Quote of the day, 21 December: St. John of the Cross

Faith is that admirable means of advancing to God, our goal. And God, we said, is also for the soul naturally a part, or the third cause, of this night.

Faith, the means, is comparable to midnight.

We can affirm, then, that it is darker for a person than the first part of the night and, in a certain way, darker than the third. The first part, pertinent to the senses, resembles twilight, the time sensible objects begin to fade from sight. Accordingly, it is not a time so far removed from all light as is midnight.

The third part, that period before dawn, approximates the light of day. The darkness is not like that of midnight, since in this third period of the night we approach the illumination of day. And this daylight we compare to God.

Saint John of the Cross

The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II, Chap. 2, no. 1

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Brigitta Schneiter captures this stunning image of dawn in the Swiss Alps. Image credit: Brigitta Schneiter / Unsplash