Some years ago, a Spanish-speaking friend asked me if I knew any Spanish (because I speak French).
I thought for a second, and other than saying hello, all I could think of was
amada en el amado transformada
which, I’m sure, sounds bizarre on its own: “the beloved {female} transformed into the beloved {male}”. I tried remembering a few other lines of Saint John of the Cross’s poetry and put them together in a reasonable order. My friend politely told me that it was beautiful.
But what does it mean?
amada en el amado transformada
It’s Saint John of the Cross’s way of saying we become like God in love. How do we become like God? By loving with a love that comes from him and is beyond our own capacities. We become truly like him, in our own creaturely way, and it is by a union of love received from him and him alone.
Contemplative in the Mud 