The poems of St John of the Cross, with their mystic depth and spiritual ecstasy, stand among the world's great poems of Divine Love in all traditions. St John is one of the Roman Catholic Doctors of the Church, was a reformer of the Carmelite Order, and co-founder with St Teresa of Avila of the Discalced Carmelites. Teresa invited John to follow her, and in the protocols of the times, also became her Spiritual Director and Confessor. Many of their individual works could be considered the products of their mutual support and inspiration.

The Obscure Night of the Soul, better know today as The Dark Night of the Soul, is the distilled teaching of St John of the Cross, who reintroduced and revolutionized Christian Contemplation in the 16th Century. The text remains in print until this day, and has been an inspiration to seekers for centuries. St John's method is known as the Via Negativa, defined in Wikipedia as "a type of theological thinking that attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God...

The Ascent of Mount Carmel is one of the timeless classics of Christian contemplation, radical in its time and deeply influential in the world today. St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila worked together to reform the Carmelite Order in the Roman Catholic Church, in which he is honored as one of the Doctors of the Church. An active priest and teacher in his lifetime, this work is considered primary source material the training of Spiritual Directors, and an essential set of guidelines for all students of Revelation through Divine Love.