This chapter describes how God, who is Light, can be the essence of the Dark Night of the soul. Using everyday experiences -- "blinding" sunshine, for example -- St John of the Cross shows how a Dark Night is also the brightness of God.

In this short chapter we hear more directly about how Divine Love and Divine Wisdom interact with the soul in this Dark Night.

In this and following chapters, St John of the Cross refers often to "the old man," an allusion to 1 Corinthians, where Paul describes a person before they're submitted to God in Jesus Christ. These Dark Nights are how such an "old man" is sloughed off.

St. John of the Cross begins to describe what "imperfections" or struggles those who come into a spiritual dryness ("aridity") may suffer.

Here begins book 2; having covered what "beginners" may experience as a sustained starving of sense, now begins a description and exploration of the Dark Night of the Soul, or spirit -- which St. John of the Cross calls the "second" Dark Night, and it is here that the deep darkness begins.

What's happening to us when the storms of life roll our way?

Through the Dark Night, we begin to rely less on our feelings or experiences, and more on the deep peace which only God can provide.

The Dark Night, far from depriving our vision, sharpens its spiritual acuity. We can see ourselves, others, and God much more truly than when all our senses are flooded, loud, and demanding our attention.

This whole work is, of course, an explication of the poem composed by St John of the Cross, and in this chapter he illumines three lines:

Kindled in love with yearnings.

Oh, happy chance!

I went forth without being observed.

What do we do when we find ourselves in this Dark Night? St John of the Cross advises that this travail isn't the moment to advance or to learn spiritual backflips, but to "remain in peace and quietness." What might it look like for us to seek rest and ease in trials instead of redoubling our efforts?