{"id":16447,"date":"2022-08-10T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T06:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=16447"},"modified":"2022-08-11T13:22:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T19:22:29","slug":"the-dark-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-dark-night\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Night","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nSt. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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YOU <\/strong>know her for her roses and the simplicity of her spirituality. But fewer know her for the utter darkness she walked in before her death. Suffering from tuberculosis, St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de Lisieux admitted that, if she didn’t have faith, she would have committed suicide. She said to her bedside nurse:<\/p>\n

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I am surprised that there aren\u2019t more suicides among atheists.<\/strong> \u2014as reported by Sister Marie of the Trinity; CatholicHousehold.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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At one point, St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se seemed to prophesy the temptations that would come that we are now experiencing in our generation\u2014that of a “new atheism”:<\/p>\n

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If you only knew what frightful thoughts obsess me. Pray very much for me so that I do not listen to the Devil who wants to persuade me about so many lies. It is the reasoning of the worst materialists that is imposed upon my mind. Later, unceasingly making new advances, science will explain everything naturally. We shall have the absolute reason for everything that exists and that still remains a problem, because there remain very many things to be discovered, etc. etc. <\/strong>\u2014St. Therese of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations<\/em>, Fr. John Clarke, quoted at catholictothemax.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Many of the new atheists today point toward St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, Mother Teresa, etc. as proof that these were no great saints, but merely atheists in disguise. But they are missing the point (aside from having no comprehension of mystical theology): these saints did not<\/em> commit suicide in their darkness, but, in fact, became icons of peace and joy, despite the purification they were going through. In fact, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se testified:<\/p>\n

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Although Jesus is giving me no consolation, he is giving me a peace so great that it is doing me more good! <\/strong>\u2014General Correspondence, <\/em>Vol I, Fr. John Clarke; cf. Magnificat<\/em>, September 2014, p. 34<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

God deprives the soul of feeling His presence so that the soul detaches itself more and more from itself and creatures, preparing it for union with Him while sustaining the soul with an interior peace “that surpasses all understanding.”<\/em> [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. Phil 4:7<\/span><\/span>