Friday 7 September 2012

The Dark Night of the Soul (Francesco Mabagala)


Name: Mabagala Francesco - 1135T
Title: JOHN OF THE CROSS: The Dark Night of the Soul
 About John of the Cross
My own dark nights!
John of the cross was born in Spain in 24th June, 1542. From his childhood John learned the importance of sacrifice from his parents. His father gave up wealth when he married weaver’s daughter which caused to be disowned by his noble family. After the death of his father the mother took all the responsibility to bring the poor family together which was wondering and homeless in search of work. John joined the Carmelite order and in his struggle to reform it to the life of prayer, he was kidnapped and locked in the cell and beaten by his own Carmelite friars who did not like reformation. Although John was in unbearable dark, cold and desolation his heart was burning of love and faith. Through this poverty and suffering John learned how to search for beauty and suffering not from this world but in God. John escaped from the cell and he died later in 14th December, 1591.
My inspiration from the book
First of all the title of the book: The Dark Night of the Soul has meaning to me. I find that in my life journey to God; have found difficulties which made me see darkness in my heart.Secondly, I had great challenges in my life as a friar which deeply was like a thorn in my soul, threatening my vocation and leaving me in tears. In my journey towards God sometimes I experience dryness in prayer, challenges from the friars but through all that I never gave up to love and trust in God. I learn from John of the cross to endure sufferings. In all these sufferings John of the cross encourages me to stand firm and trust in God. Above all, John offers lights to me that the soul has to struggle to be union with God. John of the cross is a model of my journey.

Reflection: The imperfections of the soul  on the journey to God



Reading St. John of the cross I have found that beginners in spiritual life are faced with some defects. Theses defects have their origin in pride, avarice, lust, anger, spiritual, gluttony, spiritual envy and sloth. It also describes the signs of initial contemplation and the passive cleansing of the senses. The beginners have feelings of diligence and enthusiastic in spiritual exercises which makes a beginner to have a certain pride. This makes the beginner to instruct, criticise and condemn others in their spiritual life. Beginners have the imperfection of anger which is grounded by the passing of delight satisfaction in their spiritual exercises. For instance anger makes them short-tempered in what they do.  It is in this situation that God brings the souls in the dark night in order to purify them from these imperfections and make them posses virtues. The soul cannot purify itself of these imperfections if God cannot place it in the passive purgation. Looking all these I find myself somehow being a victim of them, but I need to embrace my God to carry this journey up him where I will rest in Joy

 Reflection: When I meant the darkness

By reading the dark night of the soul, I have come to understand that genuine spiritual growth requires some great effort and failure.  The dark night of the soul occurs quite a lot in one’s life time and it happens to anyone. Re-reading my personal experience I get insight that, the dark night of the soul is very important in my spiritual growth. There was time when I felt ignored, depressed, hopeless and lonely even for long time, the time I feel that no help from my devotions and other spiritual exercises I have been doing which now I know was a process to growth. Through what I have experienced, I am real convinced that it has been an experience leading me to freedom from impurities and beyond my knowledge to the realm of loving freely and put trust in God. The dark night of the soul has shade light into my life to control my ways. I can say that it is a moment when God is close to me purging me and bringing me to him.


Reflection: The light in Darkness (5th November)

What has encouraged me is that during the dark night, the dark night does not only darken the spirit, it also gives light. Just as this dark night of loving fire purges in darkness, it also in darkness does its work of enkindling. The afflictive purgation of the spirit brings rebirth to the spirit. By means of the Divine inflow the spirit is reborn in the life of the spirit. The soul experiences a twofold peace, sensory and spiritual, and it must be purged because it is still imperfect. The soul is transformed by loving light and wisdom. Imperfections are purged on this earth and once imperfections are gone the soul experiences joy. Once the soul is purified by the fire of love it is further kindled in lo



JOHN OF THE CROSS: The Dark Night of the Soul
Summary and Reflection

About John of the Cross
John of the cross was born in Spain in 24th June, 1542. From his childhood John learned the importance of sacrifice from his parents. His father gave up wealth when he married weaver’s daughter which caused to be disowned by his noble family. After the death of his father the mother took all the responsibility to bring the poor family together which was wondering and homeless in search of work. John joined the Carmelite order and in his struggle to reform it to the life of prayer, he was kidnapped and locked in the cell and beaten by his own Carmelite friars who did not like reformation. Although John was in unbearable dark, cold and desolation his heart was burning of love and faith. Through this poverty and suffering John learned how to search for beauty and suffering not from this world but in God. John escaped from the cell and he died later in 14th December, 1591.
My inspiration from the book
First of all the title of the book: The Dark Night of the Soul has meaning to me. I find that in my life journey to God; have found difficulties which made me see darkness in my heart. Secondly, I had great challenges in my life as a friar which deeply was like a thorn in my soul, threatening my vocation and leaving me in tears. In my journey towards God sometimes I experience dryness in prayer, challenges from the friars but through all that I never gave up to love and trust in God. I learn from John of the cross to endure sufferings. In all these sufferings John of the cross encourages me to stand firm and trust in God. Above all, John offers lights to me that the soul has to struggle to be united with God. John of the cross is a model of my journey.
  
ABOUT JOHN OF THE CROSS
John of the cross was born in Spain in 24th June, 1542. From his childhood John learned the importance of sacrifice from his parents. His father gave up wealth when he married weaver’s daughter which caused to be disowned by his noble family. After the death of his father the mother took all the responsibility to bring the poor family together which was wondering and homeless in search of work. John joined the Carmelite order and in his struggle to reform it to the life of prayer, he was kidnapped and locked in the cell and beaten by his own Carmelite friars who did not like reformation. Although John was in unbearable dark, cold and desolation his heart was burning of love and faith. Through this poverty and suffering John learned how to search for beauty and suffering not from this world but in God. John escaped from the cell and he died later in 14th December, 1591.

BOOK ONE
The first book of the dark night starts by describing the defects of beginners. Theses defects have their origin in pride, avarice, lust, anger, spiritual, gluttony, spiritual envy and sloth. It also describes the signs of initial contemplation and the passive cleansing of the senses. The beginners have feelings of diligence and enthusiastic in spiritual exercises which makes a beginner to have a certain pride. This makes the beginner to instruct, criticise and condemn others in their spiritual life.
At times beginners possess spiritual avarice. Many beginners possess spiritual lust and it is called spiritual because it proceeds from spiritual things. In one’s spiritual exercises, impure movements are experienced in the sensory part of the soul even sometimes when the spirit is deep in prayer.[1] Beginners have the imperfection of anger. Anger is grounded by the passing of delight satisfaction in their spiritual exercises. This makes them short-tempered in what they do. There are hardly any persons among beginners, no matter how best their conduct, who will not fall into the imperfections of spiritual gluttony.[2] The imperfections of spiritual gluttony are the delights which the beginners find in their spiritual exercises. These cause them to go to extreme rather than to stay in moderation.
The beginners find themselves into two vices, spiritual envy and sloth. In envy, many beginners experience displeasure in the spiritual good in others. They don’t like to hear when others are praised instead of them. Regarding spiritual sloth, the beginners become worn out in spiritual exercises and they flee the things which are most spiritual because things are incompatible with sensual pleasure. They do not find the sweetness they want in prayer so they abandon it for the pleasure and sweetness of their own will. Instead of pleasing God they endeavour to satisfy their own will.
God brings the souls in the dark night in order to purify them from these imperfections and make them posses virtues. The soul cannot purify itself of these imperfections if God cannot place it in the passive purgation. The dark night produces two darknesses or purgations consistent to the two partitions of man’s nature into sensual and spiritual. The person who undergoes the dark night experiences a privation. This privation involves dryness in the exercise of love. The experience which one gets in the dark night of the soul makes him/her think that escaping from their misery is impossible. The person is able to understand his/her own misery. Ones undergoes desperate and never sees any future. It is the time one feels that is abandoned by God due to an intensive suffering.
No matter how earnestly beginners practice the mortification of the self, they will not be able to do so wholly until God accomplishes it in them passively through purgation.[3] God withdraws a beginner from his/her lowly conduct and love of the self and pleasure and leads him/her to a higher degree of divine love. God liberates him/her from discursive meditation and lowly exercise of senses and leads him or her into a luxuriant communion with God. This communion with God is free from imperfections. This contemplation is an outpouring of God, the divine loving knowledge, without images, obscure and hidden from the one who receives it, a knowledge that both purifies and illumines.[4]
There are signs which are used to discern whether the spiritual person is treading the path of the sensory night and purgation. The first one is that the soul does not get satisfaction or consolation from the things of God neither does it get satisfaction from creatures.
The second sign is that the soul turns to God attentively and with painful care. The soul thinks it is turning back to God rather than serving him because it is conscious of the disaster of the things of God.[5] The third sign is “the powerlessness, in spite of one’s efforts, to meditate and make use of the imagination, the interior sense, as one’s previous custom”.[6] The person undergoing the dark night of the senses has to ignore discursive meditation since it is not necessary this time. The soul should remain in tranquillity; h/she should be comfortable with peaceful and loving alertness to God.
The dark night helps one to have knowledge of one’s misery and of the self. This self-knowledge flows from the dry night and leads to the knowledge of God. In the dark night the soul undergoes an exhaustive reform in its deficiencies and many other abominations and greater evils. Furthermore the soul is able to remember God consistently. It is benefit of the soul as during this night the soul exercises all the virtues collectively.[7]
BOOK TWO
In book two there is a clear picture and analyses 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.”[8] The infused contemplation affects the soul in two ways. First, through illumining and purging the soul, the infused contemplation prepares the soul for its union with God.[9]Secondly, the infused contemplation illumines and purges the soul on earth. The infused contemplation causes pain to the soul at the beginning. The pain is caused by the extremely good properties of the contemplation. Many miseries still exist in the soul because it is not yet purged. The two opposites cannot exist together and this causes the soul to suffer. In purgation the two parts of the soul, the spiritual and the sensual, must be totally purged, since the one is never truly purged without the other. The divine wisdom is an affliction and torment because it goes beyond the soul’s capacity and the soul’s impurity and vileness. “Souls suffer affliction in the second manner because of their natural, moral and spiritual weakness.”[10] The divine light does not only bring darkness to the soul, it also leaves the soul in emptiness.
During the dark night, the dark night does not only darken the spirit, it also gives light. We can therefore understand that just as this dark night of loving fire purges in darkness, it also in darkness does its work of enkindling. The afflictive purgation of the spirit brings rebirth to the spirit. By means of the Divine inflow the spirit is reborn in the life of the spirit. The soul experiences a twofold peace, sensory and spiritual, and it must be purged because it is still imperfect. The soul is transformed by loving light and wisdom.
Imperfections are purged on this earth and once imperfections are gone the soul experiences joy. Once the soul is purified by the fire of love it is further kindled in love. The soul then suffers more than before because of a more interior purgation. The hand of God is so gentle and soft yet the weaknesses and imperfections of the soul feel the hand of God to be oppressive and heavy. Salvation comes through suffering. Suffering brings rebirth in the life of the spirit. The hand of God merely and mercifully touches the soul in order to grant it favours.
PERSONAL REFERECTION
By reading the dark night of the soul, I have come to understand that genuine spiritual growth requires some great effort and failure.  The dark night of the soul occurs quite a lot in one’s life time and it happens to anyone. Re-reading my personal experience I get insight that, the dark night of the soul is very important in my spiritual growth. There was time when I felt ignored, depressed, hopeless and lonely even for long time, the time I feel that no help from my devotions and other spiritual exercises I have been doing which now I know was a process to growth. Through what I have experienced, I am real convinced that it has been an experience leading me to freedom from impurities and beyond my knowledge to the realm of loving freely and put trust in God.
The dark night of the soul has helped me to feel the pain of letting go the things that hinder my spiritual growth be it hatred, sexual desires, anger, pride, certain behaviours and the like. It is a painful process which sometimes leaves me in tears for liberation and sometimes feeling disturbed and scared but above all I have benefited spiritually in all that I have passed through. The dark night of the soul has shade light into my life to control my ways. In the dark night of the soul, I can say that is a moment when God is close to me purging me and bringing me to him.

CONCLUSION
From what I have explained in book one and book two in my personal reflection, I dare to say that the dark night of the soul is God’s intervention preparing the soul to union with him. It is a painful experience that one undergoes as a process towards a spiritual maturity. It is through the active and passive purifications that the soul reaches union with God. This union causes the soul to habitually employ all its faculties, operations appetites and emotions in God. In this activity the soul resembles God. It is through this dark night of the soul one knows oneself.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY
KAVANAUGH, K. John of the Cross: Selected Writings, New York, Paulist Press 1987.



[1] Cf. K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 170.
[2] Cf. K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 174.
[3]Cf. K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 178.
[4]Cf. K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 166.
[5]Cf. K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 181.
[6]K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 183.
[7]Cf. K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 194.
[8] K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 200.
[9] K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings200-201.
[10] K. KAVANAUGH, ed, John of The Cross: Selected Writings, 202


No comments:

Post a Comment