There is another reason also why the soul has traveled safely in this obscurity; it has suffered: for the way of suffering is safer, and also more profitable, than that of rejoicing and of action. In suffering God gives strength, but in action and in joy the soul does but show its own weakness and imperfections. And in suffering, the soul practices and acquires virtue, and becomes pure, wiser, and more cautious. Anonymous
About This Quote

The life of the soul is made safe in this obscurity by its suffering. Suffering is like the way of the shepherd, who does not pass through the forest with his flock but keeps it in safety by keeping close to it. For he carries the flock always with him; he carries it on his shoulders; he never lets it go. The soul, when in the confusion of desire, always rests in God, and in His love.

It no longer seeks after any other object than God; for in God alone it finds rest. But in following its desires it does but show itself weak and imperfections. And when in following them it makes itself worse, then when once more it turns to God nothing is lacking which it can do or suffer that can profit its soul or bring it nearer to God.

Source: Dark Night Of The Soul

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you,... - Pablo Neruda
  2. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. - Pablo Neruda
  3. We love the things we love for what they are. - Robert Frost
  4. I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart) I am never without it (anywhereI go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my... - E.e. Cummings
  5. Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. - Plato
More Quotes By Anonymous
  1. Even if you are alone you wage war with yourself.
  2. You not only are hunted by others, you unknowingly hunt yourself.
  3. From whichever side I start, I think I am in an old place where others have been before me.
  4. A smiling lie is a whirlwind, easy to enter, but hard to escape.
  5. The same word we love and hate, leaves in different directions, taking different paths.
Related Topics