In her Science of the Cross, Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) comments briefly on Saint John of the Cross’ intentions in writing:

The saint did not write his works for everyone. But of course, he does not wish to exclude anyone. However, he knows that for understanding he can count only on a determinate circle of persons, those who have a certain amount of experience of the inner life.

Whom does he have in mind? First of all, Carmelites. Yes, of course, cloistered Carmelites. But not only! For

he knows that God’s grace is not tied to cloister walls. After all, we owe the treatise on The Living Flame of Love to [the request of] one of his spiritual daughters “in the world.”

The wisdom of Saint John of the Cross was always destined for the whole world, cloistered and not. He intended it. No doubt God intended it, too, for John is a Doctor of the Church. This should end any and all dispute about whether contemplation is an exclusively “cloistered thing”. It’s not. Obviously contemplative vocations and charisms get manifested in the world. The church’s own “Mystical Doctor” thought so.