St John did not include this prologue in the Andújar manuscript. It is taken from early manuscript copies of the sayings that Andújar includes. Nor did he provide a title in Andújar, though his reference in the prologue to dichos de luz y amor (sayings of light and love) is often applied in modern editions not only to the sayings in Andújar but to all those that have survived.

También, ¡oh Dios y deleite mío!, en estos dichos de luz y amor de ti se quiso mi alma emplear por amor de ti, porque ya que yo, teniendo la lengua de ellos, no tengo la obra y virtud de ellos, que es con lo que, Señor mío, te agradas, más que con el lenguaje y sabiduría de ellos, otras personas, provocadas por ellos, por ventura aprovechen en tu servicio y amor, en que yo falto, y tenga mi alma en qué se consolar de que haya sido ocasión que lo que falta en ella halles en otros.

Amas tú, Señor, la discreción, amas la luz, amas el amor sobre las demás operaciones del alma; por eso, estos dichos serán de discreción para el caminar, de luz para el camino y de amor en el caminar.

Quédese, pues, lejos la retórica del mundo; quédense las parlerías y elocuencia seca de la humana sabiduría, flaca e ingeniosa, de que nunca tú gustas, y hablemos palabras al corazón bañadas en dulzor y amor, de que tú bien gustas, quitando por ventura delante ofendículos y tropiezos a muchas almas que tropiezan no sabiendo, y no sabiendo van errando, pensando que aciertan en lo que es seguir a tu dulcísimo Hijo, Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, y hacerse semejantes a él en la vida, condiciones y virtudes y en la forma de la desnudez y pureza de su espirítu; mas dala tú, Padre de misericordias, porque sin ti no se hará nada, Señor.

O God my delight, for love of you

my soul has chosen to be busied also

with these sayings of light and love of you,

for though, possessing words for them,

I lack their deeds and virtue

(which please you more, my Lord,

than their expression and wisdom),

it may be that others, prompted by them,

will make progress in your service and love,

in which I am wanting,

and my soul be consoled that it has served as the means

of you finding in others what it lacks in itself.

You, Lord, love discretion, you love light,

you love love more than the other operations of the soul;

these sayings, therefore, will provide discretion for the journey,

light for the road journeyed, and love in the journeying.

Let worldly rhetoric, then, stand far off;

far off the chatter and dry eloquence

of human wisdom, feeble and contrived,

which never pleases you,

and let us speak to the heart

words bathed in sweetness and love,

which please you greatly,

in that way removing, perhaps,

obstacles and causes of stumbling

in the path of many souls

who stumble because they are ignorant

and in ignorance go astray,

thinking they are carrying out correctly what is involved

in following your most dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

and becoming like him in one’s life, conditions and virtues

and in the form of nakedness and purity of one’s spirit;

but it is for you to grant this, Father of mercies,

for without you, Lord, nothing will be achieved.