He sure does have a way of explaining the things along the way! And when you are in turmoil and not yet to the end of something, he calms you because you see only the beginnings, or are in the thick of it, and he gives you renewed strength to remain in peace about what’s happening.
by annihilating and subduing my faculties, passions, appetites, and affections—the instruments of my low
conceptions of God— I went forth out of the scanty works and ways of my own to those of God;that is,my
understanding went forth out of itself,and from human and natural became divine ; for united to God in that
purgation,it understands no more by its natural powers,: but in the divine wisdom to which it is united.
3. My will went forth out of itself becoming divine, for now,united with the divine love,it loves no more meanly with the powers of its nature, but with the energy and pureness of the divine spirit. Thus the will
acts now in the things of God,not in a human way, and the memory also is transformed in eternal apprehensions of glory. Finally, all the energies and affections of the soul are,in this night and purgation of the old man,renewed into a divine temper and delight.
-—————
The dark night is a certain inflowing of God into the soulwhich cleanses it of its ignorances and imperfections,
habitual, natural, and spiritual. Contemplatives call it infused contemplation,or mystical theology,'whereby God secretly teaches the soul and instructs it in the perfection of love, without efforts on its own part [beyond a loving attention to God,listening to His voice and admitting the light He sends, but without
understanding how this is infused contemplation.]: And inasmuch as it is the loving wisdom of God, it produces special effects in the soul, for it prepares it, by purifying and enlightening it, for union with God inlove
by annihilating and subduing my faculties, passions, appetites, and affections—the instruments of my low
conceptions of God— I went forth out of the scanty works and ways of my own to those of God;that is,my
understanding went forth out of itself,and from human and natural became divine ; for united to God in that
purgation,it understands no more by its natural powers,: but in the divine wisdom to which it is united.
3. My will went forth out of itself becoming divine, for now,united with the divine love,it loves no more meanly with the powers of its nature, but with the energy and pureness of the divine spirit. Thus the will
acts now in the things of God,not in a human way, and the memory also is transformed in eternal apprehensions of glory. Finally, all the energies and affections of the soul are,in this night and purgation of the old man,renewed into a divine temper and delight.
-—————
The dark night is a certain inflowing of God into the soulwhich cleanses it of its ignorances and imperfections,
habitual, natural, and spiritual. Contemplatives call it infused contemplation,or mystical theology,'whereby God secretly teaches the soul and instructs it in the perfection of love, without efforts on its own part [beyond a loving attention to God,listening to His voice and admitting the light He sends, but without
understanding how this is infused contemplation.]: And inasmuch as it is the loving wisdom of God, it produces special effects in the soul, for it prepares it, by purifying and enlightening it, for union with God inlove
