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A review by jeeeeenniferh
Dark Night of the Soul by John of the Cross
4.5
4.5 stars
Honestly quite life changing
There were so many truth bombs that helped me to fully comprehend and understand the "dark nights" I endure and have endured. It was quite astonishing, actually, how St. John of the Cross was fully able to put into words what I experienced and continue to experience during these extended periods of suffering in my life (especially considering my own failure in putting them into words). The only reason why I would not yet rate it 5 stars is because I know that I still failed to fully comprehend this work in all its glory, and I believe I would need many more reads in order to truly appreciate the masterpiece that it is.
Awesome quotes to convince you to read it:
"For the nearer the soul approaches Him, the blacker is the darkness which it feels and the deeper is the obscurity which comes through its weakness; just as, the nearer a man approaches the sun, the greater are the darkness and the affliction caused him through the great splendor of the sun and through the weakness and impurity of his eyes. In the same way, so immense is the spiritual light of God, and so greatly does it transcend our natural understanding, that the nearer we approach it, the more it blinds and darkens us" (85).
"Therefore, O spiritual soul, when thou seest thy desire obscured, thy affections arid and constrained, and thy faculties bereft of their capacity for any interior exercise, be not afflicted by this, but rather consider it a great happiness, since God is freeing thee from thyself and taking the matter from thy hands. For with those hands, howsoever well they may serve thee, thou wouldst never labor so effectively, so perfectly and so securely (because of their clumsiness and uncleanness) as now, when God takes thy hand and guides thee in the darkness, as though thou wert blind, to an end and by a way which thou knowest not. Nor couldst thou ever hope to travel with the aid of thine own eyes and feet, howsoever good thou be as a walker" (83-84).
Honestly quite life changing
There were so many truth bombs that helped me to fully comprehend and understand the "dark nights" I endure and have endured. It was quite astonishing, actually, how St. John of the Cross was fully able to put into words what I experienced and continue to experience during these extended periods of suffering in my life (especially considering my own failure in putting them into words). The only reason why I would not yet rate it 5 stars is because I know that I still failed to fully comprehend this work in all its glory, and I believe I would need many more reads in order to truly appreciate the masterpiece that it is.
Awesome quotes to convince you to read it:
"For the nearer the soul approaches Him, the blacker is the darkness which it feels and the deeper is the obscurity which comes through its weakness; just as, the nearer a man approaches the sun, the greater are the darkness and the affliction caused him through the great splendor of the sun and through the weakness and impurity of his eyes. In the same way, so immense is the spiritual light of God, and so greatly does it transcend our natural understanding, that the nearer we approach it, the more it blinds and darkens us" (85).
"Therefore, O spiritual soul, when thou seest thy desire obscured, thy affections arid and constrained, and thy faculties bereft of their capacity for any interior exercise, be not afflicted by this, but rather consider it a great happiness, since God is freeing thee from thyself and taking the matter from thy hands. For with those hands, howsoever well they may serve thee, thou wouldst never labor so effectively, so perfectly and so securely (because of their clumsiness and uncleanness) as now, when God takes thy hand and guides thee in the darkness, as though thou wert blind, to an end and by a way which thou knowest not. Nor couldst thou ever hope to travel with the aid of thine own eyes and feet, howsoever good thou be as a walker" (83-84).