The dark night is not an abstract notion on some list of spiritual experiences every seeker is supposed to have. The dark night descends on a soul only when everything else has failed. When you are no longer the best meditator in the class because your meditation produces absolutely nothing. When prayer evaporates on your tongue and you have nothing left to say to God. When you are not even tempted to return to a life of worldly pleasure because the world has proven empty and yet taking another step through the void of the spiritual life feels futile because you are no good at it and it seems that God has given up on you, anyway.
This, says John, is the beginning of blessedness. This is the choiceless choice when the soul can do nothing but surrender.
This is me. Surrender to What? And what does surrender look like?
When the darkness beset and imagination abandoned and no muscle twitched to wrestle the Angel of the Lord... I was left limp... at the foot of the Cross... surrendered... eventually revived, blessed by His unfailing Love.
Surrender: For me, it's when I am finally still and quiet and open, when I relinquish all thought and feeling and intellect, and simply wait and trust in Him.
I appreciate the defining of this Experience. It is never one I have had. It is not one I think I want to have..."when everything has failed."
I hear the questions of the Visitor. I appreciate the honesty. I remember you in my prayerful thoughts today.
Sonya, thanks for these images.
So true, so very true.
What a comfort this reminder is...when the prospect itself, wavering on the rim of uncertainty, is often terrifying.
to surrender...is to listen. to be. to wait. as long as it takes.
This is my heart… this is how I feel and I get almost angry.. but I don’t know who to be angry with. I give up on being anything not knowing who or what I really am… Surrender to whom? God? What can you surrender if you feel empty?
Jackie-
You are actually in a very good "spiritual place".
This "poverty of Spirit" that you speak of can be very uncomfortable and even painful but yes, Surrendering it to God and inviting HIM into your "Emptimess" will bear much Fruit in time - God's timing that is. Keep the FAITH!
God BLess,
margaret rose
This takes me back to the reflection of "Where Is God?" in which the "Unbreakable" breaks through to that which is "breakable" only "after everything else is torn away" and there remains no desire at all to "count the things that break along the way".
Indirectly related to this also is the last reflection of "Trust the Stream" - "FAITH is Trusting in the Flow...and being carried beyond all existing boundries". A clear picture comes to mind here of a pre-born child immersed in the amniotic fluid that surrounds its entire being - "...we simply reach out and take the GIFT. Its an effortless way of Living". The pre-born child is "attuned to this effortlessness". We begin LIFE "Trusting in THE Stream". "FAITH is being excited about the final destination, even when the destination is Mystery".
"The Beginning of BLessedness - the Choiceless Choice when the Soul can do nothing but Surrender"!
For some reason some of these last few "sermons" have really spoken to my experinece of late. For the person who asked surrender to what, I can only say for me it was surrender to the idea that we have it all figured out, have the answer, are untouchable, infallible etc. Surrender to plain faith. That's kind of broad but sometimes when life may not be "working" you reach a point where Gordon Crosby was talking about where you think about jumping in with the stream and you try going WITH the flow, even if it seems strange, weird, anxiety provoking ot whatever. I don't think I have it all worked out buit I am starting to "get" the idea of going with the flow, surrendering, whatever you want to call it!!
I surrender Lord, use me.
Camellia-
Simply Beautiful, Beautifully simple!
God BLess,
margaret rose
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