The dark night of the soul

These are excerpts taken from Richard J. Foster's book Celebration of Discipline. He writes about "the dark night of the soul" which was first described by St. John of the Cross....

The dark night of the soul "is an experience to be welcomed as 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 Center."

'O guiding night! O night more lovely than the dawn! O night that has united the Lover with His beloved, transforming the beloved in her Lover.' ---St. John of the Cross

"We may have a sense of dryness, aloneness, even lostness. Any overdependence on the emotional life is stripped away.....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."

"When God lovingly draws us into a dark night of the soul, there is often a temptation to seek release from it and to blame everyone and everything for our inner dullnes. The preacher is such a bore. The hymn singing is too weak. The worship service is so dull. We may begin to look around for another church or a new experience to give us 'spiritual goose bumps.' This is a serious mistake. Recognize the dark night for what it is. Be grateful that God is lovingly drawing you away from every distraction so that you can see him clearly. Rather than chafing and fighting, become still and wait."

"I am not referring here to the dullness to spiritual things that comes as a result of sin or disobedience, but I am speaking of the person who is seeking hard after God and who harbors no known sin in his heart."

Isa 50:10
Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord and relies upon his 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 grace, since God is freeing you from yourself and taking from you your own activity." ---St. John of the Cross