Dark night of the soul

[Spiderman]

The dark night of the soul is a spiritual crisis. It is common for saints and mystics to go through this as part of their purification. During these times, Saints admitted to doubting the existence of God and doubting eternal life.

It is a time where every good feeling, spiritual consolation is taken away and the person is left arid, confused, and feeling forsaken by God. The dark night of the soul is filled with doubts. Mother Teresa of Calcutta experienced this darkness for years where it felt she had no faith. She saw so much misery constantly and doubted God's love for the people she cared for. It seemed like God wasn't there.

The dark night of the soul brings healing and growth. It's easy to have faith when you are receiving pleasant graces and consolations from God. Having faith when the consolations are taken away is difficult. The dark night makes us stronger and wiser. During the dark night it may seem like everything that can go wrong does go wrong. This is actually a great blessing that cleanses and enlightens the soul. The dark night is very humbling and purifies us of ego.

It gives us a new appreciation for the good things in life. Through transformation of consciousness and greater purity of soul, the dark night brings us to greater unity with the creator and greater connectedness to other people, Greater coping skills and wisdom to help others.

 

[David1967]

Very nice Pope. Thank you.

 

[idea]

The dark night of the soul is a spiritual crisis. It is common for saints and mystics to go through this as part of their purification. During these times, Saints admitted to doubting the existence of God and doubting eternal life.

It is a time where every good feeling, spiritual consolation is taken away and the person is left arid, confused, and feeling forsaken by God. The dark night of the soul is filled with doubts. Mother Teresa of Calcutta experienced this darkness for years where it felt she had no faith. She saw so much misery constantly and doubted God's love for the people she cared for. It seemed like God wasn't there.

The dark night of the soul brings healing and growth. It's easy to have faith when you are receiving pleasant graces and consolations from God. Having faith when the consolations are taken away is difficult. The dark night makes us stronger and wiser. During the dark night it may seem like everything that can go wrong does go wrong. This is actually a great blessing that cleanses and enlightens the soul. The dark night is very humbling and purifies us of ego.

It gives us a new appreciation for the good things in life. Through transformation of consciousness and greater purity of soul, the dark night brings us to greater unity with the creator and greater connectedness to other people, Greater coping skills and wisdom to help others.

Thanks PopeADope - I just searched for "dark night of the soul" to see if a thread was started on it - I will resurrect this old thread rather than start a new one. Are you familiar Fowler's model for stages in faith?

James W. Fowler - Wikipedia

• Stage 0 – "Primal or Undifferentiated" faith (birth to 2 years), is characterized by an early learning of the safety of their environment (i.e. warm, safe and secure vs. hurt, neglect and abuse). If consistent nurture is experienced, one will develop a sense of trust and safety about the universe and the divine. Conversely, negative experiences will cause one to develop distrust with the universe and the divine. Transition to the next stage begins with integration of thought and language which facilitates the use of symbols in speech and play.
• Stage 1 – "Intuitive-Projective" faith (ages of three to seven), is characterized by the psyche's unprotected exposure to the Unconscious, and marked by a relative fluidity of thought patterns.[4]Religion is learned mainly through experiences, stories, images, and the people that one comes in contact with.
• Stage 2 – "Mythic-Literal" faith (mostly in school children), stage two persons have a strong belief in the justice and reciprocity of the universe, and their deities are almost always anthropomorphic. During this time metaphors and symbolic language are often misunderstood and are taken literally.
• Stage 3 – "Synthetic-Conventional" faith (arising in adolescence; aged 12 to adulthood) characterized by conformity to authority and the religious development of a personal identity. Any conflicts with one's beliefs are ignored at this stage due to the fear of threat from inconsistencies.
• Stage 4 – "Individuative-Reflective" faith (usually mid-twenties to late thirties) a stage of angst and struggle. The individual takes personal responsibility for his or her beliefs and feelings. As one is able to reflect on one's own beliefs, there is an openness to a new complexity of faith, but this also increases the awareness of conflicts in one's belief.
• Stage 5 – "Conjunctive" faith (mid-life crisis - dark night) acknowledges paradox and transcendence relating reality behind the symbols of inherited systems. The individual resolves conflicts from previous stages by a complex understanding of a multidimensional, interdependent "truth" that cannot be explained by any particular statement.
• Stage 6 – "Universalizing" faith, or what some might call "enlightenment". The individual would treat any person with compassion as he or she views people as from a universal community, and should be treated with universal principles of love and justice.

Has anyone else experienced these stages? How much does everyone agree with them? I have now gone through the dark night, and am trying to reach stage 6 - I think the dark night either leads to atheism, or to a universal belief, and I am trying for the more universal side of everything.

 

[j1i]

The dark night of the soul is a spiritual crisis. It is common for saints and mystics to go through this as part of their purification. During these times, Saints admitted to doubting the existence of God and doubting eternal life.

It is a time where every good feeling, spiritual consolation is taken away and the person is left arid, confused, and feeling forsaken by God. The dark night of the soul is filled with doubts. Mother Teresa of Calcutta experienced this darkness for years where it felt she had no faith. She saw so much misery constantly and doubted God's love for the people she cared for. It seemed like God wasn't there.

The dark night of the soul brings healing and growth. It's easy to have faith when you are receiving pleasant graces and consolations from God. Having faith when the consolations are taken away is difficult. The dark night makes us stronger and wiser. During the dark night it may seem like everything that can go wrong does go wrong. This is actually a great blessing that cleanses and enlightens the soul. The dark night is very humbling and purifies us of ego.

It gives us a new appreciation for the good things in life. Through transformation of consciousness and greater purity of soul, the dark night brings us to greater unity with the creator and greater connectedness to other people, Greater coping skills and wisdom to help others.

Once, I was driving at night and feeling sad in my heart, and I don't know why.
I asked for a sandwich and upon receiving it I saw someone seeing me but was not speaking as if he wanted to eat some food
When I gave him the sandwich
I felt a great improvement in my mood and happiness and the least things were causing me a positive mood