| |
| | Dark Night of the Soul (vii.xiii) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05) |
 | | This is a great benefit, and not one of the least that results from this aridity and purgation of the desire, for the soul is purified and cleansed of the imperfections that were clinging to it because of the desires and affections, which of their own accord deaden and darken the soul. |
 | | There is another very great benefit for the soul in this night, which is that it practices several virtues together, as, for example, patience and longsuffering, which are often called upon in these times of emptiness and aridity, when the soul endures and perseveres in its spiritual exercises without consolation and without pleasure. |
 | | And he then says: ‘And I meditated by night with my heart and was exercised, and I swept and purified my spirit’—that is to say, from all the affections. |
| www.ccel.org /ccel/john_cross/dark_night.vii.xiii.html (1018 words) |
|