The Dark Night of the SoulChapter XXII. Explains the third line of the second stanza

St John of the Cross († 1591) · Noche oscura del alma · c. 1584–1585

Chapter XXII. Explains the third line of the second stanza

Happiness of the soul in having overcome its enemies.
O happy lot!

It is very evident that it was a blessed thing for the soul to have succeeded in such an enterprise as this, by which it was delivered out of the hands of satan, from the world, and from its own sensuality, in which, having gained that liberty of spirit so precious and desirable, it rose from meanness to dignity, from being earthly and human being heavenly and divine, having its ‘conversation in Heaven,’ ' like unto those who are in a state of perfection, as I shall proceed to explain.

2. I shall, however, be brief, because the most important point—that which chiefly determined me to explain this dark night to many souls who enter on it without knowing it, as I said in the preface—has been already in some degree explained, and I have also shown, though not in adequate terms, how great are the blessings that descend upon the soul in this night, and what a great happiness it is to be passing through it. This I did that when such souls are alarmed at the trials that have come upon them, they may be encouraged by the certain hope of the numerous and great blessings of God which they receive in this night. Besides this, it was a happy lot for the soul for the reason assigned in the following line,

1 Phil, iii, 20.

David Lewis (1814–1895), fourth edition, revised by Benedict Zimmerman and compared with the last critical Spanish edition, London: Thomas Baker, 1916. Digital text: Internet Archive scan darknightofsoulc00john (University of Toronto), read with three OCR engines and corrected; a few misreadings may remain. Public domain in the US and Canada: published in 1916; the translator, David Lewis, died in 1895, and the reviser, Benedict Zimmerman, in 1937.

Save for later

Enter your email and we will send you a sign-in link. No password. What you save (articles, verses, chapters, documents) follows you to any device.