LUKAS (o) from St. Joseph Religious Sainthood [1942].

According to the spiritual cautions of St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, translated from the Spanish by Fr. Francis of the Visitation of the N. M. P. a barefoot Carmelite. KRAKOW 1942. by Gebethner and Wolf. pp. XVI, 423, dimensions 13.5 x 20.5, cloth binding with gold titling on front. Cracking of spine edges, inside good condition. Withdrawn ownership stamp on title page.

From the text: "The second warning against the world relates to worldly goods. For complete freedom from the harm mentioned above, and for the remission of inherent covetousness, you must despise all possessions, and care not altogether either for food, or for clothing, or for anything else, or for tomorrow, but turn all your endeavor to other higher things, that is: to seek the Kingdom of God, that is, not to offend God in anything, and everything else, as our Lord assures us, will be added to us. For He who has the care of all creation cannot forget you. In this way you will attain quietness and tranquility in your sensual nature."

"Religious life is a courageous attempt to realize the evangelical counsels. The grace of vocation calls and selects from among people magnanimous individuals ready for the heroic,, path to holiness. And for this reason, a man who is called cannot stop at merely keeping the commandments and correctly fulfilling his duties, but must fully accept all the consequences of the chosen path. This poses many difficulties, first of all, how to combine the human with the divine, and also how to remain constantly faithful to the grace of the vocation. A great ally for all these is the book by Fr. Luke of St. Joseph: "Religious Holiness." It was written as a commentary on the "Spiritual Cautions" of St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church. "Cautions", the smallest of the works of the Great Doctor of Carmel, is a kind of synthesis of ascetic indications for religious souls. Each sentence in them has the force of an aphorism and makes you think. Fr. Luke, in his extensive commentary, has taken advantage of these qualities of the "Cautions" and has given comprehensive indications for religious life. It should be added that the value of the book is increased enormously by the gathering of excellent quotations from other divisions of St. John of the Cross, as well as the skillful confrontation with the writings of the great Teresa of Avila, the Mistress of souls striving for perfection."