NAME:
MUBIANA PETER
REGISTRATION NUMBER: 11068T
TITLE OF THE BOOK: DARK NIGHT OF
THE SOUL, By St. John of the Cross
ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS
St. John of the Cross
was born on 24th June in a poor family. As a young man, he worked as
a servant of the sick in Medina. When he was 21 years old, John entered the
Carmelite Order as a lay brother. He was ordained to the Priesthood after the
Friars discovered some talents in him. After his priestly ordination, he
thought of joining the Carthusian Order, but was prevented by St. Teresa of
Avila who asked him to help her in the work of reforming the Carmelite Order.
In his work of renewing the order, John was rejected and condemned by his
friars who accused him of being a fugitive. John experienced trials and
suffering. Despite all the trials and suffering, he never gave up his work of
reforming the Order. |
| What he endured in life touches me! |
I decided to study the book Dark Night of the Soul, because of the difficulties that St. John underwent during his earthly life. His life of perseverance has touched me a lot. The ups and downs that he passed are also the situations that I do experience in my life. Thus, just like St. John of the Cross, there are times when I face rejection from other people for doing what is right. Being a human being, full of emotions, most of the time I do give up. But from today, after being inspired by St. John’s life, I will continue doing what is good, no matter what people say. The difficulties are not only limited to my physical life but also in my spiritual life. From the book, I have come to learn that for the soul to be with God, it has to pass through privation and purgative stages. The Dark Night normally happens to me when I fail to let go those things which hinders my relationship with God.
Reflection: THE SIN OF PRIDE (21st October 2012)
They are many sources that make the soul of the beginner
imperfect. Among many origins of the imperfections of the beginner’s soul, I
shall reflect on pride.
Many people whose souls
undergo the Dark Night develop feelings of fervent and diligent in spiritual
things. As they become devout in spiritual exercises, they develop a certain
kind of pride. My personal experience is that, it is true many beginners
develop the sin of pride. Beginners become victims of pride due to their
eagerness to share their spiritual experiences in the present of other people.
This is a kind of show off. Such beginners always desire people to appreciate their
piety. This sin of pride is inescapable for most beginners. When a person
develops a sin of pride, she/he becomes evil minded by being envious of other
people who appear more spiritual. Many times when the behavior of people with
pride is not approved, they tend to consider other people as unspiritual. This
is very common in formation houses among postulants and novices. These beginners
tend to judge their friends and their formators as unspiritual when they make
simple mistakes. Beginners with the sin of pride, try by all means to live a life
which is upright. When they find themselves to have committed a venial sin,
they consider themselves as great sinners. For them, life has to be always
straight. They tend to deny their human nature. This has happened to me when I
was a novice. I always wanted to be upright. When I fall into sin unknowingly,
even when I go for confession, I was still feeling as a great sinner. But from
the moment I read the book of John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, I have come to learn to accept my human
nature.
Reflection: THE IMPERFECTION OF SPIRITUAL AVARICE (3rd November)
SUMMARY:
DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
Introduction This reflection Paper is a summary
of a spiritual classic book of St. John of the Cross. The book contains two
books, book one and book two, compiled in one book, titled Dark Night of the Soul. The
paper gives a short biography of St. John of the Cross, and a summary of the
two books; book one and book two. I shall conclude by pointing out the main
ideas of the work.
Biography
of St. John of the Cross St.
John of the Cross was born on 24th June in a poor family. As a young
man, he worked as a servant of the sick in Medina. When he was 21 years old,
John entered the Carmelite Order as a lay brother. He was ordained to the
Priesthood after the Friars discovered some talents in him. After his priestly
ordination, he thought of joining the Carthusian Order, but was prevented by
St. Teresa of Avila who asked him to help her in the work of reforming the
Carmelite Order. In his work of renewing the order, John was rejected and
condemned by his friars who accused him of being a fugitive. John experienced
trials and suffering. Despite all the trials and suffering, he never gave up
his work of reforming the Order[1].
Book One The
first book of the Dark Night of the Soul starts by describing the journey that
the soul of the beginner enters. The beginner’s soul is full of imperfections.
These imperfections or defects have their origin in pride, avarice, lust,
anger, spiritual gluttony, spiritual envy and sloth. The first book also
describes the signs of initial contemplation and the passive cleansing of the
senses. This book also describes some benefits that the dark night causes in
the soul and in the night of the senses. The
feelings of fervent and diligent in the spiritual things and devout exercises
form a certain kind of sacred pride in a beginner. This results into some vain
desires in the beginner. Beginners start to speak of spiritual things in the
present of others. The beginners start condemn other people when they do not
see the kind of devotion in them which they themselves (the beginners) desire.
The sin of pride in them makes them to be evil minded. This sin makes the
beginners to have envious feelings of other people who appear more spiritual
than them[2].
Sometimes when their behaviour and spirit goes unapproved or unappreciated by
other people, beginners consider them as unspiritual[3].
At times beginners possess spiritual avarice. They are not content with the
spirituality that God has given them. Instead, they burden themselves with
images and rosaries which are curious. Beginners who start from this beginning
do not make progress. Those beginners who make progress in their spiritual
journey detach themselves entirely from all the visible instruments and set
their eyes on God and desire to be right with Him. Many beginners also have the
sin of lust. This imperfection is called spiritual lust because the
imperfection proceeds from spiritual things. In their spiritual exercises,
beginners experience some impure movements in their sensory part of their
souls. Sometimes this happens even when one’s spirit is deep in prayer or
engaged in the sacrament of penance or in the Eucharist[4].
Beginners also have the imperfection of wrath. This anger is caused by the lack
of spiritual consolation in their exercises. When they are not consoled,
beginners become naturally embittered and irritated even in small matters[5].
With regard to the imperfection of spiritual gluttony, most beginners find
themselves to be victims to this imperfection. Many of them fall in this
imperfection because they are hired by the sweetness and pleasure which they
find in spiritual exercises. They tend to strive more for spiritual sweetness
than spiritual purity. Beginners also possess two vices namely, spiritual envy
and sloth. Beginners with spiritual envy
do not want to hear others being applauded when they are ahead in perfection.
Such beginners are always envious with other people’s virtues. They will try by all means to contradict and depreciate
the praises which have been directed to others. Coming to spiritual sloth,
beginners became weary in spiritual exercise and flee from them because they
are not in accordance with sensible pleasure. Instead of pleasing God, they end
up pleasing themselves[6]. God places
the soul of the beginner in the dark night in order to purify it from its
imperfections. In its journey in the dark night, the soul is purified from the
sensual love and spiritual love. There are three signs which show that the
person is walking in the way of the night and purgation of the senses[7].
First, the soul finds no attraction or sweetness in the things of God. Second,
the memory of the person undergoing purgation is centered on God with painful
care and solitude. Such a memory makes a beginner to think that he is not
serving God because his memory does not find sweetness in the things of God. In
such a situation, a person may think that it is impossible to escape from such
misery. The person feels hopeless and never sees the future. The third sign is
that the soul can no longer meditate or reflect in the imaginative sphere of
the senses as it used to do[8]. As the soul undergoes this night,
the night causes some benefits in the soul. The dark night cause the knowledge
of one self and of one’s misery. It also causes the soul to learn how to
communicate with God with respect and courtesy. Through the dark night, God
enlightens the soul, giving it knowledge of His greatness and His excellence[9].The
soul draws spiritual humility, which is the contrary virtue to spiritual pride.
In the condition of the dark night, souls become submissive and obedient by
living in spiritual tranquility and peace.
Book Two The
second book gives a clear picture and analysis of the purgative contemplation
that God infuses in the passive night of the spirit. “This dark night is an
inflow of God into the soul that purges it of its habitual ignorance and
imperfections, both natural and spiritual”[10].
The divine light illumines and purges the soul from its ignorance. The Divine
wisdom afflicts and torments the soul in order to prepare it for its union with
God. The divine wisdom is an affliction and torment because the divine wisdom
goes beyond the soul’s capacity and the soul’s impurity and vileness. In its
beginnings, dark contemplation causes pain and suffering to the soul. This is
because the Divine infused contemplation which is good, purges the miseries of
the soul which are extremely bad[11].
Another way by which the soul suffers pain is by reason of its natural, moral
and spiritual weakness. In such situations of pain and oppression, the soul
feels far from being favoured and it cannot find help from anywhere[12]. Although the dark night is painful
to the soul, it also gives light. We can therefore understand that just as this
night of loving fire purges the soul in darkness, it is also in darkness that
its work of enkindling is done. All the miseries that the soul faces, is for
its benefit to be enkindled and begotten anew. When a person has been
enkindled, he/she is raised up. By means of the Divine inflow the spirit is
reborn in the life of the spirit. The soul experiences two fold peace; sensory
peace and spiritual peace. When the soul is transformed by living light and
wisdom, it starts longing for God[13].
My Personal Reflection I decided to study the book Dark Night of the Soul, because of the
difficulties that St. John underwent during his earthly life. Suffering
arises from the circumstances of life. John of the Cross went through ups and
downs of life but never gave up. His life of perseverance has touched me a lot. The ups and
downs that he passed are also the situations that I do experience in my life.
Thus, just like St. John of the Cross, there are times when I face rejection
from other people for doing what is right. Being a human being, full of
emotions, most of the time I do give up. But from today, after being inspired
by St. John’s life, I will continue doing what is good, no matter what people
say. The difficulties are not only limited to my physical life but also in my
spiritual life. From the book, I have come to learn that for the soul to be
with God, it has to pass through privation and purgative stages. The Dark Night
normally happens to me when I fail to let go those things which hinders my
personal relationship with God. By reading the book,Dark Night of the Soul, I have come to
learn that it is through the Dark Night experience that God brings me to the
realization of my true nature.God purges all my imperfections and once my soul
has been purified, I develop the courage to forgive even those people who
persecute me in one way or another.
CONCLUSION The
dark night is a journey which the soul undergoes for it to be purified from all
its imperfections. The dark night is a painful experience which helps the soul
to reach its union with God. This union causes the soul to habitually employ
all its faculties, operations, appetites and emotions in God. Although the dark
night is painful, it also illumines the soul. When the soul is transformed by
living light and wisdom, it resembles God. The dark night also helps a person
who is undergoing it to have a better understanding of oneself.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bulter, A., Lives of the Saints, New York: Benziger Brothers
Inc. 1955.
Peers, E.A.,
ed.,Dark Night of the Soul: A Classic in
Literature of Mysticism by John of the
Cross, 3rd ed., New York:
Image Book Publisher 1959.
[1] Cf. A. Bulter, Lives of
the Saints, 365.
[2] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 39.
[3] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 40.
[4] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 47.
[5] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 52
[6] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 58-59.
[7] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 63.
[8] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 69.
[9] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 79.
[10] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 100.
[11] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 101.
[12] Cf. E.A. Peers, Dark Night
of the Soul, 103.
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