The Dark Night

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One

God created every person for holiness, for transforming union. And God wants to give us this direct experience of himself in this life. This is called infused contemplation. And yet, strangely enough, to get to that stage usually requires going through a period where the thought of prayer and even the thought of divine things, becomes distasteful.

This is sometimes called the “Dark Night of Sense,” but really it’s the milestone where God allows you to go beyond what all the natural faculties enjoy. 

So what are the signs of the Dark Night of Sense, and what should you do if you or someone you know find yourself going through it?

Two

Signs

St. John of the Cross gives three signs that a person is entering the Dark Night of Sense (In Dark Night, book I, ch. 9).

The first is that a person isn’t only suddenly finding they have a loss of interest in heavenly things, but they find they also aren’t interested in earthly things either. This makes sense, God is getting you ready to encounter Him directly, so He’s helping you let go of your reliance on natural ways of thinking and feeling and enjoying. Which means you won’t be engaging much with natural things.

Secondly, you’ll feel concerned at not having more enthusiasm for prayer. You’re worried that maybe you’ve done something wrong, that you’re serving God less than you used to.

Thirdly, you just can’t seem to use your imagination or your reason in prayer at all. You can’t focus on thinking about some holy theme or idea. You feel totally unfocused, totally distracted in prayer, mind wandering all over the place.

Again, that’s because God is going to show Himself to you not through imagination or intellect, “since the sensory part of the soul is incapable of the goods of spirit, it remains deprived, dry, and empty.” But God is going to come to the soul in a more mystical, spiritual way, “Thus, while the spirit is tasting [the things of God], the flesh tastes nothing at all and becomes weak in its work.”

So these are the three signs you might be passing through a dark night of sense, which is a great gift, even if it’s uncomfortable at first. But there are also signs that you’re inability to delight or focus in prayer isn’t a dark night at all.

Three

Signs you’re NOT going through a Dark Night

Plenty of times people start noticing that their prayer is becoming dry, they’re taking no delight in things of God or of creatures, and they say, “Hey! Maybe I’m in a dark night!” But not so fast. It may be that your lack of enjoyment isn’t because of some mystical reality – it’s just a basic fact of nature.

For instance: Are you getting enough sleep? Are you healthy? Getting enough exercise? Eating well?

If not, then of course your ability to delight in God or creatures, and your ability to focus in prayer, is going to be compromised. 

St. John says you also have to look to see whether your dryness and distaste in prayer is the result of self-indulgences and sins. Are you watching too much stuff, reading about disordered things? Have you let pornography or gossip back into your life? That, for sure, will interfere with your prayer and your enjoyment of life in general.

Don’t act as though God is bringing you to a higher state if your dryness or lack of enthusiasm is just an indicator that you’re not living well. The Dark Night happens to those who have already to a large degree put their moral and spiritual houses in order.

If we haven’t, then that’s the first thing we need to attend to. 

Four

Why the Dark Night is Difficult

Again, St. John says the reason for our dryness in prayer is that God is actually giving us a more elevated, lofty experience, but we haven’t yet developed the taste for it, “In the beginning, the soul does not experience this spiritual savor and delight, but dryness and distaste, the reason is the novelty involved in this exchange. Since its palate is accustomed to these other sensory tastes the soul still sets its eyes on them… it is unable to experience the spiritual savor and good until gradually prepared by means of the dark and obscure night. The soul instead experiences dryness and distaste because of a lack of the gratification it formerly enjoyed so easily.”  (Dark Night, Book 1, ch. 9).

In other words, it’s a delightful thing to be able to go to prayer, read something from Our Lord’s life, or a profound meditation from a saint, dwell on it, try to understand it better, maybe write down an insight, thank God for it, share it with other people. That’s what most of us should be trying to do every day. And if God takes that away, it’ll be hard, not being able to focus on anything in prayer, not feeling like we’re getting any insights, making any progress, and coming up empty-handed after every effort.

But, as we’ll see if we stay the course, God is actually beginning to give us something better. God is beginning to give us Himself.

Five

Be Still

St. John says now is the time to be idle, to feel like you’re not getting anything done. Because, in fact, you’re not – God is.

John says, “If a model for the painting or retouching of a portrait should move because of a desire to do something, the artist would be unable to finish and the work would be spoiled.” (Dark Night, I, 10).

This is the time to sit still. Don’t try to generate ideas, images, feelings, or resolutions in prayer.

Also, definitely don’t fill yourself with cheap sensory distraction, binging on your streaming service or pizza and ice cream.

Just sit still, try simply to attend lovingly to God, and don’t worry about anything more. As John says, let there, “be no obstacle to the operation of the infused contemplation God is bestowing, so they may receive it with more peaceful plenitude and make room in the spirit for the enkindling and burning of the love that this dark and secret contemplation bears and communicates to the soul. For contemplation is nothing else than a secret and peaceful loving inflow of God, which, if not hampered, fires the soul in the spirit of love…” (Dark Night, I, ch. 10). 

If God is trying to fill you with Himself in a way that sets the soul on fire – don’t do anything to get in His way.