabeth ruth obbard has one out & she is fab, would always recommend her)
tricky but worth it for those few diamonds
Beware - By: dradrianmkthomas, 26 May 2008 
Beware of this book - the Christian message of St John of the Cross has been removedin this 'paraphrase' - I will not call it a translation. A great Christian book is turned into a New Age book!
A life review guide - By: L. Constantinou, 03 Dec 2006 
This book answersed all of the questions i had,in terms of my own spiritual journey. It explains why the dark days are so awful & why the light days are soin abundance with joy. Having read many spiritual guidance books,in religeons across the board, i found this to be the definative guide to understanding my own true existence.
God has to make us endure pain, desolation & deep emotionin order for us to appreciate & fully understand the path we are on. If we had only 'positive' days we would not endlessley search for spiritual fulfillment. This journey is fully explainedin this book & its a reflective tool that we can use daily to enchance our understanding of a spiritual journey.
The soul is illuminated by positive experiences, the serenity felt lulls the soul into feeling comfortable. however, each stage of the journey brings a deeper, & more desolate emotion. Through this book, you learn to battle through this, & achieve a sense of calm that enables you to proceed to the next stage.
Its a book that i am able to read again & again, each time gaining a deeper understanding of my own spiritual journey. Well worth a read!.
Read it when the Spirit leads you to - By: Rosemary Swords, 09 Nov 2006 This is a classic book - richly descriptive of spiritual realities, & providing sound guidance by a Doctor of the Church. It is probably best to have had an introduction to the spiritual life first, try 'The Introduction to the devout life' by St Francis de Sales; for a contremporary & helpful introduction try Fr Thomas Dubay ' Prayer Primer' & his introduction to St John of the Cross ' The Fire within'.
Just a note - St John would have laughed at the idea that the devil is only your own ego! Or that God is a deeper region of yourself! This book takes seriously the idea of growing closer to a real god who is passionatelyin love with you, expect to be challenged to change & grow.
A book for those further along the spiritual path - By: Marc John, 14 Sep 2006 
You have to read this book at the right time; if you read it too early into your spiritual contemplations it probably won't make any sense & the wisdom on offer might fail to connect. Ideally you'd read this book only after you've begun to feel the presence of the Spirit alive within you, but then suddenly, or gradually, you find yourself deeply confused & even abandoned by it. That is the perfect time to absorb this very wise, knowing book, written by a man who obviously underwent the entire process of spiritual awakening & union with what the religions call God - which is really, actually a deeper region of your own self that you have the potential to experience directly, although not until you give up the spiritual quest: a daunting, painful period aptly known as the dark night of the soul. What stops this material getting a five star rating is the occasional lack of clarityin the writing style. St. John may have been a true mystic but he was no Hemingway or Shakespeare & at times the text is unnecessarily dense & overly complicated. But this is a trifling criticism, out-weighed by the timelessly valid insights supplied on each page. One final piece of vital advice, wherever you read the word "devil" (mentioned very often) you'd do well to consider this as a reference to the Ego, your own, rather than interpreting the phrase to mean the actual existence of Christianity's arch enemy. A great deal of important understanding falls into place when you do this. In fact, it would help if the Introduction section to all translations stressed that the term "devil" should not be read literally but metaphorically. Overall, though, this book is an invaluable spiritual guide.
