In the
First Epistle to the Corinthians
, St. Paul declares that he would rather say five words with understanding, and useful in the instruction of others, than ten thousand in some strange tongue, devoid of all meaning. In his commentary on the same, St. Thomas Aquinas goes on to explain that those words should teach five things, namely, the things to be believed, those to be done, those to be avoided (meaning sins), those to be hoped for, and those to be feared. This sage advice the Discalced Carmelite Father Friar Francisco de la Cruz applies to the art of living a faithful, hopeful and charitable life, obedient to the voice of Almighty God, and in humble service to Him, by shedding all the deceits of this life, in order to obtain the grace of a happy death, and reach Heaven in the next. To teach those things, the author draws from the examples shown by holy men and women, those belonging to his Order, in the first one hundred years of its existence. In the process, we learn of the Christian spirituality as expounded by its founders, St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross, and how their sons and daughters lived it in the convents and monasteries in Spain, where it all began, then Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Lithuania and even in the missions in Persia, India and the East Indies, where the Discalced Carmelites spread and set root.
The Five Words of St. Paul
was first published in Spanish in 1680-81, then came the edition of 1723-24, incorporating some corrections and additions, especially on the missions to the East. Now 300 years later, a third edition in Spanish has been published and is available from the same publisher in two volumes. It has been edited for modern Spanish grammar and syntax, corrected for historical details and is fully annotated. This is the first-ever English translation. The first volume contains the
First
,
Second
and
Third Words
, applied to Death, Judgment and Hell; the second, the
Fourth
Fifth Words
, applied to Purgatory and Heaven, respectively, with a bibliography and an index of notable subjects.