The Dark Night That Teaches Us to See

In the sixteenth century, John of the Cross sat in a tiny prison cell in Toledo, barely six feet by ten, where his own Carmelite brothers had confined him for seeking reform. For nine months he endured darkness, cold, and weekly public lashings. Yet from that crucible of suffering came some of the most luminous spiritual poetry ever written — verses describing the soul's journey through darkness into the arms of the Beloved.…