The Unknowing of God

[BarbaraTherese]

The Unknowing of God
Noreen Mackey
This article was first published in Spirituality March/April 2006. See www.dominicanpublications.com

I thought this a good read, although I dont think it completely covers “The Dark Night” if this is what Ms.Mackey is referring to as “the great void”…certainly it is a part of it and a part perhaps commonly experienced.
…Blessings - Barb
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_14_2.gif iHs

noreenmackey.com/writings-The_Unknowing_of_God.html
Portion only of overall text:

When the process of the purification of our idea of God begins to take place, it can be deeply unsettling. This is because, unlike the earlier experience of replacing childhood images of God with adult images, this new process consists in stripping away the adult images without putting anything in their place. We must “unlearn” God; we must “unknow” him.
People often become aware for the first time that this most profound spiritual purification is happening when the word “God” ceases to have any meaning for them.

They look at it on the page before them, and it simply seems wrong. It suggests nothing to them that coincides in any way with what they experience during prayer. In fact, it suggests nothing at all. It is just a rather odd word. The pronoun “he” also seems wrong in relation to this mysterious being, this Holy One, who we can no longer conceive of as masculine, but then so too does the pronoun “she”, for we cannot think of this Entity as feminine either. The neutral word “it” is clearly wrong. Nothing fits anymore. Who or what is it that we are drawn to? Who or what is the Being that we call God? This is the beginning of our unknowing of God, the beginning of the great void that we must face and through which we must travel if we are to come to union with the Most Holy One in this life.