Mother Teresa's "Crisis of Faith"

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I meant that some people will not think of anything but “dryness” or depression, never both. I know they can be together and it’s part of life. I also know some families that wont look at a remedy for depression in anything but religion and their children or spouses suffer. I am not saying Mother Theresa was depressed, but it is very common and if she was very depressed, (but as many other depressed individuals), was able to do her day to day living, just without the joy, you never know if her dryness would of been lifted somewhat or a lot by some anti-depressants. Just maybe it wasn’t God’s choice alone, but hers too.
Either way, it was an enormous sacrifice on her part and I’m sure she saved a lot of souls then and now.
 
Fr. Dubay has some interesting observations regarding the differences between mental/emotional problems and the dark night. The following comments are drawn from “Fire Within:”

The first comment in each numbered example pertains to mental/emotional problems; the second to the dark night.
Fire Within:
  1. Excessive introspection, self-concern, self-analysis. The person can scarcely get his mind off himself and his problem. Advice does little to remedy this trait, at least at first.
Dark Night - Little or no introspection once the condition is adequately explained. Little awareness of the problem aside from prayer time.
  1. Unrealism. The depressed person’s situation is not as dismal and hopeless as he considers it (when the problem is depression). The moral case is not as the scrupulous person thinks, nor one’s worth as the person with a weak self-image supposes.
Dark Night - The pains of the dark night are objectively well founded: we are very imperfect, and we need exactly what is happening. The situation is a realistic as a laundry washing machine operation and what it is doing for the soiled clothes.
  1. Depression. The person with a mental problem often suffers from clinical depression more or or less severe.
Dark Night - There is no depression at all. At work, play, meals, the person is as cheerful as at any other period in the spiritual life.
  1. Many mental problems are difficult to heal; years of therapy may be needed, and even then progress may be only partial.
Dark Night - A competent explanation clears up the anxiety occasioned by the first night (night of sense). Therapy is not needed in either night, even if the second (night of spirit) must run its course – just as a washing machine must complete its cycles.
  1. Chronic fatique and/or insomnia often accompany the emotional disturbance.
Dark Night - No Problem at all.
  1. Fixing of attention on studying, reading or a lecture can be impossible.
Dark Night - Attention at prayer can be difficult and at times impossible, but there is no attention problem in the rest of life.
  1. Mental/emotional problems do not of themselves promote virtue or increase depth of relationship with God.
Dark Night - The two nights do of themselves greatly increase love, humility, patience and the like, and they decidedly prepare one for deeper prayer.
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Fr. Dubay concludes by saying: “It can happen that a person with some emotional problem may at the same time be going through contemplative purification, and it may be difficult in a given case to sort one out from the other. But all the same, the two phenomena are very different and distinct both in their causes and in their effects.”

Dave
 
I feared that this article would get distorted and that people would misunderstand the issue.
Jim
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I am afraid so too. Not only the secular will not understand, for many Protestants and Catholics, they probably will not understand the “dryness” and “dark night” either.

Actually, some Catholics I talked to have never heard of “dark night” before. They don’t know what I am talking about. They will think “Mother Teresa has doubt of her faith.” That’s it.:confused:
 
. . . a quick point of clarification regarding the context of Fr. Dubay’s comments contrasting mental/emotional problems with the dark night.

Fr. Dubay was explaining the most common ways to mis-diagnois the dark night:
  1. Depression - The soul experiencing the dark night is in no way depressed. These individuals are fully functioning in all aspects of their life with the exception of prayer. Outside of one’s confessor or spiritual director, nobody else would probably even know anything out of the ordinary was going on.
  2. External trials - While severe trials like the loss of a loved one or job might accompany the dark night; they are not of themselves the night.
  3. As stated previously in this thread, the dark night can only be understood in the context of contemplative prayer. It is the experience of a profound sense of “absence” from He whom one’s entire life is given. All else that might accompany the night is secondary to this central point.
The example of Mother Teresa should be viewed in the light of these points.

Dave.
 
That was a good article but many depressed people, you would never know they were depressed, they where a “mask” everyday and function, going to work daily, etc. They hide it as she said she did. One statement he made stated that people that are depressed, don’t laugh, go out, etc. That is someone that doesn’t understand depression and all the levels at all.
Some famous people have come out to say how they suffered for years under the guise of being fine. Some were on TV everyday, going around the world reporting, some were actors (which helped) some were everyday moms and dads. I knew somene that did that seemed to have a full, happy, life, very busy, but later revealed she hardly ever felt a thing of joy. She also mentioned the mask, hiding the fact she felt so alone, no connection and joy to God or anyone beyond the superficial.Depressed people are not always turned in toward themselves, many are active, but just feel “blah”.
Mother Theresa wanted or did if I read correctly stop praying at some point, but then did it in a “rote” way because she knew she should. She wouldn’t be human if she didn’t doubt. I know God if she was in a “dark night’ most of her life had good reasons, but I just wanted to cry when I heard she walked this earth for so many years, seeing her nuns laughing, getting joy and didn’t feel a thing. I hope it wasn’t clinical, because then it would be a huge shame, but just because she was"Mother Theresa” doesn’t mean she couldn’t of had an emotional problem, she’s human like all the other saints.

I also cringed at the thought of some using her PRIVATE letters for fodder for a “Godless world”, but that is the price you have to pray for allowing others to read them. It will probably help more than hurt (I hope) but hiding something like that doesn’t seem wise either.It does bring too much attention to HER not God, but it doesn’t leave you with an untrue image of her that many others thought was close to perfect. That she wouldn’t of wanted either.
 
Hi Debraran 🙂

Believe me, I know where you’re coming from. There’s been more than our fair share of depression in my family (severe at that) so I recognize the things you are saying 🙂

To Fr. Dubay’s defense, all he was trying to say is that depression and external trials are the two most common ways people are often mis-diagnosed as having the dark night. In fact I see those very type of probable mis-diagnosis’ right here on these forums from time to time. 🙂 Superficially, appearances might be similar but cause and effect are very, very different.

True, Mother Teresa exhibited some of the tendencies you mentioned. But if we look at the “effects” of her life all I can see is heroic virtue of the highest order. Super-human virtue in the face of the profound darkness, temptation and doubts she experienced on a daily basis for most of her adult life had to have as its “cause” infused, supernatural contemplation. At least that’s how I see it. If there turns out to be elements of depression and other natural explanations in her case then so be it. But my guess is that those type of influences will always be secondary to the infused dark night that propelled her to the heights of perfection.

My very best to you, Debraran 🙂
Dave
 
Thanks Dave, you too. Can you imagine the joy of her entering heaven though…makes me tingle!
 
**A book of possible interest is The Dark Night of the Soul: A
Psychiatrist Explores the Connection between Darkness and Spiritual Growth (2003) by the late Gerald G. May, M.D.
He quotes heavily from the poetry and prose of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.
**
 
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