The Ascent of Mount CarmelPrologue

The dark night, through which the soul passes, on its way to the divine light of the perfect union of the love of God—so far as it is in this life possible— requires for its explanation greater experience and light of knowledge than I possess. For so great are the trials, and so profound the darkness, spiritual as well as corporal, through which souls must pass, if they will attain to perfection, that no human learning can explain them, nor experience describe them. He only who has passed through them can know them, but even he cannot explain them. Therefore, while touching but slightly on the subject of this dark night, I trust neither to experience nor to knowledge, for both may mislead me; but solely to the Holy Scriptures, under the teaching of which I cannot err, because He who speaks therein is the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, I accept the aid of experience and learning, and if through ignorance I should err, it is not my intention to depart from the sound doctrine of our holy mother the Catholic Church. I resign myself absolutely to her light, and submit to her decisions, and moreover to the better judgment herein of private men, be they who they may.

2.—It is not any personal fitness which I recognise in myself that has led me to undertake this work, so high and so difficult, but solely my trust in our Lord, Who, I hope, will enable me to speak on account of the great necessities of many souls. Many persons

B2: : begin to walk in the way of virtue—our Lord longing to lead them into this dark night that they may travel onwards into the divine union—but make no progress; sometimes because they will not enter upon this night, nor suffer Him to lead them into it; and sometimes also because they do not understand their own state, and are destitute of fit and wise directors who may guide them to the summit of the mount. How miserable it is to see many souls, to whom God has given grace to advance—and who, had they taken courage, would have reached perfection—remain ungenerous in their dealing with God, through want of will or through ignorance, or because they have no one to direct their steps, and to teach them how to go onwards from the beginning. And in the end, when our Lord has compassion on them, and leads them on in spite of these hindrances, they arrive late, with much difficulty, and less merit, because they have not submitted themselves to His ways, nor suffered Him to plant their feet on the pure and certain road of union. Though it is true that God, Who leads them, can do so without these helps, still, because they do not yield themselves up to Him, they make less progress on the road, resisting their guide; and they merit less because they do not submit their will, whereby their sufferings are increased. There are souls who, instead of abandoning themselves to the care and protection of God, hinder Him rather by their indiscreet behaviour, or resistance; like little children who, when their mothers would carry them in their arms, struggle and cry that they may be allowed to walk. These souls make no progress, or if they do, it is comparable only to the walking of an infant child.

3.—In order that men may know, beginners as well as those who have made some progress, how to resign themselves into the hands of God when it is His pleasure to lead them, I purpose, by His help, to furnish instruction and counsel, whereby they may understand the matter for themselves, or at least submit to the guidance of God. Some confessors and spiritual directors, because they have no perception or experience of these ways, are a hindrance and an evil, rather than a help to such souls; they are like the builders of Babel; who, when required to furnish certain materials, furnished others of a very different sort, because they knew not the language of those around them, and thus the building was stopped. “Come ye therefore,’ saith God, ‘let us go down and there confound their tongue, that none may hear his neighbour's voice. And so our Lord dispersed them.’ *

4, It is a hard and miserable thing for souls when they cannot comprehend their own state, nor meet with any one who can. For when God leads any one along the highest road of obscure contemplation and dryness, such an one will think himself lost; and in this darkness and trouble, distress and temptation, some will be sure to tell him, like the comforters of Job,t that his sufferings are the effects of melancholy, or of disordered health, or of natural temperament, or, it may be, of some secret sin for which God has abandoned him. Yea, they will decide at once that he is, or that he has been, exceedingly wicked, seeing that he is thus afflicted. Some also will say that he is going backwards, because he finds no consolation or pleasure, as before, in the things of God. Thus they multiply the sorrows of this poor soul, for his greatest trial is the knowledge of his own misery, when it seems to him clearer than light that he is full of evil and sin, because God enables him, as I shall hereafter explain,³ to see this in the night of contemplation. And so, when he meets with those who tell him, in accordance with his own impressions, that his troubles arise out of his own sins, his grief and misery are infinitely increased and rendered more bitter than death.

5. Such confessors as these, not satisfied with considering all his sorrows to flow from past sins, compel him to retrace his whole life, and to make frequent general confessions, putting him on the rack anew. They do not understand that this is not the time for such acts; it is now the day of God’s purgation, when they ought to leave him alone, comforting him, indeed, and encouraging him to bear his trials patiently until God shall be pleased to deliver him; for until then, notwithstanding all they may say or do, there can be no relief.

6. I have to treat of this with the help of God hereafter, of the behaviour of the soul, and the dealings of the confessor with it, of the signs whereby we may ascertain whether this be a state of purgation, and if it be, whether of sense or of spirit—this is the dark night of which I am speaking—and whether or not it be the effect of melancholy or any other imperfection of body or soul. For there are persons who will think, or their confessors for them, that God is leading them along the road of the dark night of spiritual purgation, and yet, perhaps, all is nothing but imperfection of sense or spirit; and others also who think they do not pray when they pray much, and, on the other hand, there are those who think they pray much when they do not in reality pray scarcely at all.

7. There are some—and it is sad to see them—who toil and labour, wearying themselves, and yet go backwards, because they make the fruit which is profitable to consist in that which profits not, but which is rather a hindrance; and others who, in rest and quietness, make great advancement. Others also there are who turn the very graces and gifts of God, given them for their advancement, into embarrassments and stumbling-blocks on the road.

8. Those who travel on this road will meet with many occasions of joys and sufferings, hopes and sorrows, some of which are the result of the spirit of perfection, others of imperfection. I shall endeavour, by God’s help, to speak of all, so that everyone who shall read my book may, in some degree, see the road he takes, and that which he ought to take, if he wishes to ascend to the summit of this mount.

9. As my book treats of the dark night in which the soul journeys on to God, let no one be surprised if he finds it also somewhat obscure. It will be so, certainly, at first, but as the reader advances he will understand it better, for one part of it will throw light on another. If it be read a second time it will become more intelligible, and the doctrine it contains will appear the more certain. But if still there should be any to whom it shall seem hard, let them ascribe it to my ignorance and poor style, ‘or the matter of it is in itself good and very necessary.

10. But after all I believe that, if I had written it in a more perfect manner, many would not appreciate it, because its contents are not those moralities and soothing matters which those spiritual persons run after who desire to draw near to God in pleasant ways, but a solid and substantial doctrine suited to all, if they seek to advance to that detachment of spirit which is here described. My principal object, however, is not to address myself to all, but only to certain persons of our holy order of Mount Carmel, of the primitive observance; friars as well as nuns, who by the grace of God are on the pathway of this mount. It is at their request I have undertaken my task. They, indeed, already detached from the things of this life, will the better understand this doctrine of detachment of spirit.