Gold

 

Gold requires fire, to be free
from the rock it is in. 
Can you stand the fire?

All the terrifying visions which visited St. Francis and St. Padre Pio, did not visit St. John of the cross, in spite of his name. Yet the total sacrifice they desired did visit St. John of the Cross, and was not less violent than the bloody sacrifice of the others.

He was able to endure and withstand the violence of God's love and come away stammering to enchant the souls of visionaries everywhere. 

Who else might have grown up in poverty and simplicity which they espoused as the companions of their soul? How many other living torches have been enkindled with the love of God?

Look about you and see the gentle spirits that have tasted the cross and entered heaven. Look about you, and encourage the ones who are lost in pitiful pain, looking for their true Companion, and the way into the Garden to be with God. 

They are not afraid that anyone might hear them because they would be unable to understand what they heard, but it might drive them deeper into the furnace of His love.  If that were to happen, they would only stagger smoldering in love, lost and looking for the way. You cannot see beforehand, where He wants your steps to tend, but you will arrive where He intended, and be nourished by the Garden's rest.