What Is A "Dark Night Of The Soul"? Suffering In Love

"One dark night, 

fired with love's urgent longings 

-- ah, the sheer grace! -- 

I went out unseen, 

my house being now all stilled."  

(St. John of the Cross, the mid-1500's)

One aspect of the "the dark night of the soul" can be described as that time in a person's life when God wants to draw him/her closer to Himself and that person has either no desire for God and resists His wooing or that person hears God's call and follows. 

When The Lover calls, the Beloved at first is overwhelmed with unconditional love and may resist, but when at last giving in to the call, the Beloved realizes one has a decision to make, another "dark night," as it were. One must either leave the current state (mind, heart) and steal away "fired with love's urgent longings" or remain in the dark night of separation from God. 

The night is also dark because the soul is being led by God into a "night" of uncertainty, of taking The Beloved away from everything he or she once knew . . . a night of pain, of second-guessing, or tears, of dying. Again, a "night" of decision. The Beloved overshadows with grace if only the Beloved would accept it . . . 

. . . and in John's poem, grace is accepted and The Beloved goes to meet The Lover on a dark night, fired by love, sneaking out of the house . . . 

Listen: