PRAYER is our instinctive response to the immediate experience of the OTHER within, a phenomenon arising from our compelling need to relate to this being who seeks us out, forgives, accepts, and offers love.
The dark night of the soul refers to an extended period of acute purification that a spiritual practitioner undergoes immediately before making the final transition to deep spiritual awakening. It emphasizes purification and the act of letting go of what no longer serves after many lesser trials have been navigated.
~ from "Stepping into the Fire" by Chris Bache in IONS REVIEW, Mar-May 2002
