Mother Theresa's dark night

[undeserving]

the big religion “news” , was an excerpt from and analysis of Mother Teresa’s decades-long dark night of the soul, described in a new book, to be published by Doubleday next month called Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. The book has been reviewed rereasonably well by the Times(link)ttp://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html
“what it shows us is Mother Teresa as a classic Christian mystic whose inner life was burned through by the fire of charity, and whose fidelity was tested and purified by an intense trial of faith, a true dark night of the soul. the missionary foundress who called herself “God’s pencil” was not the God-intoxicated saint many of us had assumed her to be. We may prefer to think that she spent her days in a state of ecstatic mystical union with God, because that would get us ordinary worldlings off the hook. How else could this unremarkable woman, no different from the rest of us, bear to throw her lot in with the poorest of the poor, sharing their meager diet and rough clothing, wiping leprous sores and enduring the agonies of the dying, for so many years without respite, unless she were somehow lifted above it all, shielded by spiritual endorphins? Yet we have her own testimony that what made her self-negating work possible was not a subjective experience of ecstasy but an objective relationship to God shorn of the sensible awareness of God’s presence.”
I always thought Mother Theresa a Saint, I am convinced of it now. All the great mystics suffered spiritual trials, when they could not feel His presence yet chose to continue believing and praying. This gives ordinary persons like me hope…

 

[HenryV]

Spiritual consolation is for beginners, God wants to be loved for who He is not for what He gives.
Really generous souls like St Therese of the Child Jesus and Mother Teresa still loved God for who He is without sensible consolations.

 

[Ahimsa]

Something from the Islamic tradition might be appropriate here:

All night, a man called “Allah”
Until his lips were bleeding.
Then the Devil said, “Hey! Mr Gullible!
How comes you’ve been calling all night
And never once heard Allah say, “Here, I am”?
You call out so earnestly and, in reply, what?
I’ll tell you what. Nothing!”
The man suddenly felt empty and abandoned.
Depressed, he threw himself on the ground
And fell into a deep sleep.
In a dream, he met Abraham, who asked,
“Why are you regretting praising Allah?”
The man said, “ I called and called
But Allah never replied, “Here I am.”
Abraham explained, “Allah has said,
“Your calling my name is My reply.
Your longing for Me is My message to you.
All your attempts to reach Me
Are in reality My attempts to reach you.
Your fear and love are a noose to catch Me.
In the silence surrounding every call of “Allah”
Waits a thousand replies of “Here I am.”
-- [Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi](http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/wisdom/here) (Rumi)

 

[whatevergirl]

What’s interesting about this, is that (his name escapes me) but there is a critic out there being talked about on Relevant Radio this morning (yay-it came in for me today during my drive to work!) that he totally misconstrues what Mother Teresa was going through. He is a very combative, if you will, atheist…who will stop at nothing to make the RCC look stupid…and anyone who follows God, foolish. I think that at times when I have become discouraged…or down, it’s such an inspiration to know that a saint felt the very same things I go through…we all go through.

 

[4HisChurch]

Something from the Islamic tradition might be appropriate here:

All night, a man called “Allah”
Until his lips were bleeding.
Then the Devil said, “Hey! Mr Gullible!
How comes you’ve been calling all night
And never once heard Allah say, “Here, I am”?
You call out so earnestly and, in reply, what?
I’ll tell you what. Nothing!”
The man suddenly felt empty and abandoned.
Depressed, he threw himself on the ground
And fell into a deep sleep.
In a dream, he met Abraham, who asked,
“Why are you regretting praising Allah?”
The man said, “ I called and called
But Allah never replied, “Here I am.”
Abraham explained, “Allah has said,
“Your calling my name is My reply.
Your longing for Me is My message to you.
All your attempts to reach Me
Are in reality My attempts to reach you.
Your fear and love are a noose to catch Me.
In the silence surrounding every call of “Allah”
Waits a thousand replies of “Here I am.”

              -- [Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi](http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/wisdom/here) (Rumi)

That’s a beautiful illustration of what Catholics call “the dark night of the soul.”