In my opinion, this excerpt from the article is very helpful (Thanks MS7): Perhaps a few brief remarks would be helpful regarding how to distinguish these states. John of the Cross teaches that both dark nights (the dark night of the senses and the dark night of the spirit) are the result of God’s increasing self-communication to the person, which purifies the soul first of sensory and then of spiritual attachments. Such a state may feel like darkness to the person, but objectively it is an intensification of divine light in the soul. Although a sense of loss is common to both depression and the dark nights, the sense of loss is manifested differently. Depression involves the loss of ordinary abilities to function mentally and physically, and it can also be triggered by interpersonal loss, loss of a job, etc. The interior dryness of the dark night of the senses involves a loss of pleasure in the things of God and in some created things. However, it does not involve disturbed mood, loss of energy (with cognitive or motor slowing), or diminished sexual appetite – all of which are seen commonly in depression. Persons in the dark night of the senses have trouble applying their mental faculties to the practice of prayer and meditation, but do not typically have difficulty concentrating or making decisions in other areas of life. Think of Mother Theresa, who was extraordinarily effective exteriorly even while enduring dark nights interiorly. With the dark night of the spirit there is an acute awareness of one’s own unworthiness before God, of one’s personal defects and moral imperfections, and of the great abyss between oneself and God. However, a person in this state does not experience morbid thoughts of excessive guilt, self-loathing, feelings of utter worthlessness, or suicidal thoughts – all of which are commonly experienced during a depressive episode. Furthermore, neither of the two darks nights involve changes in appetite, sleep disturbances, weight changes, or other physical symptoms (like gastrointestinal problems or chronic pain) that often accompany depression. Safe in the Flames of the Sacred Heart!
Sometimes I am led to a Scripture that speaks to my heart about the dark nights. My latest is spoken by Job: Job 23:2 Today also my complaint is bitter, his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. 3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat... 8 "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; 9 on the left hand I seek him, but I cannot behold him; I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him. 10 He knows the way that I take...13 But he is unchangeable and who can turn him? What he desires, that he does. 14 For he will complete what he appoints for me; and many such things are in his mind.
Mario, I have spent many years on mountains and valleys. (I know most people do), but I grew up with a lot of addiction in my family and it has tempered me into what and who I am. I have kept journals since I was 11 years old and I've been dictating them into the computer to print out into one book instead of 15 books. At 53, that is a lot of writing. I spent from 2pm to 12:20 tonight dictating and typing them into the computer and five minutes ago I pressed a button and all my work disappeared. Luckily, the four years I dictated yesterday is still there, but OH MY GOSH I AM ABOUT TO SCREAM! I have literally sat here by myself all day at my computer laughing and crying about the past and some serious events and beautiful events and tragic events etc. I now have to do it again tomorrow! All because I failed to push the damn button to save. God have mercy!! Anyway...in journaling you usually end up doing it when you are happy, happy about something or sad/desperate/angry about something. So, its a roller coaster ride! But I DO SEE that God was with me through it all. Every single step! Why do we have such a hard time remembering? Why do we forget so easily our blessings? I want to name my hills and valleys. This is valley # 8622 and Hill # 8623...lol It sucks, but it is real and whether it was hormones, bad genes, bad marriage, bad people in our lives, wayward children or poor self esteem or bad doctors or lawyers....its all trials. Thankfully, I wrote about all the great miracles and the awesome journey I have had with God also. That makes the writing worthwhile to read. If it were all bad, why write and read it?? Oh, I wish I drank. I would go have a long stiff one. Uggg.
Oh no MS 7 that is terrible. I have started posting a prayer journal on my ipad and I don't always remember to back it up to my computer so this is a good reminder. And thank you for the article about the dark night versus depression. Sometimes when God is silent and I am in desolation I wonder about depression and the article describes well the symptoms of clinical depression which thankfully I am not in though I have experience with it with my loved ones.
I use the pages app on my ipad- I just type into it as the Spirit moves me. Sometimes it is something I believe the Lord is telling me, sometimes it is an inspiration I have during Mass or praying the Rosary or in mental prayer during Adoration, sometimes it is a Bible passage that hits me or a song on K Love that is speaking to me. Or my own prayers as they hit me or even my examination of conscience for the day. It is just for me but it has really helped my walk with the Lord. I email the journal to myself weekly and keep it in a folder on my computer.
The Dark Night is the strangest thing. I have to say you could read about it till your eye balls fell out fell out, but unless you actually go through it I don't think you could understand it. I suspect it is a little bit like marriage, read about it all you like but until you go through it.
Wow Ms7 - this really struck a chord with me. I confess to being an inherently fatally flawed individual because addiction runs in my family too and I have the genes. This is not to excuse the sin in my life as I a culpable. But I have tried so hard to overcome certain tendencies and they keep coming back whacking me on the face. Here is how I feel in a nutshell Romans 7: 15 I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. At times I am close to despair over these weaknesses because I am not yet at the point where St Paul was with regard to his weaknesses. 2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. But there is one truth. Everytime I fall I get up. So, so many times I have lost count. And He has forgiven me 777 X7.
The Dark Night always reminds me of the ancient Green legend of Icarus. Icarus made wings from feathers and wax, but flew too close to the sun , the wax melted and he fell to Earth. In the Dark Night we fly so close to the sun of Gods love that the sun actually becomes dark. A bit like computer overload. I used to think the Dark Night ends. Well it does and it doesn't really what happens is the Dark becomes luminescent so we become like little owls that see in the Dark. It is hard to explain...
But I will say this, I suffered some terrible things in my life but nothing the least compares with the Dark Night. Which sounds terrible. But there is always the paradox that hanging on the Cross has a deep dark well of intense joy, but very,very deep. You are never closer to Christ than lying with Him on the Cross.
I love your analogy, Padraig; may I one day come up with my own. It reminds me of a true story. Back around 1980 after Holy Mass, Fr. John Fenlon's prayer team would often pray over any seeking healing in their lives. A young mother with cancer , Christine, came to be prayed over. In His mercy the cancer disappeared! However, a year later she returned to be prayed over again because the cancer had reappeared; again the cancer went into remission! Two years passed and it aggressively returned. Christine eventually was hospitalized and shared a room with a woman who had a brain tumor. Christine was a shiny example of joy and peace, so her roommate asked why. That night, Christine urged the woman to turn to Jesus and confidently pray for a healing. The next day, Christine died, but her roommate returned home that week cancer free! Christine's dark night could not dim the light of God. It only seemed to shine more brightly! Thank you, Jesus! Alleluia! Forward in the Flames of the Sacred Heart!
I think the difference is between having faith or not having faith. Before my conversion I suffered depression a few times. It runs in my family. After my conversion about 9 months later I went into a dark night and it was really different than depression or grief or any such thing. It was totally focused on God rather than on myself or the state of my life. Also, although painful, it was a deep yearning, but hope was always there. At least I felt that I would be given mercy and that it would end at some point. But nothing satisfied, nothing on this earth was in the least attractive to me, including food, home, gardening, my music or hobbies. All I wanted was union with God and it seemed lost to me forever. Anyway after some help I realized that my constant "yearning" for God was in itself a deep prayer and stopped worrying about it so much. St John of the Cross really helped and St Teresa of Avila's writings. Once I stopped worrying and accepted it as part of God's will I things got easier.
Yes, Padraig, I think the yearning carries us, and this dry perseverance bears much fruit in the long run. Safe in the Father's Arms!
The comparison between the Dark Night and Clinical Depression is such an interesting one. My very first thoughts on entering the Dark Night were; A) That I had entered a pathological State ( probably Depression). or B) That I was imagining the whole thing. of that C) God had somehow been rejected by God for some unknown sin(s) Or that it was some unholy brew, a cocktail of all three. I think it is a very healthy thing when confronted by any mystical phenomena (either of oneself or others) to look for human origins first rather than supernatural. Not to walk by the obvious rather than to at once look to what may indeed be the fanciful. Clinical Depression seems on the face of it to be a very obvious place to hang one coat. I think my interest in this was one of the reasons why I did a Psychology degree and read widely on the subject. Psychology being a wonderful door of approach to the mystical understanding. The key to understanding the difference between the two state, clinical depression and the Dark Night lies I believe in our understanding of what they actually are. Depression being a pathological state, of disease of the negative of going backwards so to speak. The Dark Night , quite the contrary being about growth , about progress, about going forward, about increased health. This although on the very surface of things they appear to share a very common range of symptoms or signs they have a very different prognosis. A very good example of the confusion the two can cause lies in the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the reaction of the press to the fact that for most of her life the saint went through the Dark Night. The media at once (having no understanding at all of matters mystical) mistakenly jumped on this as being pathological. What then might be a good key to distinguishing the one from the other. I believe psychology itself might provide the a great key in distinguishing the two and telling them apart. In pathological sates psychiatrists hone in on functionality. Matters such as, can the person go t o work, can they have sex, can they maintain personal hygiene and so on. With Mother Teresa we see an example of perfect functionality. she not only, for instance did her job but did so with a passion. She was not only perfectly functional but functional in the highest way. Its rather like listening to the ticking over of the engine of an automobile. Like a good mechanic we ask ourselves if the engine is firing on all four cylinders? If it is things are fine, if the cylinders are missing a beat we know there is a problem. So we can apply functionality to the Dark Night. Id the person missing work? Are they relating well to others? Are there any bizarre non functional episodes? Are the maintaining personal hygiene?..and so one.... Well anyway that is one of me pet theories I like to share. I hope you find this helpful. View attachment 2262
