{"id":9491,"date":"2021-03-24T11:24:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T16:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicbard\/?p=9491"},"modified":"2022-11-30T01:08:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T06:08:15","slug":"dark-night-and-deep-love-in-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicbard\/2021\/03\/dark-night-and-deep-love-in-the-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Night and Deep Love in the Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Sometimes He feels so close
\nYou feel like you can feel Him
\nHear Him and talk to Him who so loves you
\nAnd you so love
\nIt feels quiet and you are calm; your faith has never been so real
\nYou think of Him day and night and all the moments in between<\/p>\n

Maybe something happens, or maybe seemingly nothing
\nHe is invisible, just gone and your faith is confused
\nAnd yet you thirst for Him<\/p>\n

He left you, alone in the dark, in the desert.
\nWas He real to begin with?\u00a0 Why did He leave you?
\nMaybe you call out to Him, maybe you even shed tears
\nThe Love of your life may have been all your imagination
\nYou are lonely, humbled and scared<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You so want Him to be real again.\u00a0 You search, you pray.
\nYou wonder if those prayers fall on ears that do not exist.
\nYou still go to Mass, but distraction haunts you even there.<\/p>\n

Then as unexpectedly as you landed in the dark you come out.
\nMore faithful, more holy and more deeply in Love than before.
\nHe was with you all along but
\nHe hid to you so you could grow.
\nHe is Love, He died for you, and He wants you to follow Him.
\nRegardless of your state in life He is your Eternal Lover.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

\"Blog<\/p>\n

Saint John of the Cross (June 24, 1542- December 14, 1591) knew what this Dark Night was like.<\/p>\n

As did Saint Theresa of Avila (March 28, 1515- Oct 4,1582)<\/p>\n

and even a more recently Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta (August 26, 1910 -September 5, 1997).<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the darkness . . . Lord, my God, who am I that you should forsake me?\u00a0 The child of your love \u2014 and now become as the most hated one. The one \u2014 you have thrown away as unwanted \u2014 unloved. I call, I cling, I want, and there is no one to answer . . . Where I try to raise my thoughts to heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.\u00a0 Love \u2014 the word \u2014 it brings nothing.\u00a0 I am told God lives in me \u2014 and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.-Mother Teresa as quoted in chapter 17 from The Love That Made Mother Teresa<\/a> by David Scott<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Such feelings can happen to \u201cregular\u201d faithful uncanonized believers as well.
\nSo, if you are having a Dark Night experience do not despair.
\nGod is with you, loving you.
\nHe is working in you, be it for a short while or many years.
\nHe loves all of us, always.<\/p>\n

Your darkness, your suffering, anything really, can be offered up for those in most need.
\nIt is important to pray for those in this world who are suffering and to help them.
\nIt is also important to offer up our sufferings for those who have lost their faith.
\nFor those who are at risk of dying unrepentant and thus in danger of the torments of Hell.<\/p>\n

May they at least make it to Purgatory.
\nI can only hope to make it there myself and to be purged of my sinful imperfections
\nand then be ushered into the Beatific Vision of Heaven
\nwhere I can spend all eternity gazing on the beauty of the Triune God.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We have to remember that Jesus knows we are imperfect and is a loving and forgiving God who died for us.
\nWe should not fear him.
\nWe should love him above anyone or anything especially during the darkest of nights.
\nWhen we pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we tell Jesus that we trust in Him.
\nWe also ask him to have mercy on us and on the whole word.<\/p>\n

\"Divine<\/p>\n

During the Fatima Prayer we say:<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, my Jesus forgive us our sins.
\nSave us from the fires of Hell
\nand lead all souls to Heaven especially those in most need of Your mercy\u201d<\/p>\n

So even in the driest moments
\nwhere we are thirsting for a God who seems to have gone from us in the dark dessert,
\nwe can be assured of His love for us and even those of the most hardened sinners.<\/p>\n