Another of the benefits of the Dark Night is the perpetual or habitual readiness and awareness of God.

In one of the very earliest training workshops led by Fr. Keating, a nun tried out her first twenty-minute taste of Centering Prayer and then lamented, “Oh, Father Thomas, I’m such a failure at this prayer. In twenty minutes I’ve had ten thousand thoughts!”
“How lovely,” responded Keating, without missing a beat. “Ten thousand opportunities to return to God.”

This is the table set in the wilderness of this purging. A table of remembrance.  The ongoing practice of seeking and finding builds a muscle memory not of absence but of presence.  As the Lord says in Jeremiah, You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  The cry of the heart is not to become a seeker, but to become whole-hearted in our seeking. 

This is a tremendous discovery on our path way through the wilderness of darkness to the Table of the Lord as the Lord himself instructed us through St Paul, that we are to do this in remembrance of him.

Many Christians are bent on finding sensual satisfaction in spiritual practices. If they do not feel anything then the conclusion is very often…nothing was accomplished.  This is to judge God unworthily.

Christians still under Protest do not participate in the Lord’s Supper in their weekly gathering because they walk by sight. They do not sense anything happening in the sensory realm so they see no need in offering or participating in the unseen graces of the Sacrament.