“If You wish me to be in darkness, I shall bless You. And if You wish me to be in light, again I shall bless You. If You stoop down to comfort me, I shall bless You, and if You wish me to be afflicted, I shall bless You forever.” — Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Bk. III, ch. XVII“O guiding night!

“O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved”.— St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul

All persons who reflectively contemplate the meaningfulness of light and darkness in themselves, may, little by little, begin by grace to see life as a pilgrimage away from sin, through the Cross, and onwards to Everlasting Life.

“We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are travelling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore in that sense we have arrived and are dwelling in the light. But oh! How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived! — A Thomas Merton Reader (ed. Image, 1974)

1 Cor. 13: 12 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.”