The desert experience : insights for spiritual companionship in a crisis of faith

Abstract

This study discusses spiritual direction of a pilgrim during a desert experience in the context of a Dark Night of the Soul procuring a crisis of faith briefly prior to it and on the onset of its different facets. For this to be discussed, firstly the dark night was explored. Three themes were elicited (disarmament, abandonment from God, and surrender) to further the understanding of the spiritual director with special reference to the pilgrim’s accommodation to dryness in prayer in the first of the two nights. This understanding includes awareness into the discernment of the cause of such obscurity: whether psychological or spiritual or combined. These insights are meant to elicit an introductory awareness into the possible elements one experiences during this journey and to explore its possible causations - as a tool for the spiritual director.