September 19, 2005  

"Dark Night of the Spirit, Part II"

So the purpose of the Night of the Spirit is union.  No matter how long the surgery takes, the purpose of the surgery is union.  The soul has already experienced some of this union, so it's not like the soul is in this deep, dark Night, not having any idea of union.  The soul has already received touches of it through contemplative experiences in the Illuminative Way.

John of the Cross tells us if the soul weakens and gives up, the action of the Night can stop and the person may never pass through.  Isn't it sad that this happens?  Evidently, it happened quite frequently in his day.  One of the reasons was that there were so few spiritual directors.  I think this is the cry of the Church today.  There are still so few spiritual directors - people to help us on the way.  I know it is one of the cries right here.  There are so few spiritual directors.  Jesus told His disciples, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest" (Mt 9:37-38). 

A director needs to know God and the movement of God.  One of the big mistakes a spiritual director can make is if the directee is having an experience that the director has not had, the director may say, "That's not God" simply because they haven't had that experience.  John of the Cross said that this can be very fatal to their spiritual development.  So we have to teach people how to direct and even learn the things that God is doing in souls, so that even if the director hasn't had that particular experience, he will be able to discern the movement of the Holy Spirit.  Without spiritual direction, many souls can turn back.

In this Dark Night of the Spirit, your prayer will be very focused on the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus, and you'll gain strength from that.  You'll gain tremendous healing from that.  You'll begin to see the suffering of Jesus Christ crucified and His tremendous love.  You'll be able to literally "hang in there" because He did it first, and phenomenal graces will come to you from the Cross.  The mystery of the Cross and of suffering, to come higher, friends, will be broken open.  It will be broken open!

Excerpt from Mother Nadine's "New Spirit,"  Omaha, NE, 2004.