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dloved
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Has anyone else experienced this?..It is excruciating. Like a veil of darkness. not just aridity but anxiety provoking painfull absence of God…St Faustina, St John, Mother Teresa kind…anyone?
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Lindy_Loo
Guest
Yes, but many, many Rosaries later it has passed. I prayed when I didn’t want to, when I failed to see any efficacy in my efforts. Ever so gradually my doubts and confusion cleared. But I think it is different for everyone. When you reach the point that you only know one thing to do (in my case praying the Rosary) then do that. That one thing may be very different for different people. 
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Dorothy
Guest
During those times we need to continue praying, and telling Him we love him, without regard to our feelings, but focusing on Him. That is how we prove we really love Him, and grow spiritually. God knows when to let up.
Here are some excellent MP’s of conferences given by Father Venard Poslusney, O.Carm. on the subject of the Dark Night of the Soul.
advancedchristianity.com/Pages/Poslusney/Poslusney_Soul.htm
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Arizona_Fat_Gir
Guest
Just because an individual experiences the Dark Night of the Soul doesn’t make him or her a saint. God doesn’t always care how we feel. He just says to grow up. That is what He told me on a few occasions.
One day I sat on a highway going nowhere. The traffic edged along, and I finally had it. I corked off and parked on the side of the road. I said to God “It’s my birthday today and this has to happen.” I got the answer “Yes, it’s your birthday, so grow up.”
I complained to Him about an insurance claim that wasn’t being paid and all He said in response was, “well, what do you want Me to do? Beat them up?”
That struck me as very funny. Sometimes you just want to smack someone upside the head!
One day I sat on a highway going nowhere. The traffic edged along, and I finally had it. I corked off and parked on the side of the road. I said to God “It’s my birthday today and this has to happen.” I got the answer “Yes, it’s your birthday, so grow up.”
I complained to Him about an insurance claim that wasn’t being paid and all He said in response was, “well, what do you want Me to do? Beat them up?”
That struck me as very funny. Sometimes you just want to smack someone upside the head!
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newcalling
Guest
Most definitely. Decades before I became Catholic. I left Christianity and doubted everything. I could no longer feel God, and it was painfully empty. It took me a long time to work through it, and I don’t think that it completely healed until my confirmation into the Roman Catholic church.
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petra22
Guest
God does answer!
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petra22
Guest
wonderful!
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Belshazzar
Guest
I’ve experienced spiritual dryness, certainly. But not the total purgation of the soul which bids me to know and do the will of God at all times. I have a long way to go yet.
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Belshazzar
Guest
Thank you for this post. Very amusing.
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GEddie
Guest
Not everybody gets the full-on DNS, and only a priest can fully diagnose it.
ICXC NIKA
ICXC NIKA
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houston1
Guest
Yes, I am certain that I have endured this…the passive purification of spirit as described by St. John of the Cross in his Dark Night of the Soul. For me, it was the wanting with no ability of having without the intervention of God who remained silent. Yet, as I discovered a few years later, it was He who stirred within me to take steps into the direction that I may have…entailing personal risk, repeated disappointment, and again trying again so that I may have. Although I have yet to attain full possession of what I desire, I am even more certain that it will come…even in this life. Hope does not disappoint (Romans 5:5). Neither does it for you.
houston1
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UpUpAndAway
Guest
I’m inclined to agree with this. The few people I know who have experienced (or are currently experiencing) DNS knew they were in it by discussing the matter with a priest and made it through (or are in the process of making it through) with the guidance of a spiritual director. I cannot imaging trying to deal with DNS alone. :nope: It is extremely taxing.
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fisherman_carl
Guest
I have experienced something like what you are describing. I have also experience chronic pain and suffering (still do). Don’t know if it is called the ‘Dark Knight of the Soul’ or not. I haven’t read that book. I do know a lot of Christians throw around that term. We are all at different stages of our journey. And, we are not all the same. However, I have found that God can use pain and suffering in our lives to shape us and that he can make us into diamonds which are formed under pressure.
The Christians in the early 300s experienced a great persecution from the Romans. At first many Christians fell away and burned incense to the pagan gods, because they feared for their lives. And, what was left was the diamonds in the Church who would not back down from their faith and they were martyred. They were willing to die for their faith, suffering horrible and painful deaths. People would be strung to trees that had been bent and then allowed to return to their natural positions tearing asunder any limbs attached to them. People were crucified upside down and sometimes kept alive for days to prolong their agony. There were many such tortures these Christians had to endure because of their faith. It was the greatest persecution of Christians ever. It makes me feel like anything I have to complain about is nothing in comparison.
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Robert_Sock
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dloved
Guest
Thank you everyone for the encouragement…I experienced the first dark night about 13 years ago… It was terrible. I was so lost… so much so my husband said he would miss me if I died… and it took about 3 years. Much prayer, rosaries, mass, priest as spiritual director, Christian counselor, Christian music… Then I enjoyed His Presence like no other time in my life. It was such a beautiful relationship…Then about a month ago I lay crying dealing with abandonment issues and rejection and I asked God to comfort me…I couldn’t feel Him…I stuck out my hand in trust but still could feel no comfort, hear no comfort…and heaven has been silent ever since…even though I pray and pray and pray and cry out in longing…This time I am able to function only by obedience and hope. I don’t dare tell my family. They just wouldn’t understand…only someone who has experienced it would… I understand there are 2 nights? I hope this is the second and I am not lost… faith and love seem distant but I cling to His Word He promised never to let me go and I have been reading Mother Teresa and it feels just like that I am sorry to say…I am no saint…I only have desired Him so very much and I don’t know why when I need Him most He is silent. When I need comfort I cant feel nor hear… its like a veil…I just keep crying out and trust He is there though I hear and sense Him not and will answer, become manifest soon…I have seen a priest and spiritual director once last week and will continue to and have continued to use Christian music and Eucharist and mass…Please pray for me brothers and sisters…separation is so very painful…I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. not even an enemy…The veil of darkness is excruciating and its not just a “hard time” people go through. This is an experience of absence or loss of the One whom you love…or ( perceived loss, as I hope to the Holy Trinity I am safe in His arms though I sense and hear Him not)…D
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Robert_Sock
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PSALM 42
1 For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites.
2 As the deer longs for streams of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
3 My soul thirsts for God, the living God.
When can I enter and see the face of God?
4 My tears have been my bread day and night,
as they ask me every day, “Where is your God?”
5 Those times I recall
as I pour out my soul,
When I would cross over to the shrine of the Mighty One,
to the house of God,
Amid loud cries of thanksgiving,
with the multitude keeping festival.
6 Why are you downcast, my soul;
why do you groan within me?
Wait for God, for I shall again praise him,
my savior and my God.
7 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I remember you
From the land of the Jordan and Hermon,
from Mount Mizar,
8 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your torrents,
and all your waves and breakers
sweep over me.
9 By day may the LORD send his mercy,
and by night may his righteousness be with me!
I will pray to the God of my life,
10 I will say to God, my rock:
“Why do you forget me?
Why must I go about mourning
with the enemy oppressing me?”
11 It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me,
when they say to me every day: “Where is your God?”
12 Why are you downcast, my soul,
why do you groan within me?
Wait for God, for I shall again praise him,
my savior and my God.
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dloved
Guest
Its not that I don’t want to share it with my family…or feel I underestimate them, I don’t truly understand it myself… Its a darkness, a veil, that I cannot “see” was blind but now I see now I am blind again…“neither with my mind nor my reason.” The contradiction of longing, yearning for God and trusting He is there but He is not there…silent and “place in my soul where God is, seems blank” … I feel that at some aspect I have to be like Mary and keep this burden to myself and protect them as well. “keep these things hidden in her heart.” I feel such that I make hut God so much by this but I feel like I cannot help it… I don’t ever want to hurt my Father, Savior and lover of my soul the Holy Spirit, yet I long…I weep with the yearning for His touch, His voice…I cannot “see” nor “hear”…no matter how hard I try or pray… I also don’t just want to 'live ’ either…I’d rather live yearning than live not feeling anything. Like a walking dead… I want Him back so very much! I MISS HIM…I get brief glimpses or flashes but then…nothing. I praise for the moment but in that moment He is gone…I sing praises for He inhabits the praises of His people… yet I experience nothing but more longing…Such growth I pray from this. How can it be sweeter than the result of the first dark night so many years ago? How can this be good? If it bring Him closer to me or me to Him then that is my only hope…yet how is experience, separation, again, going to do that? How long? Oh that I learn quickly and not prevent Him from working this in me as soon as possible. That I do not cause a delay…It is so very painful yet again, that I not just live…I want to live on FIRE for God or not at all…That fire is what I pray for, restoration and renewal…
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dloved
Guest
Thank you Robert. I will meditate on this Psalm today. I have been reading them but this one I choose today. Thank you.
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petra22
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God Bless you for your faithfulness…!
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dloved
Guest
May God renew the joy of my salvation
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