https://www.ucatholic.com/blog/the-dark-night-of-the-soul-when-even-saints-feel-separated-from-god/ 'Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if dies, it bears much fruit.” If dryness is due to the lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle requires conversion” – Catechism of the Catholic Church 2731'
Thanks, Padraig. I have yet to experience this depth of dryness. It's a healthy and humble reminder that this gift cannot obtained from one's efforts. It comes from God! Safe in the Flames of the Sacred Heart!
Yes brother Terry you are right of course but when you are living this gift especially when you have lived with it for some time it's very hard to see it as a gift
When I was very young, looking back on it my thoughts on the Spiritual Life were quite simple. Jesus (and His Mother) were the most super nice people who ever lived. The saints too, by working hard at it became super nice themselves. My one great aim was to become a saint by knocking my pan in becoming a super nice guy myself. I recall at 16 reading in the course of a Retreat St Teresa of Avila's book , 'The Interior Castle', which divides the Spiritual Path into seven stages. How hard could it be, I thought? After all there were child saints. So I gave myself six months leading up to Easter to make the grade (at the outside). I would end up a saint if it killed me and everyone would be lost in admiration at the wonder of it all. Ten years later a total atheist, deeply depressed and suicidal and facing a life time behind bars I saw things rather differently. In order to make a good wine the Lord sometimes has to crush the grapes beneath His feet this little bunch of grapes was most certainly flattened. I was forced to understand that it was not about what I was going to do for God but what God, through Grace was going to do for me, if only I would get out of His way and let Him. So I did, I hadn't any choice by that stage as my own efforts had led to total disaster, far from being a saint I was a train wreck. I think a great lesson I learnt from the Dark Night , which I went into three years a after my conversion for about 25 years after my conversion is that God is not nice. Not one itty bitty bit nice. Instead of having a pussy cat purring on my lap I had caught a raging lion by the tail. It was rather like jumping on a tame donkey and trying to steer it and finding I was mounted on a Wild Stallion who would drag me off kicking and screaming were ever He felt like. God loves us, But Love can be very,very tough indeed. Our own life, the life we see around us mirrors this fact. Parents may love their children but this love can have a very, very tough aspect. A for instance is the parents may have to kick their kid out in the street. Not out of lack of love but because of love. Love is often not nice at all. I suppose the soul in the dark night is a little bit like a teenager. The change is from a spiritual childhood in which we are spoon fed to an emerging an adulthood in which we are taught about standing up on our own two feet. We are learning about what love is all about. ...that it not about being nice at all. That it is about loving. ..and loving , as any good parent will tell you is a very different thing than being nice. When you love God you have grabbed a Tiger by the tail. Don't be surprised if He turns round and takes the odd bite. He's a Tiger, not a pussy cat.
I can distinctly call to mind standing in the kitchen of the family's home on Ruskin Ave in May, 1977. My Dad had married Ruth about a year earlier following the death of my Mom and I had finished college the previous summer. John was forever a no nonsense type guy who didn't know how to beat around the bush. "Terry, you've got to get on with your life. I'm giving you a month and your out of the house. Learn to stand on your own two feet!" True Love! Not quite like the movie, Princess Bride, but true nonetheless. Safe in the Father's Arms!
True love, tough love! I know you can remember every second of it with total clarity. Thanks for sharing. When my son graduated from high school, he took up what he thought was going to be a permanent spot on the sofa from which to play video games. About two weeks into the summer, I had had enough and I had to do the same thing to him. LOL He got a job, so he could still stay in the house...he was only 18 at the time.
Going camping is not like a day trip for many, many reasons. One of them is the night. On the day trips you never get to see the wood and the desert places at night. For a city boy this can be a big, big shock to the system; especially in the winter. At first everything is totally, totally black, so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. But then your eyes become accustomed to it all and what was utter dark becomes luminous. You realise that there is light everywhere; but in a different way. You look up to the sky and though there is no sun ..that there is a billion suns shining. A new sun, the lantern of night kisses all things with its gentle touch. What was at first threatening and painful enfolds you gently like a blanket. The night becomes not and enemy but a new mother hugging you to herself. The night is not part from you but a part of you. The silence that once seemed to entomb, sings.
I was thinking and praying about the Dark Night there and I think the closest thing I can compare it to is the Eucharist. Why? Well when you look at the host all you see is a little thin wafer of Bread. Faith informs you the the little piece of bread is the Body of Christ and what appears to be wine His Blood. What; on the face of it could be more perfectly absurd??!! 'Hearing, seeing, touching are in thee deceived...' The thing that makes all the difference is the Eyes of Faith. When we look with the Eyes of Faith we see Heaven itself come to Earth. The same goes for the Dark Night. All that can be seen is perfect Darkness. The perfect Darkness of the apparent non presence of God. But Faith shows that the reason why God appears to no longer be seen is because He is so perfectly present . So present that He is no longer light but dark. So present He blinds us with His light. 1 Kings 19:11-13 11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. “I held the Host with two fingers and thought: How small Jesus made Himself, in order to show us that He doesn't expect great things of us, but rather little things with great love.” ― Mother Teresa
In my own experience of what can be a common factor in living with the dark night of the soul is receiving an intense conversion followed by a very strong emotional bond with your Lord and God the soul then yearns for that constant emotion, the soul constantly looks backwards to that time and is unable to move forward with were the soul should be with God at the present moment. Abba Father song helps a bit..
I always recommend this book, it's really wonderful' https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Well-Runs-Dry-Beginnings/dp/1594711372 Here is a poem by poor Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins who went through the Dark Night big time:
I think what happens in the period leading up to he Dark Night is that the soul, as it were becomes flood lit with prayer. it lights up like a Christmas Tree. Then the fuse in the electric circuit, so to speak, blows a fuse and the lights appear to go out. I say, 'Appear', to go out for they have not gone out but are in fact more intense than ever , so intense that they blind and hence the utter darkness. Another thing that happens is this. Have you ever watched a group of young teen aged girls? They talk so much, they get so excited, they go in groups, they even dress alike. They are like a flock of chirping sparrows on a tree. This like the soul before the Dark Night, in the immediate period before. Prone to great emotional stirrings, endlessly took up in vocal prayer forms. Imitating previous prayers like Novenas, very much attracted to group meetings and sharings. Then the Dark Night comes and what follows... well move these young girls forward years and see how they have changed. They have their own families. They no longer flock excitedly together. Their maturity is very marked. They are content with long silences. They are much more individuals. They are content to be themselves. This is why the lives of the saints and their quotes draw so much they have trod the lone spiritual path. They have not only looked at the mountains; they have walked them. They now not only talk the talk, they have walked the walk. I think when you look at the saints it is so evident that they have walked unmarked ways in the Deserts of prayer. That they have walked alone in Darkness and utter silence. When we look on the saints we see them in many ways utterly alone. Utterly apart even when surrounded by crowds of people. That they have become the voice of one crying in the Desert, 'Make straight the paths of the Lord!' But first the Night. Then the Day. Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Actually the Dark Night of the Soul is very instructive for what is going on in the Church at the moment as it is something of a hard edge training camp regarding the fact that that the Mercy of God and the Justice of God are simply two hands of the same God. Many of our Spiritual Leaders regard Jesus as a super nice guy and that our vocation as Christian's is to be super nice guys ourselves. Since Jesus is so super nice there can be no such thing as hell or even Purgatory. There is no such thing as evil everyone is a nice person who may make mistakes, all we have to do is point them out to folks and help them on the way. All religions are equally nice filled with really nice people trying to worship God in their own nice way. We must be nice to migrants, illegal or not. Capitalism is not nice as everyone does not wind up the same dough. It is not nice not to get on with people be they Homosexuals, Feminists or whatever they are nice people too. Asking hard questions about hard things is not nice. All religions are equally valid, every person should be treated equally nicely. Abortion is maybe not so nice but it is not nice to go on and on about it upsetting nice people. The only people who are not really nice are our own fellow Catholics who won't be nice. Since Jesus is so nice we're all getting to heaven to in the meantime the nice thing to do is to concentrate on making heaven on Earth by stopping things like Global Warming and Donald Trump who is the most unnice person who ever lived.... Yeah man, chill, pass the joint.
