1. According to John, God sends is through the dark night because he wants our souls to grow deeper, and teach it virtue and keep it from falling into vice. It is the moving from "spiritual milk, to spiritual meat" so to speak. Going through difficult times is what matures us, and makes us more spiritually aware, and that is what I think John is describing.
2. I think that some of the expectations and assumptions of the spiritual life we have are that prayer is going to be a spiritually fruitful time that will make us feel happy and good. When we go through a spiritually fruitful time, we feel great about the world, and that's how we start to look at it, but then we realize later on that that is not how the world is. Another expectation is that the spiritual life will make all of our troubles easier- like we feel when we first came to God. For many people, we feel closer to God when we are first saved, or in danger, and turning to God lifts the burden. Then we think that that is how we will feel for the rest of our journey, which is not what happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment