Dark night of the senses (Christianity)

Beginners travel on the spiritual road to God in an inferior way and are wrapped up in their own selfish desires. They have lived for some time on the way of goodness, persevered at meditation and prayer. They find delight in having lost their love for the things of the world and found some spiritual strength in God. To some extent they have been able to curb human desires and have experienced some spiritual burdens without turning back. Just when they are experiencing the greatest of delight in spiritual exercises, God changes all of the light into darkness. He turns his face from them; the door to spiritual refreshment is closed and all is dark. Their mind becomes useless. They cannot meditate as they have done before. Not only is there no pleasure in doing spiritual exercises but these activities become insipid and bitter. They experience aridity.

Most often spiritual aridity comes from sins, imperfections, weakness, lukewarmness or one's physical or mental disposition rather than from this night. There are ways of telling which. 1) In all forms of aridity the things of God bring no pleasure but during the purification of the senses all other created things are experienced the same way. Nothing is attractive or desirable. During aridity resulting from sins, worldly things are pleasurable.

2) In the dark night of the senses the mind is often focused on God and one feels that one is not serving Him. The individual painfully believes he is backsliding. This is the difference between dryness and lukewarmness. Lukewarmness is characterized by weakness and neglect of the spirit and could not care less about serving God. Initially the soul finds only dryness and no pleasure in the pure spirit because it is not used to this. It finds itself striving harder and harder to please God. While the soul is gaining strength the person experiencing it is usually unaware. There is a strong desire to be quiet and alone without knowing why. It is at this point that the soul desires to actively pursue God and when it is best to be quiet if it only knew how.

3) The soul can no longer meditate the way it used to. God no longer communicates through the mind but rather through the spirit which the unspiritual part of the soul is unable to grasp. Meditation and recollection become useless. They move from meditation to contemplation.

This is a time of great trials, not because of the aridity but because the spiritual person feels he has lost the road to God. He tries to focus his mind. He tries to meditate. The soul needs a break from knowledge and thought, even though this seems to be a waste of time. This is when they should seek a guide. They should not give up but trust God and seek Him with a humble heart. This is the time to allow the soul to be quiet and restful and to refrain from all reasoning and meditation. Wait on God. Any striving will only hinder God's work and earn His displeasure.

There are four benefits produced in the soul by the night of the senses. 1) The joy of peace is found in the soul. 2) There is a constant memory of God. The first is self-knowledge and awareness of the miserable state of the soul. When everything was going well, the soul could not see its actual situation. It thought it was making progress on its own. It now realizes that it can do nothing, is worth nothing and has done nothing worthwhile. The soul learns to talk to God with greater respect and reverence because not only is it aware of its own miserable state, it sees the greatness and excellence of God. 3) The soul becomes clean and pure. 4) The soul practices new found virtues. The soul becomes spiritually humble, the opposite of spiritual pride. From this humility comes a love of neighbours, recognizing that it has no place in judging others. The greed for spiritual pleasures and exercises is gone, they no longer please and are nauseating. The soul no longer lusts for the spiritual. From spiritual gluttony it escapes. The soul no longer fines pleasure in sensual things whether from God or from the worldly. The soul experiences patience and long suffering. It has learned to be strong in the face of adversity because it is weak. It is no longer angry and upset because of its faults or of a neighbour's faults, nor is it displeased because God has not made the individual a saint overnight. Love toward others has replaced envy. What envy remains becomes a virtue in that it seeks to imitate others. Sometimes God will speak to the soul when it least expects it or fill it with spiritual love or delight. These spiritual blessing are of special importance because they are not felt by the senses. The soul no longer delights in blessings but only in God.

This is second stage on the road to perfect union with God described in the Dark Night by St John of the Cross.