The temptations encountered in the Night of the Soul
There are many dangers in the Night, one of the more serious being despair. There is a danger of scrupulosity as the soul searches in vain for a reason that God has left it, and to find some way to attract God back. The soul may be tempted to stop reaching for a God who is no longer present to it, or even to hate the God who seems so fickle and cruel. But the memory of the experience of God drives the soul on. It is as if a lover has been kissed by the beloved just before the beloved vanishes from the sight. The remembrance of that kiss and its indescribable joy and peace serves to inspire the soul to have faith, hope, and love even when God seems to have abandoned it.
By the time a soul reaches the Night of the Spirit, it is already highly purified, though not beyond the reach of sin. Indeed, should a soul fall from the state of grace that it has reached by the Night of Spirit, great would be its fall. The rewards are greater, but so are the dangers. One cannot trust in one’s own power to resist the storms that will assault the soul during the Night, but must depend totally on God to sustain her.
Because, in the Night of the Soul, God is acting powerfully and mysteriously in the soul, even an experienced spiritual director can, and probably should, do little more than support the soul in the difficult time, assuring her of God’s continuing love, and praying with her to cooperate with God in the work that only God can do.
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