"One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings ...
I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled. ...
On that glad night ...
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.
This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well - ...
O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover."
This is a fragment from the mystical poetry of John of the Cross (1542-1591); more precisely, from his famous poem, The Dark Night. John of the Cross' poetry is a powerful (and, of course, lyrical) expression of his spirituality (or spiritual path), which is commonly associated with the spiritual experience of the so-called "dark night of the faith" (among other things).
More simply, though, and perhaps more immediately, the poem quoted above can be read as a poignant expression of the nature of faith itself - faith, which is nothing else but one's answer to the irresistible (and yet often resisted) call of Love, of the Lover, of the One who loved us first. And, while following this call is as "going through a dark night," faith being the only - unseen yet reliable - light that guides us, this is nonetheless the path that takes one to the joy of man's desire - the already beloved, to the Lover.
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