Christine Smith's Blog

La noche oscura del alma/Dark Night of the Soul

When troubled, in sadness, confusion, despair, feeling despondent or depressed or doubting yourself…listen not to the lies your mind will tell you, but to God’s voice.  Take heart not in what you see or even feel, but in His promise.  This we must remind ourselves, for when it happens the aloneness and our own mind can distort reality. 

It is reported in My Life with the Saints by James Martin that Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (The Little Flower) said to another sister “If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into.”   

Despite her struggle and pain, she always believed.  Her strength and resolve was combined with beautiful humility.  She wrote of God being there for each soul, as the sun is there for the daisy as well as the tall trees. 

The struggles that produce such inner pain differ for each of us.  We must face them.  With God, in Truth, they are resolved. 

This Saturday, I read the beautiful La noche oscura del alma/Dark Night of the Soul by Spanish poet, mystic, Carmelite friar and priest, St. John of the Cross (Third Revised edition,Translated and edited with an Introduction by E. Allison Peers from the critical edition of P. Silverio De Santa Teresa, C.D.).
 
Your “dark night” may last over years, be there and be relieved and come again years later, or may pass quickly but intensely until a time it returns fiercely another night be it a year or years later bringing more revelation…it is a long path…the journey of your soul.  All is well.  The light will return, the disturbance of your soul will calm, and you will again see…you will see more, and more clearly.

Though we interpret this experience as darkness, it brings light.  Humbling, emptying, it brings freedom.

If you have sought God’s truth, love God, yet are aware of afflictions causing turmoil or lack of peace within at times and a perceived interference in your communication with God, I highly recommend you read Dark Night of the Soul as it will enlighten you in your own stages of union with God…an experience beyond expression and beyond the mind’s understanding.