The Dark Night of the Soul

If a man wants to know for certain the road he is on he has to keep his eyes closed and walk in darkness. "The dark night of the soul" has come to typify that condition of spiritual dryness, depression, and seeming abandonment by God that many Christians experience at some stage in their lives. Here St. John, a 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet, describes the spiritual road that leads to union with God. On this road the soul must enter the Dark Night to be stripped of its imperfections, including the famous "seven deadly sins"--a process that often takes a number of years.