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About this quote

What does it mean?
True devotion to God overrides human judgment; actions done for God should not be hidden even if condemned by others.
In plain terms
Do not hide your good deeds for God just because people criticize them.
What can you take from it?
Act for God without fear of human opinion.

Where it applies

  • facing social criticism
  • practicing faith openly
  • resisting peer pressure

Putting it to work

  • public witness
  • ethical consistency
  • faithful action

Questions to consider

  • When have you hidden a good act due to fear?
  • How do you balance public faith and privacy?

Another view

Some contexts require discretion for safety or wisdom.

More from John of the Cross

  1. Worldly people are in the habit of censuring those who give themselves up in earnest to God, regarding them as extravagant, in their withdrawal from the world,…

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  2. When a soul has advanced so far on the spiritual road as to be lost to all the natural methods of communing with God; when it seeks Him no longer by meditation…

    Permalink to quote #32
  3. I have said this to explain the stanza that follows, in which the soul replies to those who call in question its holy tranquillity, who will have it wholly occ…

    Permalink to quote #29

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