Where are you on the path: Illuminative Way → Prelude to the Unitive Way → Spiritual Age 22
What happens in the soul?
Union with God has become frequent and deep, but there is still a final purification. The Dark Night of the Spirit, also called awakening, is the moment when the Good Lord empties the soul of everything that is not Him, even the most subtle forms of spiritual self-love. Before this purification reaches its fruit, the soul may experience a feeling of total abandonment by God, darkened faith accompanied by spiritual anguish, a deep emptiness, radical humiliation, inability to pray as before and a feeling of being lost. It is a true inner death of the ego. And yet, in the midst of all this, the soul persists in seeking God with great fidelity.
The action of the Good Lord
It is the Good Lord who performs this last purification. It empties the soul of what still remains of its own self, reaching even the most hidden forms of spiritual self-love. The person does not control this process. The person goes through a darkness in which many of the previous spiritual securities seem to disappear. But this night leads to something completely new: the opening of the eyes of the spirit.
How do you live?
Outwardly, the person may continue to be cheerful and serene, but the person’s or the person’s inner life undergoes an extraordinarily profound transformation. The meditation that already characterized this state now takes on another dimension. There may be moments of deep darkness, spiritual anguish, emptiness and a feeling of abandonment. The inability to pray as before can be especially painful, because prayer had come to occupy a central place in the person’s entire existence. Even so, continue seeking the Good Lord. That fidelity in the midst of darkness accompanies the inner emptying until the night reaches its fruit.
The prayer
Prayer also goes through this purification. The soul may experience an inability to pray as before. However, the soul persists in seeking God with great fidelity. Therefore, prayer during this night cannot be understood solely by what the soul feels or manages to do. His very perseverance in seeking the Good Lord in the midst of darkness is part of this final purification.
The awakening
The Dark Night of the Spirit culminates with what The Divine Work calls the awakening of the soul to the spiritual world. The eyes of the soul are opened. It is the main fruit of this transformation: the opening of the eyes of the spirit and, for the first time, the soul begins to see reality as it really is. Mystical union with the Church is also achieved and a feeling of great mercy for all people and things awakens. “Our Lord removes the scales from the eyes of the soul, allowing it to see and understand something of the grace it has received.”— Saint Teresa of Jesus, The Interior Castle, Seventh Mansions, chapter I, section 8.
Signs that may accompany this age
• Sensation of total abandonment by God.
• Faith darkened with spiritual anguish.
• Deep void.
• Radical humiliation.
• Inability to pray as before.
• Feeling of being lost.
• Inner death of the ego.
• Persistent faithfulness in the search for God.
• Opening of the eyes of the spirit.
• New perception of reality.
• Mystical union with the Church.
• Great mercy for all people and things.
A phrase to remember
“The eyes of the soul are opened.”
Where does it lead
The Dark Night of the Spirit has accomplished the ultimate purification of the self. The soul leaves it transformed: the eyes of the spirit have been opened and it begins to see reality in a new way. With this awakening the Prelude of the Unitive Way ends and the Illuminative Way concludes. Here begins the Unitive Way. Age 23 — Union of conformity →