".all that is required for complete pacification of the spiritual house is the negation through pure faith of all the spiritual faculties and gratifications and appetites. To overcome these attachments, the soul must again perform a strict self-denial. John, these must also be rejected because the soul is still not seeking God in purity, but only the consolations it gets from spiritual exercises. Just as the soul becomes attached to the exterior pleasures it gets from the things of the world, it also becomes attached to the interior pleasures it gets from its relationship with God. Accordingly, it is indeed comparable to midnight, the innermost and darkest period of night." The second, darker night of faith belongs to the rational, superior part it is darker and more interior because it deprives this part of its rational light, or better, blinds it. "The first night pertains to the lower, sensory part of human nature and is consequently more external. John, is darker and more painful than what has come before: Now it is time, in the Active Night of the Spirit, to purposefully mortify the attachments of the spirit. John discuses the Active Night of the Spirit.Īt this point (although the path isn't exclusively portrayed as a straightforward, step-by-step progression, but sometimes as an ongoing journey with each element intertwined), the soul has already mortified its attachments to the things of the world. In Books 2 and 3 of The Ascent of Mount Carmel St.
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