What is the dark night of the spirit?

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

John of the Cross answers

The dark night is a purgation that God works in the soul by means of contemplation, and it comes in two kinds, answering to the two parts of man, the sensual and the spiritual.1 The night of sense is common, the lot of many, who are the beginners. The night of the spirit is the portion of very few, of those who have made some progress and been exercised in it.1

It is far more awful than the first, which is bitter and terrible enough to the senses, for the second falls upon the spirit itself.2 What God does in it is to strip the faculties bare. He leaves the understanding in darkness, the will dry, the memory empty, and the affections in the deepest affliction, bitterness and distress. He withholds the sweetness the soul once had in spiritual things, so that this privation may make room for the spiritual form of the spirit, which is the union of love.3

Even those who have advanced still speak and think of God as children. Their gold is not yet purified and refined, and so God is stripping off the old man and clothing them with the new.3 That is why the soul goes forth in poverty, without protection or help in any of its powers, in pure faith, which is the dark night of the natural faculties, with the will alone touched by grief and by the anxieties of the love of God.4

The soul counts this a blessing and a happy lot, for in being annihilated and subdued its faculties, passions, appetites and affections, the very instruments of its low conceptions of God, are left behind. The understanding no longer understands by its natural powers but in the divine wisdom to which it is united. The will loves no more meanly with the powers of its nature but with the energy and pureness of the divine spirit.

The memory is transformed into eternal apprehensions of glory.5 I will say plainly that this night is little spoken of, either by word of mouth or in writing, and little known even by experience.2 What my writings here do not set out is the whole of its fruit; this much is certain, that it is the way by which the soul is made fit for union with God in love.

Sources

  1. The night of sense is common, and the lot of many: these are the beginners, of whom I shall first speak. The spiritual night is the portion of very few; and they are those who have made some progress, exercised therein
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  2. The second is not to be compared with it, for it is much more awful to the spirit, as I shall soon show.
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  3. He now denudes the faculties, the affections, and feelings, spiritual and sensual, interior and exterior, leaving the understanding in darkness, the will dry, the memory empty, the affections of the soul in the deepest affliction, bitterness, and distress
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  4. In poverty, without protection and help in all my powers the understanding in darkness, the will under constraint the memory in trouble and distress, in the dark, in pure faith, which is the dark night of the natural faculties
    The Dark Night of the Soul
  5. My will went forth out of itself becoming divine, for now, united with the divine love, it loves no more meanly with the powers of its nature, but with the energy and pureness of the divine spirit.
    The Dark Night of the Soul