It took me about 6 months, but finally did I have the honour of completing the book "Dark Night of the Soul" by St. John of the Cross. a book for those who wish to tread on the path to God, instructing and reminding of what in the words of the saint, will definitely happen to those eager for union with the Beloved. That being the night of the sense and the night of the soul, called the night, that it is a passive purgation of sin, like the child who was used to the milk of their mother's breast, being put down that they might learn to walk alone. Called nights for the light of illumination is so powerful, that it blinds, like the staring at the sun. Called the night, for it illuminates the soul so greatly, that the darkness within the heart is shown, for the few to the very root of their sin, that it might be plucked by the contemplation and hiding in the garments of faith, hope and charity, that one would ascend the ladder to God, through God, by God, who illuminates the will (desire to love) and the understanding (knowledge).
I would like to share one passage from the book that was not consistent to how the rest of book is written, but has profound advice:
"Therefore, O spiritual soul, when thou seest thy desire obscured, thy affections arid and constrained, and thy faculties bereft of their capacity for any interior exercise, be not afflicted by this, but rather consider it a great happiness, since God is freeing thee from thyself and taking the matter from thy hands. For with those hands, howsoever well they may serve thee, thou wouldst never labour so effectively, so perfectly and so securely (because of their clumsiness and uncleanness) as now, when God takes thy hand and guides thee in the darkness, as though thou wert blind, to an end and by a way which thou knowest not. Nor couldst thou ever hope to travel with the aid of thine own eyes and feet, howsoever good thou be as a walker."
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