Dark Night

St. John of the Cross is speaking to my deepest heart this week.

I've been reading his Dark Night of the Soul, which, in just a few short lines, illuminates the sealing of the senses and passage from communion to union with the Beloved. But, there's so much more to what St Theresa of Avila called "the most angelic human being I have ever encountered". Such a powerful soul, he endured the torture of his own brethren beyond limits any mortal could endure: kept in dark and wet solitary confinement, beaten by other priests to the extent that he became permanently crippled, developed acute dysentery, not given a change of clothes nor allowed to wash for months at a time. Yet within this betrayal he managed to open his heart further to the Beloved, and pen some of his most enduring works:

"I am dying of love darling, what should I do?"

And the Beloved responded,

"Then die my sweetheart – just die. Die to all that is not us; what could be more beautiful?"