by greyerbaby, 2015, MorgueFile.com
Have you experienced a “dark night of the soul?” Deep depression, a spiritual crisis, the collapse of meaning and purpose in your life, the loss of something, or someone, who meant everything to you?
I have experienced something like that. And I can tell you that it is temporary. You will come out of it. And you may be a better person because of it. You may even be a totally different person than you thought you were.
So, hang on.
Trust in God.
Even if you feel completely alone. Even if you think no person and no thing can help you. Even if you’ve tried everything, but there’s nowhere to go, no one to turn to, and you feel helpless. And even if you think you’re defeated—hang on.
And in the luck of night
In secret places where no other spied
I went without my sight
Without a light to guide
Except the heart that lit me from inside.
It guided me and shone
Surer than noonday sunlight over me,
And lead me to the one
Whom only I could see
Deep in a place where only we could be.
………..two stanzas from Dark Night of the Soul, by Saint John of the Cross
No one else can actually see your dark night. You can create an appearance that all is well, while inside your heart is breaking. At times, I even thought if I had a fatal disease, it would be better than what I was going through–at least it would be apparent to someone. But what I didn’t realize is that I wasn’t alone. Even if I couldn’t see where I was going myself, someone was seeing me along the way. I trusted I would be lead. And I was.
Dark nights are temporary. I can’t stress that enough. On any day— within a minute, or second— what was so dark can take on light again.
You are so loved by God!
Don’t give up. Surrender to divine guidance. And Trust.
Translating a World on the Edge 
Kaye, I would challenge your definition of the dark night of the soul. It’s not depression. It’s a very holy darkness. Also, some people don’t come out of it. There are some souls who will be in that state for years or decades. I wrote about the dark night and St. John of the Cross in extensive detail in my latest book for Sophia Institute Press. You are definitely right on that we need to trust and know that God is with us and that we are bathed in His light. 🙂
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Yes, a pretty deep subject! Catholic psychiatrist Aaron Kheriaty defines it as “sublime desolation called “dark night of the soul” that is, in fact, a privileged spiritual trial sent to good souls as a special gift from God.”
But few receive that gift, or at least, see it as such. The dark night I’m talking about in this post is the loss of hope, which I suppose can come from a God-sent sublime desolation, yet even in that, I believe, hope is retrievable and therefore presents an end to the dark night. We know that God allows suffering for a higher purpose, so just our knowledge of that, is Hope in itself.
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Makes sense, Kaye. I was thinking more theologically and mystically, I suppose. 🙂
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Well, you’re right, Jeannie. The thing is that on my blog I try to reach people who are simply trying to cope with the everyday–and sometimes awful– struggles of life. Some of them will have a deeper theology than others, but every reader is important to me when I write a blog–because they are so very important to God. He is sincerely, madly in love with each one of them. Just want them to know that, if they haven’t realized it before.
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