What We Build in the Dark

[mourningdove~]

Late author Olga Rosmanith wrote, “You do build in darkness if you have faith. When the light returns you have made for yourself a fortress which is impregnable to certain kinds of trouble; you may even find yourself needed and sought by others as a beacon in their dark.”

The imprisonment of Saint John of the Cross in the 16th century is perhaps the most famous of dark nights. The 35-year-old Carmelite was abducted by his own monastic brothers who opposed of his reforms and kept in a windowless cell, the ceiling so low that he couldn’t stand up. He was flogged and starved, but the bulk of his despair came from his spiritual doubts. And yet it was in those bleak hours that he composed his two greatest works, “Spiritual Canticle” and “The Dark Night” – about the soul’s union with God.

Australian neurologist and psychiatrist Victor Frankl spent three years in four concentration camps, where he lost his wife, father, mother, and brother. After his liberation he wrote the classic Man’s Search for Meaning, originally titled A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp. Frankl’s suffering inspired his “logotherapy,” based on the belief that human nature is motivated by the search for a life purpose. His concept established the founding principles of positive psychology.

What We Build in the Dark – The Second Pilgrimage (thereseborchard.com)

 

[aiki]

The "dark night" where our faith is tested and tried does not obscure, as darkness does typically, but reveals. When the light fails and pain and exhaustion cripple us, we discover the true nature of our faith. Suffering and isolation show us that our faith is either anchored in God, or in ourselves; that our faith is either sentimentally-driven, romantic, emotional, and thus vacillating and weak, or that it arises from the Spirit of God who is constant, unshakeable, and true; that our faith is either resting only in doctrines, principles, and theories, or in a personal, daily experience of them in fellowship with God. Like so much in the "upside down" kingdom of God, the darkness of tribulation has the effect of bringing the truth to light. Better to endure this darkness and come through to Truth and light than to think one is in possession of both but actually racing headlong into eternal darkness.

 

[mourningdove~]

... Better to endure this darkness and come through to Truth and light than to think one is in possession of both but actually racing headlong into eternal darkness.

Amen.

And thank you for all that you shared in your post.