CHAPTER XXV.

In which the third stanza is briefly explained.
In that happy night ,
In secret, seen of none.
Seeing nought myself ,
Without other light or guide
Save that which in my heart was burning.
The soul still continues the metaphor of natural night in celebrating and magnifying the blessings of the night of the spirit, by means of which it has been able quickly and securely to compass the desired end. Three of these blessings are set before us in this stanza.
2 . The first is that in this blessed night of con- templation God is guiding the soul by a road so solitary and so secret, so remote and alien from sense, that nothing belonging thereto, nor any created thing, can approach it so as to disturb it or detain it on the road of the union of love.
3. The second blessing is that because of the spiritual darkness of this night, in which all the faculties
* Cant. iii. 1.
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THE DARK NIGHT
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[BOOK II.
of the higher part of the soul are in darkness, the soul, seeing nothing, and unable to see, is not detained by anything which is not God from drawing near unto Him, and, therefore, advances unhindered by forms and figures and natural apprehensions : for these are the things which usually hinder the soul, from being always in union with God.
4. The third blessing is, that though the soul is supported by no particular interior light of the under- standing, nor by any exterior guide comforting it on this high road — the thick darkness has deprived it of all this — yet love and faith, now burning within it, drawing the heart towards the Beloved, influence and guide it, and make it fly upwards to God along the road of solitude, while it knows neither how nor by what means that is done.
END OF THE DARK NIGHT.
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INDEX.
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INDEX.]
OF THE SOUL.
185
INDEX.
Angels, the ministry of, 119.
Anger, imperfections of, 21.
Aridity, the purgative, 35 ; cause of, 36 ; benefit of, 59, 62, 86. Attachment to trifles, 14.
Avarice, spiritual, 13 ; imperfections of, 13, 5 7.
Beginners, state of, 5 ; weak in virtue, 7 ; subject to pride, 8 ; im- perfections of, 9 ; readiness of, to teach others, 12 ; childishness of, 12 ; impatience of, 22 ; disobedient to their directors, 23 delusions of, in the matter of prayer, 26.
Blasphemy, spirit of, 65.
Blessedness, 118.
Blessings, three, of the spiritual night, 18 1.
Burning of the soul, 109, 114 ; effects of, 116 ; not always felt, 12 1. Charity, robe of, 166 ; effects of, 168.
Contemplation, commencement of, 37 ; effects of, 40, 76, 78, 80, 86, 122, 138 ; not granted to all spiritual persons, 119 ; nature of, 44 ; dark night of, 69 ; a ray of darkness, 80, 1 39 ; painfulness of, 80 ; light of, 100, 101 ; secret, 146 ; called a ladder, 151. Devotion, sensible, 22-27.
Dionysius, St., 80.
Disguise of the soul, 162.
Disturbances, caused by the evil spirit, 173.
Ecstasies, source of, 70.
Egypt, fleshpots of, 101.
Envy, holy, 27.
Escape of the soul, 131.
Faith, robe of, 164 ; effects of, 167.
Fear of God, 59, 73.
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[INDEX.
Fervour of Beginners, io.
Fire of contemplation, 108.
Friendship, spiritual, 19.
Giddiness, spirit of, 65.
Gluttony, spiritual, 22, 58.
Hope, robe of, 165 ; effects of, 167.
Humility, effects of, 56.
Illumination of the angels, 120.
Imperfections of beginners, 5.
Job, trials of, 53.
Knowledge of self, 51, 55.
Ladder, the secret. 132, 149 ; the ten steps of, 152-162.
Love, two kinds of, 20 ; reverential, 124 ; degrees of contemplation, 152.
Lukewarmness, 35.
Luxury, spiritual, 16 ; effects of, 19 ; correction of, 58.
Mary Magdalene, 125.
Meditation, when to be abandoned, 43 ; on the Life of Christ, 44. Melancholy, 19, 35.
Miracles, false, 174.
Mortification, fruits of, 63.
Neighbour, love of, 56.
Night, the dark, effects of, 20, 30 ; two kinds of, 31.
of sense, 33 ; tests of, 34 ; troubles of, 41 ; benefits of, 47, 59 •;
entered by few, 48 ; brings with it the knowledge of God, 54 ;
duration of, 66.
Night of the spirit, 31, 32 ; entered by few, 64 ; beginnings of, 68 ; effects of, 76, 1 1 7, 135 ; pains of, 83 ; misery of the soul in, 92 ; duration of, 93 ; pains of, greater than those of the night of sense, 123; blessings of, 131, 137, 169, 181.
Obedience, 23.
Pains of the soul in contemplation, 96, 105.
Patience, 59.
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INDEX.] OF THE SOUL. 187
Perfection, true, 15 ; conditions of, 150.
Presence of God, 122.
Proficients, sweetness of, 69 ; certain imperfections of, 71, 75 ; why spiritual sweetness was granted to, 74.
Purgation, distress of the soul in its, 94.
Purgatory in this life, 87, 16 1 ; how the souls suffer in. no.
Rachel, 126.
Recollection, interior effects of, on the memory, 97.
Reverence, 52.
Satan, buffetings of, 18 ; delusions of, 72 ; works through the senses, 170, 1 71 ; why allowed to disquiet souls, 172- 175.
Self-delusion of beginners, 8, 23.
Sloth, spiritual, 27.
Soul, the cause of the errors of, 133.
Spirit, liberty of, 62, 63, 70.
Strong, the trials of, 66.
Submission of the will, 28.
Sufferings, advantages of, 138.
Sweetness, spiritual, 21 ; how corrected, 57 ; from God, 61.
Teresa, St., writings of, 12.
Theology, mystic, 78 ; enlightens the understanding, 121 ; infused by love, 143 ; hides the soul, 146.
Thirst, the living, 46.
Tobias, 103.
Touches, divine, 82, 176.
Union, the divine, requisites for, 103 ; effects of, 179.
Vexation, 53.
Waters, the dark, 139, 141.
Way, the illuminative, 64.
Weak, the trials of, 66.
Wisdom, the divine, 79, 1 19 ; secret, 143 ; effects of, 144 ; inexpli- cable, 144, 147 ; a ladder, 149.
Zeal, indiscreet, 21.
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