The Dark Night of the Soul

"To take seriously the Discipline of solitude will mean that at some point or points along the pilgrimage we will enter what St John of the Cross vividly describes as 'the dark night of the soul'. The 'dark night' to which he calls us is not something bad or destructive. On the contrary, it is an experience to be welcomed much as a sick person might welcome a surgery that promises health and well-being. The purpose of the darkness is not to punish or to afflict us. It is to set us free. It is a divine appointment, a privileged opportunity to draw close to the divine Centre...

What does the dark night of the soul involve? We may have a sense of dryness, aloneness, even lostness. Any overdependence on the emotional life is stripped away. The notion, often heard today, that such experiences should be avoided and that we always should live in peace and comfort, joy and celebration only betrays the fact that much contemporary experience is surface slush. The dark night is one of the ways God brings us into a hush, a stillness so that he may work an inner transformation upon the soul. ..

How is this dark night expressed in daily life? When solitude is seriously pursued, there is usually a flush of initial success and then an inevitable letdown- and with it a desire to abandon the pursuit altogether. Feelings leave and there is the sense that we are not getting through to God. St John of the Cross describes it this way '... the darkness of the soul mentioned here...puts the sensory and spiritual appetites to sleep...It binds the imagination and impedes it from doing any good discursive work, It makes the memory cease, the intellect becomes dark and unable to understand anything, and hence it causes the will also to become arid and constrained, and all the faculties empty and useless. And over all this hangs a dense and burdensome cloud which afflicts the soul and keeps it withdrawn from God.'....

' Oh, then, spiritual soul, when you see your appetites darkened, your inclinations dry and constrained, your faculties incapacitated for any interior exercise, do not be afflicted; think of this as a grace since God is freeing you from yourself and taking from you your own activity.' (St John of the Cross )

From Celebration of Disciplines
Richard Foster

Strangely for no reason, was emotionally feeling so down for the whole of this week. It was as if a dark cloud loomed over me, and I saw no light out of these feelings of sadness. It is as if...the victory and revelations of yesterday suddenly came to naught and I was back to square one of aloneness.

The longer I am a christian, the more I don't think I know God at all. Who are you God? I stop myself to ask this question everyday. When I was younger, I thought I could be somebody- that cell leader, that spiritual mentor, the bible study teacher. Now I am simply nothing, can't claim to be anybody, except someone saved graciously by the love of God.

Dear God, Thank You for never letting me go amidst all the circumstances. Thank You for yr gracious love toward me.

So complete in You, I am...

Complete - Parachute Band

Here I am, Oh God
I bring this sacrifice
My open heart, I offer up my life
I look to You, Lord
Your love that never ends
Restores me again

So I lift my eyes to you Lord
In your strength will I break through Lord
Touch me now, let your love fall down on me
I know your love dispels all my fears
Through the storm I will hold on Lord
And by faith I will walk on Lord
Then I'll see beyond my calvary one day
And I will be complete in You

I look to You, Lord
Your love that never ends
Restores me again