The dark night is perhaps the most well-known expression from the writings of St. John of the Cross. But there also are a lot of misunderstandings about what he meant by this.

Fr. Ripperger covers the topic thoroughly. He starts with a metaphysical definition of attachment: A quality in one of the faculties by which it is fixed on or inclined toward a particular object to a particular degree.

St. John of the Cross is one of those great Catholic writers that most people know about but probably not many people read.

St. John of the Cross began composing his poem, "The Spiritual Canticle," when he was imprisoned by his brother friars in Toledo, Spain. The Carmelite order at that time was at war with itself. During the previous centuries, the disciplines required of the nuns and friars had slowly been relaxed, although they still were austere by modern standards.

On a warm Ohio springtime in 1988, just shy of 30 years old, I purchased a copy of The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross and sat down to read.

In The Dark Night, St. John of the Cross seeks to give us an understanding of the spiritual attachments that impede the soul.

The Living Flame of Love is sometimes described as the most accessible of St. John’s major works and therefore a good place to begin becoming acquainted with his ideas.

The Ascent of Mount Carmel is really the first part of what St. John of the Cross intended to be a single work. The second part comes to us as a separate volume, The Dark Night. The two are intended to be read together, beginning with The Ascent, which contains the practical introduction to a life of deeper prayer.