What is the dark night of the soul?

John of the Cross, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

John of the Cross answers

The dark night is a certain inflowing of God into the soul, which cleanses it of its ignorances and imperfections, habitual, natural and spiritual. Contemplatives call it infused contemplation, or mystical theology, whereby God secretly teaches the soul and instructs it in the perfection of love, without effort on its own part beyond a loving attention to Him.1

It is the loving wisdom of God, and it prepares the soul for union with Him by purifying and enlightening it. Why call it night, then, when it is light? For two reasons, and they are not the same. The divine wisdom is so high that it transcends the capacity of the soul, and so is darkness to it; the more clear divine things are in themselves, the more hidden they are to us naturally, as the sun's rays blind the weak eye they overcome.2

The second reason lies in the soul's own meanness and impurity: in that respect the light is painful, afflictive and dark.3 So the night is not an absence of God. It is God too near and too great for a soul not yet made ready. I also call the whole journey to divine union a night, for three reasons. The first is the point the soul sets out from, the privation of desire for every pleasure in the things of this world, which is night to every desire and sense of man.

The second is the road it travels, which is faith, obscure as night to the understanding. The third is the goal it tends to, God, incomprehensible and infinite, who in this life is night to the soul.4 The night has two parts, answering to the two parts of man, the sensual and the spiritual. The night of sense is common, the lot of many beginners; it is bitter to sense, but the night of the spirit is far more awful, and it is the portion of very few who have made some progress.5

When God draws a soul out of the state of beginners, who meditate on the spiritual road, and leads it toward that of contemplatives, the night begins.6 He does as a mother does with her child: she carries it, fondles it and feeds it sweet milk, and then, as it grows, she hides her breasts and anoints them with bitter aloes, and sets it down to walk on the ground.7

This is why the soul sings of it as a happy lot: it goes forth unobserved, its house being now at rest, all its desires asleep. No one could bring himself into this night, because no one is able by his own strength to empty his heart of all desires so as to draw near to God. It is God who leads him in.8

Sources

  1. The dark night is a certain inflowing of God into the soul which cleanses it of its ignorances and imperfections, habitual, natural, and spiritual. Contemplatives call it infused contemplation, or mystical theology, whereby God secretly teaches the soul and instructs it in the perfection of love
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  2. the more clear and evident divine things are, the more dark and hidden they are to the soul naturally... the stronger the sun's rays the more it blinds the visual organs
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  3. The second reason is based on the meanness and impurity of the soul, and in that respect the divine wisdom is painful to it, afflictive and dark also.
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  4. The journey of the soul to the divine union is called night for three reasons. The first is derived from the point from which the soul sets out... The second, from the road by which it travels; that is faith... The third, from the goal to which it tends, God, incomprehensible and infinite
    The Ascent of Mount Carmel
  5. The night of sense is common, and the lot of many: these are the beginners... The spiritual night is the portion of very few
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  6. Souls begin to enter the dark night when God is drawing them out of the state of beginners, which is that of those who meditate on the spiritual road, and is leading them into that of proficients, the state of contemplatives
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  7. as the child grows up the mother withholds her caresses, hides her breasts, and anoints them with the juice of bitter aloes; she carries the infant in her arms no longer, but makes it walk on the ground
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  8. The happy lot of the soul, then, consists in its being led of God into this night... into which it could not have entered of itself, because no one is able in his own strength to empty his heart of all desires, so as to draw near unto God.
    The Ascent of Mount Carmel