Status Updates From Pimeä yö (Hengen tie, #7)

Relating this back to my experiences — there is a difference between suffering because of circumstance/depression, and suffering in the purgative stages. I felt the former for so many years; it felt like a flat circle of pain. The latter feels like bitter medicine — some things get "worse" before they get better. There is a vigor and hope that John mentions as well, which is faith.

The section where John writes about how as one advances spiritually, through aridity, and is made aware of one's complete wretchedness without God really hit me. For I have realized the very same: that my smaller self is truly pitiful, and instead, identifying with the grandeur of That, of God, is the only way to approach Him with strength, while remaining humble at His feet.