Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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DARK NIGHT OF THE SENSES

The first stage of purification, through which God regularly leads souls on the way to Christian perfection. "God establishes the soul in the dark night of sense," says St. John of the Cross, "that He may purify, prepare and subdue its lower nature, and unite it to the Spirit, by depriving it of light and causing it to cease from meditation."