Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (14: 25-33) in which Jesus says, ‘Anyone who does not carry their cross and come after me cannot be my disciple’. Afterwards Fr Paul shares a little about the St John of the Cross whose memorial we celebrate today

Fr Paul says John was born in Spain, about the year 1542. He spent some time as a Carmelite friar before, in 1568, Saint Teresa of Ávila persuaded him to pioneer the reform of the Carmelite order.

This was a difficult task and a dangerous one: he suffered imprisonment and severe punishment at the hands of the Church authorities. He died at the monastery of Ubeda in Andalusia on 14 December 1591: the monks there had initially treated him as the worst of sinners, but by the time he died they had recognised his sanctity and his funeral was the occasion of a great outburst of enthusiasm.

His works include two major mystical poems – he is considered one of the great poets of the Spanish language – and detailed commentaries on them and the spiritual truths they convey. He was canonized in 1726 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1926.

On this day, Fr Paul invites us to ask, ‘St John of the Cross…Pray for us!’.