One of the traumatic impacts of the Dark Night is the fear of being lost on the road, thinking that all spiritual blessing is over and that God has abandoned us. The experience of both heart and mind is to grow weary, to live out of memory rather than imagination. It would be like a hunter letting his prey go free in order to hunt it again. The danger is turning back if there is no one who understands us because we lose courage.
I spent seven years on the most isolated, lonely back country road leading to seemingly no where. If it were a road then the number of travelers I encountered was only the faint sound of a car on an unseen road on the other side of the ravine. I have explained my situation to God, myself and countless others who have been my brothers, pastors, and friends without as much as a clue of what I was undergoing.
God is leading us onto another road, away from meditation and reasoning (purposeful 
use of the faculties) onto an dark endless highway, which is not the same as some divine eternal highway. This darkened path is the path of contemplation and does not yet boast of any signage of how far you’ve come nor how far you have to go. In fact, it would be safe to say that there isn’t really any path that one can see. It is densely encumbered with a plethora of obstacles, stones, underbrush and trees that give no indication that you are on a path. There is no map, no compass, no light or shadows to give any indication of a journey or of progress. You are simply groping and stumbling around in a maze of madness.
The expectation of the Dark Night of the senses is that we are to persevere in patience and to not think of yourself as having been afflicted. Trust that God will give you everything that you need and that he will be bringing you into a clearing of the light of his love and that it will all make sense. This all comes about when you encounter the second Dark Night of the spirit if you merit God bringing you into that next dimension.
I can testify that God by means of his favor through many a good person has treated us well and given us wonders in the wilderness with health, provision, love, prayer and visitation during these languishing laments.
This time of isolation appears as though nothing is being accomplished and is a terrible 
waste of time and talents. I have been sitting on the bench with my glove in my hand just waiting for an opportunity to get in the game, but it has been met with constant rejection. It seems as though I have wasted all my years of preparation and that my life has amounted to nothing. I am amazed that anyone, especially my children, finds any reason at all to stand near me, let alone beside me and behind me as I dissolve into nothing. The testament of their love is my only dim recognition that God exists and that his love must be more tangible than is currently imaginable.
that the memory ordinarily centered upon God, now finds itself without sweetness in the things of God.
My experience of this dark night has left me floundering in my faith, depressed in my hope and questioning his love and care…really his interest and involvement. My whole state has gone through overwhelming swells of depression and abandonment. The will or bodily energy to go on is shattered like a vase across a concrete floor. I am not anything close to the self that I once knew. I am dried up and worn out. I have lost all ability to sustain emotional stability or longevity. I do not know the me that I have been left with and I do not know why God has chosen to make me abandon all that he made and leave me with nothing but a ghost town of mind, will and emotion.
spiritual in order to be made ready for the divine union of love with God.
We are unable to advance in any direction of spiritual life. The inward senses are submerged in this night and left with such dryness that not only do we not find any inspiration to practice the faith, but that to do so is boredom and bitterness.
The devil takes these spiritual Olympians (written at the time of the 2018 Winter Games) and stirs up this gluttony in them through pleasures and desires that come from spiritual practices or exercises (for all intents and purposes they are exercises for holiness and godliness). The devil and our Flesh 
Many of these persons are very insistent with their spiritual masters to be granted that which they desire to do, extracting it from them almost by force. If they are forbidden then they sulk around like emotional midgets or untrained children throwing temper tantrums. They are so pigheaded that they believe that their way is God’s way and eventually they not only do not practice the faith, they walk away from it altogether. This of course smacks loudly across the face of the post-modern culture that proudly proclaims…
more after the sweetness than the purity and discretion that God regards and accepts along our spiritual journey.
I have in three of the last six years in Colorado have fasted for 40 days during Lent and then other supplemental fasts in January for three years. My wife at the end of my last 40 day fast forced me to sign a document stating that I will never fast again for 40 days. The last two years I toyed with the idea of doing another 40 day fast, and was relunctant to honor the agreement with my wife…
for they set bodily penance before subjection and obedience. Inasmuch as all extremes are vicious and as in behaving thus such persons (ME!) are working their own will, they grow in vice rather than virtue. To say the least, they are acquiring spiritual gluttony and pride in this way, through not walking in obedience.
comes to an end, or is unmet with immediate or continued delight then we naturally become embittered and bear a bad grace, which affects all that we do. We can become easily irritated over the smallest matters.
Another type of anger is with oneself when you observe your own imperfectness and display an impatience that is not humility. Because of such vanity a prescription is drafted up that purposes to accomplish a great deal and make grand resolutions. But they are not humble and have no misgivings about themselves. The more resolutions they make they greater their fall and the greater their annoyance. They do not reflect the patience to wait for that which God will give them when it pleases him.
moodiness of lowliness or of intimidation toward my wife. As a young father my wrath was unleashed upon our five young children as I demanded from them perfection in the areas of obedience.
spiritual exercises and practices. Even when we are deep in prayer or engaged in the sacrament or in confession.
The third source of these impure plagues like the second come through no fault of their own. Certain souls are so tender and frail in nature that when they experience spiritual graces, gifts and consolations that the spirit of luxury/lust is upon them immediately, inebriating and delighting the sensual nature in such a manner that it is as if they were plunged into the enjoyment and pleasure of this sin.
gimmicks to give them spiritual happiness, preferring one kind of cross to another because it looks better than the last one.
Have we trivialized the person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives with “God things” without ever having to face or deal with God. The last dregs of wisdom of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12:12 may provide a Snap-Chat moment into our dis-ease…
barter for spiritual life. Yes, these things are a means of grace, but they are not a substitute for the God of grace. Whenever you misuse or abuse a strength it can become a weakness.
spiritual practices more frequently. We are then blinded to all these works and virtues becoming meaningless and in fact, becoming vices…Spiritual Pride
When we do go to God with our imperfections (most Christians only ask for forgiveness, they never actually make the confession of the wrong) it’s so he will finally take from us our ghastly deficiencies and leave us a prescription for some narcotic of peace. We do not realize that God, whose grace is sufficient, will not take this imperfection from us because it would actually make us prouder.
MICHAEL WELCHERT 
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