Journey into the Dark Night of the Soul

Oh night thou was my guide

of night more loving than the rising sun

Oh night that joined the lover

to the beloved one

transforming each of them

into the other ...

~St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul 

Have you ever wandered in a rose garden ... and contemplated the rose with its thorns?  For some, the beauty of the rose is unmatched.  As a child I remember the glorious rose bush growing by the front porch.  Every mother's day, my mother cut one of them for each of the two of us and we wore them to church to honor our mothers.   As I consider my own journey of motherhood, it is much like that rose with its thorns, such incredible, deep rose-like beauty it takes my breath away and yet such sudden pricks of the thorns along the way of fear, anger, emptiness ... waiting for a phone call or a text when it has been too long ... letting go.  It simply IS the journey of deep love.  Perhaps we cannot have one without the other in this life we live. 

Remember Mary, mother of Jesus.  Ahhh, Mary ... the deep, exquisite piercing of the thorn in your heart ... tears falling into the dark night ... did you know a simple "yes" would lead you here?

Draw closer and ever closer to the desolation of Christ in the Garden and on the Cross.  "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?," Jesus cries out and my heart shatters.  I find myself being drawn into the depths of Presence, into a place where the rose and the thorn reside together, a beautiful coupling, union with the God who never abandons even if we feel it is so, stillness descends and silence deafens, finding a space of desolation and dark night "remembering." 

I invite you to engage in the way of an adapted "audio/lectio divina" with a youtube video of Loreena Mckennitt's Dark Night of the Soul.

The lyrics of this beautiful song are taken from the mystical writings of the Spanish Carmelite friar, Saint John of the Cross.   Where else would a mystic turn to enter fully into the Presence of Mystery and Darkness of Good Friday?

Take the link to view the images and the words as the music fills the space around you ... Is there an image, word, phrase or melodic line in the music that draws your attention?    Pause for a few moments to let it resonate in your soul ...

If you feel drawn to listen again, just close your eyes and listen.  Allow the music and the words to fill you and draw you deeper inward.  Where are you drawn as this Dark Night of the Soul wraps itself around your soul? 

If you feel drawn to reflection, how is your experience speaking into your life right now?  Is there an invitation here for you?  

If you feel drawn to listen a third time ... How do sense that you will respond to this invitation ... to your life? 

Before moving on ... as the music comes to a close, allow everything ... the images, the words and the music ... to fade into silence ... allow your soul to fade into silence ... rest ... until you sense it is time to move on. 

May you be strengthened in your inner being by this time of contemplation on the Dark Night of the Soul.  May John of the Cross encourage you to trust in the Holy One who is always with you ... even in those moments when you feel you have been abandoned.

Oh night thou was my guide ... 

of night more loving than the rising sun ... 

Oh night that joined the lover .... 

to the beloved one ... 

transforming each of them ... 

into the other.

May you rest deeply within the Presence and allow yourself to be enveloped by Mystery and melancholy as the Dark Night sings in your soul.

Amen.