{"id":13,"date":"2006-12-21T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-21T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2006\/12\/dark-night.html"},"modified":"2006-12-21T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-21T11:45:00","slug":"dark-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2006\/12\/dark-night.html","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s probably no coincidence that I chose the poem “The Dark Night<\/a>” composed by Carmelite mystic John of the Cross<\/a> as the topic of my senior thesis back when I was a religious studies major in college.<\/p>\n

The poem is about a soul’s movement into contemplation and perfect union with God via spiritual purification.<\/p>\n

My advisor, who is still a good friend, made me memorize the stanzas so that the words lived in me. <\/p>\n

I read them today and wondered how a Spanish mystic from the 16th century could express so eloquently the voyage from darkness to light that those suffering from depression make.<\/p>\n

Here are the first five stanzas:<\/p>\n

“One dark night, fired with love’s urgent longings – ah, the sheer grace! – I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled.<\/p>\n

In darkness, and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised,- ah, the sheer grace! – in darkness and concealment, my house being now all stilled.<\/p>\n

On that glad night, in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look at anything, with no other light or guide than the one that burned in my heart.<\/p>\n

This guided me more surely than the light of noon to where he was awaiting me- him I knew so well – there in a place where no one appeared.<\/p>\n

O guiding night! O night more lovely than the dawn! O night that has united the Lover with his beloved, transforming the beloved in her Lover.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s probably no coincidence that I chose the poem “The Dark Night” composed by Carmelite mystic John of the Cross as the topic of my senior thesis back when I was a religious studies major in college. The poem is about a soul’s movement into contemplation and perfect union with God via spiritual purification. My…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration-and-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dark Night - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2006\/12\/dark-night.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dark Night - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s probably no coincidence that I chose the poem “The Dark Night” composed by Carmelite mystic John of the Cross as the topic of my senior thesis back when I was a religious studies major in college. 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