THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

Three Stages of the Spiritual Life

Part One: Dark Night

By Brother Joseph of Mary,

This brief discussion on the first of the three stages of the spiritual life, or the purgative way, will attempt to describe that doctrine of the life of the soul as St. John of the Cross and St. Thomas Aquinas describe it. Rare and extraordinary approaches have been ignored. The needs of those with a thirst for God or a desire for virtue, perfection or holiness will be the focus of this article. God alone suffices to satiate this hunger.

The spiritual life is about the soul falling in love with its’ creator. This is a rare privilege in all of creation reserved only for angels and man. In fact, man surpasses the angel in this operation, as it is represented in Mary, the wife of Joseph and the Mother of God.

The revelation of Christ reveals that the operations of the soul can be exemplified in distinct functions appearing in the Mystical Body of Christ particularly by the role given to diocesan priests and the Bishop, which role is the cure of souls. The counterpart to this diocesan role can be seen in the role-given orders of contemplative religious who are asked to ascend the mountain of perfection and then share the fruits of their contemplation (prayer) with the faithful. It is the soul in sin that is considered poor, sick and hungry that will be both cured and fed by the above-distinguished roles. Vatican II stresses that this dual function is not to be excluded from the work and labor of the laity. That is the laity can, and are legitimately free to embrace the cure and nourish themselves and others with the truth and goodness of Jesus Christ by walking the way of perfection. Simply put, imitation of Mary and Joseph will not impair the sacramental role of the priest. To the contrary, the role of the priest is enhanced as dependence on the Eucharistic Jesus necessarily increases as the soul draws closer to God.

The soul’s freedom is twofold. It can be free of sin or free of justice. The soul becomes a servant of justice or a servant of sin. This life of perfection we will discuss is the exaltation of the soul by God as that soul becomes as free as possible in this life of actual sin and the effects of original sin. Recall that the four effects of original sin are an inclination to evil, ignorance, suffering and death.

Purgation is the first stage of the spiritual life. Suffering is the means. Purity is the initial end or goal, a substantial inpouring of love will follow later. Trials are the medicine to effect the cure. God effects in the soul the purging of all inordinate love of self and creation. This purging of the soul will be referred to as the night of the soul. The first stage of this twofold night for the soul will be referred to as the night of the senses. Here God eliminates in the soul any inordinate affections or attachments to the goods of creation. The second stage of this night is the night of the spirit, where the soul’s self-love is defeated. These two nights together purge the soul of all that is not God. This night is preparatory for greater things ahead. This initial night is very difficult for the soul. Souls in this night should be treated with patience and kindness and encouraged to continue their struggle with self, and not give up. It is likely that any comfort one offers the soul in this stage will fall short and also burden the soul. Often, the soul is not allowed to receive comfort or consolation from anything or anyone, since God is preparing this soul for Himself. God desires the soul to seek only the comfort of dark faith and rely only upon this faith in God. The law of contraries is at work here. God’s nature is contrary to human nature and when God draws close in a transforming embrace He will pain the soul with the embrace of Divinity that He is. Purgation does end, and God never takes the soul beyond its limits.

This night causes two kinds of purgation corresponding to the two parts of the soul: the sensory and the spiritual. This sensory night is common and happens to many. The spiritual night is the lot of very few. The first purgation is bitter and terrible to the senses. But nothing can be compared to the second, for it is horrible and frightful to the spirit.

After beginners have experienced themselves for a time in the way of virtue and have persevered in meditation and prayer, God will desire to liberate them from the lowly exercise of the senses and of discursive meditation and lead them into the exercise of the spirit.

Through the delight and satisfaction they experience in prayer they become detached from worldly things and gain spiritual strength. This strength helps restrain their appetites for creatures, and through it they are able to suffer a little oppression and dryness without turning back.

It is at the time that they are going about in delight and satisfaction with the light of divine favor shining bright that God darkens all and closes doors. The soul is lost and knows not where to turn. They no longer advance in meditation as they had in the past. In fact, they find the spiritual exercises they formerly did distasteful and bitter. God weans them from the sweet breast of the senses so that they might be strengthened. This change is a surprise because everything seems to be functioning in reverse ( St. John of the Cross, Chapter 8, The Dark Night).

To illustrate God’s initial embrace which will be oppressive for the soul, consider fire and wood. If the soul were green wood, wet with inordinate affections, and God were fire; these two have contrary natures. In a transforming embrace, fire changes wood. At the first touch of fire, the wood sputters and hisses at its participation in the fire. The initial effect is dryness and then it slowly catches partly on fire as smoke and steam obscure light and vision. The action of the fire on wood is a likeness of the action of God on a soul. This transformation of the soul into a participation of God’s existence is real. The soul comes alive with love for God. The soul is becoming a saint! The soul is lead more by divinized faith than sensory understanding. [Pope John Paul II’s doctrinal dissertation was on this very point! The future pope wrote about “Faith in the Works of St. John of the Cross”. A copy should be on the Internet or on microfiche at a larger university library.]

The soul approaches God in only two ways: by denial and by desire. In purgation, the soul is being denied comfort and consolation from all that is not God, so that by default even in the soul’s ignorance it will be forced to God. The soul’s understanding in this stage will often fail it. The soul will be like Moses in the desert searching for God and His promised land. God will lead the soul with dark obscure faith, much as He led Moses with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. [Ex. 13:21; 14:24] St. John of the Cross reminds us that only faith can be described like this as it relates to the intellect. That is faith is a cloud of darkness to the senses and simultaneously a light for the soul during the night of faith. Some souls will react to this purgation as did the people following Moses. God gave them Manna from heaven, food of angels yet they cried for the old food, the flesh meats of the land of slavery, which was Egypt. [Nm. 11:4-6] So it will be for souls that enter this desert experience of purgation. They will prefer to reject the life of faith God is leading them into with its sweet fruits of contemplation for the old way of the sense which was tangible sensory understanding. That is why vision and dreams are so unreliable for souls at this stage. Many are lost on the plains of this desert experience due to seeking special favors from God to an appetite for His gifts. God is far more than His gifts of visions and dreams and is offended by His lover’s falling in love with the gift and not the Giver. The soul’s disposition should be absolute poverty and humility, seeking no special favors from God and seeking God in pure faith giving no esteem to visions received for if the vision is from God the impression and effect is first made deep in the soul spiritually and only secondarily overflows into the senses. This is the safest disposition to St. John of the Cross. In fact, at this stage, visions can be safely ignored as it relates to the “ordinary way” that a soul is led to God, since God can achieve the vision’s effect on the soul without using the senses. The “extraordinary ways” of some rare souls is beyond the scope of this article. To be sure, Moses was “extraordinary” – Mary was “ordinary”. Do not be tempted to think that extraordinary is the seal of a superior standing. To the contrary, St. John of the Cross is very clear, the extraordinary way with sensory phenomenon is actually a less perfect, inferior way directed to arouse interest in God by souls less refined. Remember Mary was the most refined and yet with such an appearance could not get a night at the inn. Surely Moses with his face aglow from just speaking to God would have been admitted, yet who is on the pinnacle of perfection – of course, Mary is.

The soul must ordinarily walk this path of severe trials and conflicts to reach that sublime and joyous union with God. Narrow is the path and few that tread it. [Mt. 7:14] This first stage is a departure from love of self and of all things through a method of true mortification, which causes death to self and all things and to begin a sweet life of love with God. This dark night signifies purgative contemplation, which passively causes in the soul this negation of self and all things. The soul endures through the vigor and warmth gained from loving it’s spouse in this obscure contemplation.

Part two of this article will follow, wherein we will distinguish depression from purgation, describe that conduct and attitude required of a soul during purgation, and introduce the seven levels of prayer.

(Authorities: Scripture and tradition; see Rev. Adolphe Tanquerey, “The Spiritual Life”, pp.297-299; St. John of the Cross, “The Dark Night”, Ch. 8-9-10; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, “States of Life”, “Of Man’s Various Duties and States in General”, Pt II-II Q 183, Art. 4; “Whether Parish Priests may lawfully enter religion” Pt II-II Q 189, Art. 7,

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Guide to Spiritual Direction

Spiritual direction is not a counseling session, but a dialogue in faith, within the Church.

Keep in mind that there are three persons present – the director, the one directed and the Holy Spirit.

The goal is to discover the light that the Holy Spirit sheds on both of you to reveal God’s will in your concrete daily reality in order then to fulfill it.

Points to go over in Spiritual Direction

Prayer Life

• Have you been faithful to your prayer commitments?
• Are you giving quality time to your prayer?
• Are you making concrete resolutions and checking them periodically and keeping them faithfully?
• What progress and difficulties have you noticed in mental prayer, sacramental life, the fruit of your spiritual commitments and your examination of conscience?
• Does your prayer life fall into routine? What have you tried to do to avoid it?

Program of Life – a program of life is a personal plan that you draw up as a help to living your daily commitments and your personalized fight for holiness. It is drawn up with the help of your director and enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, according to your spiritual and human strengths and weaknesses, with objectives, goals and means, effectively making it a concrete plan for spiritual conquest.

• What progress have you made since your last spiritual direction?
• What difficulties have you encountered?
• Has any part of the program become routine?
• Are you avoiding or ignoring some of what you had proposed to do? Why?
• Are there any adjustments that need to be made for it to be a better tool for your progress?
• How have you done in the resolutions you made in your last spiritual direction?

General State of your Soul

• Is it dry, distracted, preoccupied, or serene, docile, confident and trusting in God’s grace?
• Depending on its state, what do you think are the causes?

Apostolic Work

• Are you dedicating any of your time, talents and love to others with a spirit of faith, hope and love? Or is it an imposition of my “personal time”?
• Are you working with the intention of glorifying God and advancing his Kingdom, or are you working for personal satisfaction, respect and/or the esteem of others?

Conscience Formation

• Is your conscience lax about giving in to your concessions?
• Do you rationalize your conduct so that you are always right in what you do or fail to do?
• Are you working to form a delicate, sensitive conscience that seeks to please God at every moment?