What Is the Dark Night of the Soul?

A Phrase That Escaped

“The dark night of the soul” has become a common phrase. People use it to describe any period of suffering, depression, loss of meaning or crisis. Novelists and songwriters borrow it freely.

The phrase comes from St John of the Cross (1542–1591), a Spanish Carmelite friar, poet and Doctor of the Church. He meant something much more specific: a stage in the spiritual life in which God purifies the soul by withdrawing the sense of His presence, in order to unite it more closely with Himself.

Understanding what he meant can be a great help to anyone who prays seriously and finds that prayer has become dry and difficult.

The Poem

St John wrote a short poem, On a Dark Night, during or soon after nine months of harsh imprisonment by his own religious brothers in Toledo in 1577–1578. They opposed his work with St Teresa of Ávila to reform the Carmelite order. He escaped by climbing out of a window at night.

The poem describes a soul slipping out of its house on a dark night, unseen, to meet the Beloved, guided only by the light burning in its heart. It ends in loving union.

St John later wrote two long prose commentaries on the poem: The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night. In them, he explained that the “night” is the path by which the soul goes to God.

Why “Night”?

St John explains that the journey to God is a night for three reasons:

The soul must give up its attachment to created things, which feels like darkness to the senses.
The way to God is faith, which is dark to the intellect, because it believes what it cannot see.
God Himself, in His infinite light, is darkness to the soul in this life, as the sun blinds the eye that looks at it.

The night, in other words, is not bad. It is the necessary path to union. “Darkness” is what God’s nearness feels like to a soul that is not yet ready for Him.

Two Nights

St John describes two nights, each with an active side (what we do) and a passive side (what God does in us).

The night of the senses

The first night comes at the transition from beginner to proficient (see What Are the Three Stages of the Spiritual Life?). The beginner has enjoyed consolation in prayer, and has often become attached to it, seeking God’s gifts more than God Himself.

God then withdraws the consolations. Prayer becomes dry. Meditation that once moved the heart becomes impossible. Devotions that once brought joy feel empty.

St John is clear that this is a grace. God is weaning the soul from the “milk” of sensible devotion and leading it to the solid food of contemplation. St John says that many souls enter this night; fewer persevere through it.

The night of the spirit

The second night comes later, for those advancing towards union with God. It is far more intense. The soul feels abandoned by God, overwhelmed by its own wretchedness, and sometimes as though it is being rejected. St John describes it as the soul being purified by the divine light like a log being transformed by fire: first blackened and made to weep its moisture, then finally glowing with the fire’s own heat.

Few people pass through this second night in its full intensity. Those who do emerge into deep union with God.

Three Signs

How can someone tell if their dryness in prayer is the night of the senses, rather than laziness, sin or illness? St John gives three signs that should be present together (Ascent of Mount Carmel II, 13; Dark Night I, 9):

No consolation in the things of God, nor in created things. The person does not turn to other pleasures for comfort.
A painful concern that one is not serving God, and even going backwards. The dryness causes real distress, which shows that the person still cares deeply.
Inability to meditate in the old way, with the imagination and reasoning, despite trying. At the same time, the person feels drawn to remain quietly in God’s presence without particular thoughts.

If dryness comes from lukewarmness, the person usually stops caring. If it comes from the night, the person cares intensely.

What to Do

St John’s advice for those in the night of the senses is surprisingly gentle. Do not force the old kind of meditation. Remain quietly before God in loving attention, without anxiety, even if it seems that nothing is happening. Persevere in prayer, keep the commandments, and trust that God is at work.

He also urges spiritual direction. A wise director can help discern what is happening. St John was sharply critical of directors who pushed souls back into methods they had outgrown.

Not the Same as Depression

Because the phrase is now used so loosely, it is important to distinguish the dark night from clinical depression.

Depression is a medical condition. It often affects sleep, appetite, energy, concentration and the ability to function in daily life, and it may bring thoughts of worthlessness or self-harm. It needs proper medical and psychological care.

The dark night, as St John describes it, is a spiritual reality. It mainly affects prayer and the sense of God, while the person often continues to function, love others and grow in virtue.

The two can overlap, and a person can experience both at once. Anyone who has symptoms of depression should see a doctor, whatever is happening spiritually. Grace does not ask us to neglect our health.

Saints in the Dark

Two modern saints are famous for their long darkness.

St Thérèse of Lisieux spent the last eighteen months of her life, as she was dying of tuberculosis, in a “trial of faith.” Heaven seemed closed to her; she felt the temptations of unbelievers. She kept making acts of faith and love.

St Teresa of Calcutta experienced a sense of God’s absence for nearly fifty years, from shortly after she founded the Missionaries of Charity until her death in 1997. Her private letters, published in 2007 as Come Be My Light, revealed this to the world. She came to understand it as sharing in the thirst of Christ on the Cross and in the darkness of the poor she served.

Neither stopped praying, serving or believing. Their darkness did not diminish their love; if anything, it purified it.

A Night That Leads to Dawn

St John of the Cross is often thought of as a gloomy saint. In fact, he is a poet of love and joy. The dark night is never the destination. It is the way to the dawn of union with God, which he describes in another poem, The Living Flame of Love, as a fire that burns without destroying, wounding the soul only to heal it.

For anyone in the dark, his message is one of hope: God is nearer than you think.