Sooner or later, there is nothing left to do but give up. And that is precisely the point, the purpose of the “dizzy spirit.” In each relinquishment, the person’s faculties are further emptied and sensitized and, more important, reliance upon God is deepened. John says God sends this “abominable spirit” not for the soul’s downfall, but to help prep

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The Dark Night of the Soul ( La noche oscura del alma ) is a phase of passive purification of the spirit in the mystical development, as described by the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross in his treatise Dark Night ( Noche Oscura ), a commentary on his poem with the same name. It follows after the second phase, the illumina... See more