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John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul
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BOOK THE FIRST Which treats of the Night of Sense.
Chapter I. Sets down the first line and begins to treat of the imperfections of beginners.
Chapter V. Of the imperfections into which beginners fall with respect to the sin of wrath.
Chapter VI. Of imperfections with respect to spiritual gluttony.
Chapter VII. Of imperfections with respect to spiritual envy and sloth.
Chapter X. Of the way in which these souls are to conduct themselves in this dark night.
Chapter XI. Wherein are expounded the three lines of the stanza.
Chapter XII. Of the benefits which this night causes in the soul.
Chapter XIII. Of other benefits which this night of sense causes in the soul.
Chapter XIV. Expounds this last line of the first stanza.
BOOK THE SECOND Of the Dark Night of the Spirit.
Chapter I. Which begins to treat of the dark nights of the spirit and says at what time it begins.
Chapter II. Describes other imperfections which belong to these proficients.
Chapter III. Annotation for that which follows.
Chapter IV. Sets down the first stanza and the exposition thereof.
Chapter VI. Of other kinds of pain that the soul suffers in this night.
Chapter VII. Continues the same matter and considers other afflictions end constraints of the will.
Chapter VIII. Of other pains which afflict the soul in this state.
Chapter X. Explains this purgation fully by a comparison.
Chapter XIV. Wherein are set down and explained the last three lines of the first stanza.
Chapter XV. Sets down the second stanza and its exposition.
Chapter XVI. Explains how, though in darkness, the soul walks securely.
Chapter XVII. Explains how this dark contemplation is secret.
Chapter XVIII. Explains how this secret wisdom is likewise a ladder.
Chapter XX. Wherein are treated the other five steps of love.
Chapter XXII. Explains the third line of the second stanza.
Chapter XXIV. Completes the explanation of the second stanza.
Wherein is expounded the third stanza.
In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me, Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.
EXPOSITION
THE soul still continues the metaphor and similitude of temporal night in describing this its spiritual night, and continues to sing and extol the good properties which belong to it, and which in passing through this night it found and used, to the end that it might attain its desired goal with speed and security. Of these properties it here sets down three.
2. The first, it says, is that in this happy night of contemplation God leads the soul by a manner of contemplation so solitary and secret, so remote and far distant from sense, that naught pertaining to it, nor any touch of created things, succeeds in approaching the soul in such a way as to disturb it and detain it on the road of the union of love.
3. The second property whereof it speaks pertains to the spiritual darkness of this night, wherein all the faculties of the higher part of the soul are in darkness. The soul sees naught, neither looks at aught neither stays in aught that is not God, to the end that it may reach Him, inasmuch as it journeys unimpeded by obstacles of forms and figures, and of natural apprehensions, which are those that are wont to hinder the soul from uniting with the eternal Being of God.
4. The third is that, although as it journeys it is supported by no particular interior light of understanding, nor by any exterior guide, that it may receive satisfaction therefrom on this lofty road—it is completely deprived of all this by this thick darkness—yet its love alone, which burns at this time, and makes its heart to long for the Beloved, is that which now moves and guides it, and makes it to soar upward to its God along the road of solitude, without its knowing how or in what manner.
There follows the line:
In the happy night.[1]