God and Darkness: A Carmelite Perspective

Fairacres Publications 163

There is a paradox in Christian life and prayer: that God’s light is darkness and God’s nearness is hiddenness. Jesus, the human face of God, is our way and orientation through that darkness and incomprehension which are so often part of our experience. God comes closest to us in Jesus, whose experience of darkness, above all on the Cross, and example of self-giving love inform and guide us. The author also examines the witness of two of the best-known saints of Carmel, St John of the Cross and St Therese of Lisieux, both of whom learned to know God in and through darkness.