The Dark Night of the Soul: When God Seems Absent

There's a season in the spiritual life that almost nobody warns you about. You've been praying faithfully, maybe for years. Things felt alive. God felt close. Scripture spoke to you. Worship moved you. And then it stops. Not dramatically. Not because of some crisis or obvious sin. It just goes quiet. Prayer feels like talking to a wall. The Bible reads like a textbook. Worship feels like going through motions. And the worst part is the voice in your head that says: you must have done something wrong. God is disappointed. Maybe you're losing your faith. If you've been there, you're in very old company. The Christian tradition, especially through a sixteenth-century Spanish mystic named John of the Cross, offers a different reading of what's happening: you may be entering what he called the dark night of the soul. And it's not a punishment. It's one of the most intimate things God does. What John of the Cross Actually Meant We throw around "dark night of the soul" casually now. A bad wee