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Course 3 · Lesson 7.1

Dryness and the dark night: what the tradition teaches

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 3 outline

Module 1: The Idea of a Rule

  1. What a rule of life is, and what it is for
  2. Pachomius and the first written rule
  3. Basil of Caesarea and his Rules
  4. Benedict: the Rule as a school of the Lord’s service
  5. Adapting a monastic rule for ordinary life

Module 2: The Hours and the Psalms

  1. Origins of fixed-hour prayer in Jewish and early Christian practice
  2. The Divine Office in the West and the hours in the East
  3. How to pray the Psalms: lament, praise, trust, wisdom and imprecation
  4. Building a simple office for one person

Module 3: Scripture and the Prayer of the Heart

  1. Lectio divina: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation
  2. Meditative reading compared with study and with Ignatian imaginative prayer
  3. The Jesus Prayer: its words, its history and its Eastern setting
  4. Practicing the prayer of the heart, with its cautions

Module 4: Fasting, Giving, Rest and the Year

  1. Fasting in Scripture and tradition, and its safe limits
  2. Almsgiving and care for the poor
  3. Sabbath rest and the Lord’s Day: how traditions differ
  4. The church year: Advent to Pentecost and the ordinary weeks

Module 5: Conscience, Confession and Worship Alone

  1. Examination of conscience: methods old and new
  2. Confession in the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions
  3. Repentance, confession to God and to a trusted person when no minister is available
  4. What worship alone can include: prayer, Scripture, song, the hours
  5. What the traditions say requires a church or ordained minister

Module 6: Seasons and Ordinary Duties

  1. Silence as a discipline and its dangers
  2. Planning a day, a weekend and a longer retreat
  3. Work as part of the rule: ora et labora
  4. Hospitality, family and neighbor

Module 7: Dryness, Perseverance and Review

  1. Dryness and the dark night: what the tradition teaches
  2. Acedia: Evagrius, Cassian and the noonday demon
  3. Doubt and perseverance
  4. Accountability for a rule of life
  5. Reviewing and revising a rule at thirty days, ninety days and one year

All courses

Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 7.1

What you will learn

  • Define spiritual dryness and distinguish it from laziness, sin and clinical depression.
  • Summarize John of the Cross’s teaching on the dark night.
  • Describe how the Psalms, Protestant writers and Orthodox teachers treat times of spiritual absence.
  • Identify practical counsel for staying faithful through dryness, and signs that professional help is needed.

The big idea

Almost everyone who prays for years meets times when prayer feels empty, God seems absent and the old practices bring no comfort. The tradition calls this dryness or aridity. It teaches that dryness can have many causes: tiredness, illness, sin, a testing from God or a deeper purifying of faith. The dark night, described by John of the Cross, is one of those. The counsel is to stay faithful in small ways, to seek guidance, and not to confuse dryness with clinical depression, which needs medical care.

Key terms

Dryness (aridity)
A period when prayer and spiritual practice bring no consolation, and God seems far away.
Consolation
A sense of peace, joy or nearness to God in prayer. Spiritual writers say it is a gift and not a measure of faith.
Desolation
In Ignatian writing, a state of spiritual heaviness, darkness and distance from God.
Dark night
John of the Cross’s term for a period in which God purifies the soul by removing sensible comforts so that faith and love may grow.
Anfechtung
Luther’s German word for trial, assault or spiritual attack, in which a believer feels abandoned by God.
Depression
A medical condition marked by persistent low mood, loss of interest, changes in sleep and appetite and other symptoms. It requires clinical care.

Background

Scripture is frank about the absence of God. The Psalms ask, How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? (Psalm 13:1) and Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? (Psalm 10:1). Psalm 88 ends without any turn to hope: lover and friend hast thou put far from me. Job protests that he cannot find God. Jesus on the cross cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mark 15:34), quoting Psalm 22. These texts show that faithful people have experienced God’s silence.

The tradition has treated the experience as normal rather than rare. Teresa of Avila (1515 to 1582) wrote of times of aridity in which she persevered in prayer with little feeling. John of the Cross (1542 to 1591), a Spanish Carmelite, wrote the Dark Night in a poem and commentaries. He taught that God sometimes withdraws felt consolation to wean the soul from dependence on feelings and lead it to a purer faith. Not all dryness is the dark night, and he gave signs by which a spiritual guide might tell.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Many causes

The first task is to ask what is happening. Dryness may come from ordinary causes: lack of sleep, illness, stress, grief, overwork or a poor diet. It may come from neglect: a person who has stopped praying seriously will find prayer dull. It may come from unconfessed sin or a broken relationship. It may come from boredom with a routine that needs changing. Or it may be a spiritual testing in which God seems absent although the person is faithful.

The tradition advises first looking at the ordinary causes. Rest, food, exercise and repair of relationships often help. A physician may need to be consulted. Only after these are considered should a person think of the deeper sense.

Step 2: John of the Cross on the night

John of the Cross taught that the soul passes through two nights: the night of the senses, in which consolations are taken away, and the later night of the spirit, a deeper purification. In the Dark Night he gave three signs that dryness may be of this kind: the person finds no pleasure in the things of the world, nor in the things of God; the person is concerned that he is not serving God; and the person finds it hard to meditate with images and thoughts as before.

He insisted that the night is not a punishment, and that the best response is to remain patient, to pray simply, and not to force consolation. He also urged the use of a wise guide. Many spiritual writers add that his language belongs to a specific tradition and school, and that it should not be used as a quick label for any bad time.

Step 3: Other traditions

The Ignatian tradition speaks of consolation and desolation and offers rules for responding. In desolation, the person should not change earlier decisions made in consolation, should keep to prayer and should remember that consolation will return. Orthodox writers speak of the absence of grace and of acedia, treated in the next lesson, and advise perseverance, humility and obedience to an elder.

Luther’s word Anfechtung covered experiences of assault and abandonment, which he thought drove the believer back to the word of promise. Puritan writers wrote of spiritual desertion and counseled patience and self-examination. Richard Sibbes, in The Bruised Reed, comforted those who felt their faith was smoking flax. Protestants in general stress that faith rests on God’s promise, not on feeling.

Step 4: Faithfulness, and when to seek help

Practical counsel is consistent. Keep the floor of the rule: a psalm, the Lord’s Prayer, a few verses. Do not try to produce feeling. Pray the laments. Keep going to worship if possible. Tell a trusted person. Do small acts of service. Be patient, since dryness can last weeks, months or longer.

It is important not to mistake clinical depression for a spiritual night. If low mood, loss of interest in nearly everything, changes in sleep or appetite, hopelessness or thoughts of death or self-harm persist for more than a couple of weeks, a person should seek medical help promptly. If there is any thought of suicide, contact emergency services or a crisis line at once. The tradition does not oppose medical care. Spiritual and medical help can go together.

  1. How long has prayer felt dry, and what else has been happening in my life?
  2. Have I looked at the ordinary causes: rest, illness, stress, grief?
  3. Is there unconfessed sin or a broken relationship that may need attention?
  4. What is the smallest faithful act I can do each day?
  5. Whom could I tell, and what would I ask?
  6. Do I have symptoms that call for medical help?

Examples

Ordinary dryness

A man who has worked sixty-hour weeks finds prayer empty. His pastor asks about sleep. After he rests for a week and cuts his hours, his prayer improves. (A constructed example.)

Faithful dryness

A woman has prayed daily for twenty years and for the last eight months feels nothing. She keeps a short morning psalm and the Lord’s Prayer, tells her spiritual director and attends worship. She does not feel better, but she does not stop. (A constructed example.)

Not just dryness

A student feels hopeless and sleeps poorly for a month and says that God has abandoned him. A friend persuades him to see a doctor, who diagnoses depression. With treatment and support, his mood improves, and prayer slowly returns. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

The Catholic view

Catholic spiritual theology, drawing on John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, treats dryness as a common part of the life of prayer, sometimes a purification. The tradition recommends a spiritual director and warns against confusing dryness with sin or with illness.

The Orthodox view

Orthodox teachers see the withdrawal of felt grace as a trial that teaches humility and patience. They advise obedience to a spiritual father, continued prayer and fasting in moderation, and warn against despair.

The Protestant view

Protestants, from Luther’s Anfechtung to Puritan writers on desertion, teach that faith rests on God’s promise and not on feeling. They urge believers to cling to Christ and the word, to seek counsel and to consider both spiritual and physical causes.

The medical view

Physicians and counselors say that persistent low mood, loss of interest, sleep and appetite change and hopelessness are signs of possible depression, which is treatable. They advise seeking help early and not waiting for a spiritual explanation.

Why it matters

Every long practice meets dry seasons, and many people quit during them, assuming that prayer has failed or that they were deceived. Knowing that the tradition expects dryness and has counsel for it, a student can continue. Knowing the difference between a spiritual and a medical problem can protect health and even life.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Dryness means God is displeased with me.

Correction: It may have ordinary causes or be a testing. The tradition does not treat it as a sign of rejection. Even Jesus prayed the words of Psalm 22.

Misunderstanding: Every bad spell is the dark night.

Correction: John of the Cross gave specific signs and recommended a guide. Most low periods are ordinary and have ordinary causes.

Misunderstanding: Depression is a spiritual failure that prayer should cure.

Correction: Depression is a medical condition that needs medical care. Prayer and treatment are not rivals.

Knowledge check

What is spiritual dryness, and what can cause it?

It is a period when prayer brings no consolation and God seems far away. Causes include tiredness, illness, stress, grief, neglect of prayer, unconfessed sin, boredom with routine, or a spiritual testing in which faith is purified. The tradition advises looking first at ordinary causes.

What did John of the Cross teach about the dark night?

That God sometimes withdraws felt consolation to wean the soul from dependence on feelings and lead it to purer faith and love. He gave signs by which it may be recognized and urged patience, simple prayer and the guidance of a wise director. It is not a punishment.

What practical counsel does the tradition give?

Keep a small floor of prayer, do not try to produce feeling, pray the laments, keep attending worship, tell a trusted person, do small acts of service and be patient. Dryness can last a long time, and faithfulness matters more than feeling.

When should a person seek medical help?

When low mood, loss of interest, changes in sleep or appetite, hopelessness or thoughts of death or self-harm last more than a couple of weeks. If there is any thought of suicide, contact emergency services or a crisis line at once. Spiritual and medical help can go together.

Think it through

  1. What do you expect from prayer, and what happens when you do not get it?
  2. Which Psalm of lament do you find most honest?
  3. How would you tell a friend the difference between dryness and depression?

Independent assignment

A dryness plan

In your notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Write a plan for a dry season: the floor of your rule, three Psalms of lament you will pray, the person you will tell, and a list of ordinary causes you will check. Add the signs that would lead you to seek medical help. Keep the plan where you can find it. Do not post it.

Further study