" Nor is my principal intent to address all, but rather certain persons of our sacred Order of Mount Carmel of the primitive observance, both friars and nuns — since they have desired me to do so — to whom God is granting the favour of setting them on the road to this Mount; who, as they are already detached from the temporal things of this world, will better understand the instruction concerning detachment of spirit. "

― John of the Cross , The Essential St. John of the Cross: Ascent of Mount Carmel, Dark Night of the Soul, a Spiritual Canticle of the Soul, and Twenty Poems