The Desert Spirituality of St. John of the Cross
"God desires to withdraw the beginning contemplative from a low manner of loving and lead them on to a higher degree of divine love. At first, it was through the spiritual delight and satisfaction they experienced in prayer that they became detached from external things and gained some spiritual strength in God. Now, however, God closes the spring of the sweet spiritual water they were tasting. He now leaves them in such aridity and darkness that they fail to receive satisfaction and pleasure from their spiritual exercises and works as they formerly did.
"The reason for this dryness is that God is transferring His goods and strength from the external senses and emotions to the inner spirit. Since the sensory part of the soul is incapable of the goods of the spirit, it remains deprived, arid, and empty, and thus, while the spirit is tasting, the emotions taste nothing at all and become weak in their work. But the spirit through this nourishment grows stronger and more alert. If in the beginning the soul does not experience this spiritual savor and delight, but only dryness and distaste, it is because of the novelty involved in this exchange. Since its palate is accustomed to these other sensory tastes, the soul still sets its eyes on them. And since, also, its spiritual palate is neither purged nor accommodated for so subtle a taste, it is at first unable to experience the spiritual savor and good until gradually prepared by means of this dark and obscure night; the soul rather experiences dryness and distaste because of a lack of the gratification it formerly enjoyed so readily.
"Those whom God begins to lead into these desert solitudes are like the children of Israel; when God began giving them the heavenly food - the manna - which contained in itself all savors, they nonetheless felt a craving for the tastes of the fleshmeats and onions they had eaten during their captivity in Egypt, for their palate was accustomed and attracted to them more than to the delicate sweetness of the manna. Yet, as I say, when these aridities are the outcome of the purgative way of the sensory appetite, the spirit feels the strength and energy to work, which is obtained from the substance of that interior food, even though in the beginning, it may not experience the savor because of what we might call the beginner's spiritual 'sweet tooth.' This inner food is the beginning of a contemplation that is dark and dry to the senses.
"Ordinarily this contemplation, which is secret and hidden from the very one who receives it, imparts to the soul, together with the dryness and emptiness it produces in the senses, an inclination to remain alone and in quietude. And the soul will be unable to dwell upon any particular thought, nor will it have the desire to do so. For it will desire to remain instead in a general loving awareness of God, the All. Here, God is producing an interior peace in the spirit through the dryness of sense. Since this peace is something spiritual and delicate, its fruit is quiet, delicate, solitary, satisfying, and peaceful, and far removed from the the gratifications of beginners, which are very palpable and sensory.
St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night
Photo: Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, UT, November 27, 2011
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