Do not be confused reading different authors on the process of holiness.
One must go through the passive purgation. Those who suffer intensely are in the passive purgation, which happens to detach each person from people, places, things.
One becomes more docile and more patient in the darkness of this passive purgation.
When one is in darkness, one must rely on those who are more spiritual. In this day, it is increasingly hard to find a holy spiritual director, who is mature and who gone through the passive purgation himself.
How hard it is for Americans to break away from the senses, when the entire culture centers on fulfilling sensual desires. I have said this before, but the virtues cannot come into effect until sins and the tendencies to sin are destroyed. Those things are like walls keeping the light of the virtues from coming out in the great light and power these give the soul.
The light of the Dark Night begins with peace, a solid peace which is not understandable but experienced.
One accepts this state of unknowing more and more.
One lets go of expectations and pride, the great sin of control.
With the letting go of pride, comes patience.
And, now and then, in the great darkness of the passive purgation, comes joy, not a joy based on anything but the knowledge that God is in control, and that one can rest in God.
To be continued....