What do you mean by "the dark night of ther soul" ? please explain as you would explain a child :)?

Question

OK Hans ..smiles

Answer 1

Dark Night of the Soul refers to a time of loneliness or desperation with regards to spirituality. Sometimes it is used to refer to a time when one has almost lost their faith. Generally one emerges from a dark night with renewed faith and looks back at the time as something of a blessing because through that rough time there is usually an important lesson learned.

I am pretty sure the term is from a bit of poetry or prose but I can't remember what.  

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure I went through one last year. St. John of the Cross wrote a book about what it is like if you want more information. Basically, you go through an intense time of testing your faith, changing your ways, dying to self and through it all the presence of God is absent. You keep going forward out of service. You question a lot of things. Even though God seems far away he is right there guiding you and he makes that clear. When you are in it you know something is going on. I had never felt anything really like it. When it stopped I felt like it had lifted off of me and I was relieved. It was very very tough but I am so glad I went through it! It has changed me into a better person and brought me closer to Christ. Hope that helps

Answer 3

The feeling that all is for nothing and there is no hope. Such a moment will either destroy you or transform you.

Answer 4

conventionally "the dark knight" has been a symbolic figure that gives the individual strength, courage and determination when one is feeling wounded, lost or sad.....The dark knight provides one with guidance and foresight....So in this respect "the dark knight of the soul" is a guiding power but one that provides spiritual guidance......

EDIT: OK sorry...In that case, there is a saying "through darkness comes light" and "after the night comes the break of dawn"....In this sense I think it may mean the period of darkness which precedes the period of light.....  I am just guessing here because I am not a professional philosopher LOL.

Answer 5

Sirus gives a Buddhist perspective. Another way of saying it might be when you feel God is far away, but mature love keeps going because you made a decision, and feelings have little to with it. It isn't a nice place to be in, but we have to grow up sometimes.

A good book to read would be

Dark Night of the Soul: A Masterpiece in the Literature of Mysticism by St. John of the Cross

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Night-Soul-Ma...

You can read the first page here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/03850293...

It's written in late 15th century style and too deep for most people.

Mother Thersa of Calcutta wrote about her experiences.

http://catholiceducation.org/articles/fa...

Answer 6

A baby wakes up on the middle of the night, surrounded by darkness, and cries out to his mother.

If the mother responds quickly, all is well. If not, the world can be a terrible and lonely place, until she does.

So it is with God.  

Answer 7

Dark Night of the Soul (Spanish: La noche oscura del alma) is a treatise written by Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross. It has become an expression used to describe a phase in a person's spiritual life, a metaphor for a certain loneliness and desolation. It is referenced by spiritual traditions throughout the world.

The phrase "dark night of the soul" emerged from the writings of Saint John of the Cross, a Carmelite priest in the 16th century. Dark Night of the Soul, the name of a poem and its theological commentary, are among the Carmelite priest's most well-known writings. The texts tell of the saint's mystical development and the stages he is subjected to on his journey towards union with God.

The Dark Night of the Soul is divided into two books that reflect the two phases of the dark night. The first is a purification of the senses. The second and more intense of the two stages is that of the spirit, which is the less common of the two. Dark Night of the Soul further describes the ten steps on the ladder of mystical love, previously described by Saint Thomas Aquinas and in part by Aristotle, referred to by medieval Catholic theologians as the Philosopher, for he established justification for the existence of one true God and thus refuted his master, Plato. The text was written while John of the Cross was imprisoned by his Carmelite brothers, who opposed his reformations to the Order.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th-century French Carmelite, underwent similar experience. Centering on doubts about the afterlife, she reportedly told her fellow nuns, "If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into."

While this crisis is assured to be temporary in nature, it may be extended. The "dark night" of Saint Paul of the Cross in the 18th century lasted 45 years, from which he ultimately recovered. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, according to letters released in 2007, "may be the most extensive such case on record", lasting from 1948 almost up until her death in 1997, with only brief interludes of relief between . Franciscan Friar Father Benedict Groeschel, a friend of Mother Teresa for a large part of her life, claims that "the darkness left" towards the end of her life .

The "dark night" might clinically or secularly be described as the letting go of one's ego as it holds back the psyche, thus making room for some form of transformation, perhaps in one's way of defining oneself or one's relationship to God. This interim period can be frightening, hence the perceived "darkness."

In the Christian tradition, one who has developed a strong prayer life and consistent devotion to God suddenly finds traditional prayer extremely difficult and unrewarding for an extended period of time during this "dark night." The individual may feel as though God has suddenly abandoned them or that his or her prayer life has collapsed. In the most pronounced cases, belief is lost in the very existence of God and/or validity of religion, rendering the individual an atheist, even if they bravely continue with the outward expressions of faith.

Rather than resulting in devastation, however, the dark night is perceived by mystics and others to be a blessing in disguise, whereby the individual is stripped (in the dark night of the senses) of the spiritual ecstacy associated with acts of virtue. Although the individual may for a time seem to outwardly decline in their practices of virtue, they in reality become more virtuous, as they are being virtuous less for the spiritual rewards (ecstasies in the cases of the first night) obtained and more out of a true love for God. It is this purgatory, a purgation of the soul, that brings purity and union with God.