Daughter Abby spent summer 2013 in Toledo, Spain.\u00a0 She was part of a University of Minnesota program studying Spanish culture and language, cementing a relationship with both for Abby.\u00a0 We took the family to visit her.\u00a0 It was good timing before our kids were too far down their own life\u2019s paths.<\/p>\n
I carried my Ultimate Guide to Travel in Spain wherever we went as we touristed around.\u00a0 The family teased me for that.\u00a0 It\u2019s there in every picture.\u00a0 Hey, I like knowing stuff.<\/p>\n
One day, I was sipping Sangria at a sidewalk caf\u00e9, paging through my book.\u00a0 That\u2019s when I saw that St. John of the Cross was imprisoned in Toledo when he wrote the Dark Night of the Soul.\u00a0 To a Catholic, that\u2019s like a baseball fan finding out they are at a ballpark where Babe Ruth played.<\/p>\n
St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, right there in the city I was!\u00a0 A young priest happened to be walking by.\u00a0 I took the chance he knew some English.\u00a0 I fear I nearly accosted him to ask where that had taken place.\u00a0 He was understanding of my fervor and pointed on a map to the place a small plaque marked the spot John was held captive.<\/p>\n
John was born in a nearby village in 1542.\u00a0 When he was three his father died, and the family fell into deep poverty.\u00a0 Despite deprivations, he grew to be a devout young man. He came to study at a Carmelite Monastery and became a novitiate to that Order.<\/p>\n
This was a turbulent time in Church history, and Spain was the epicenter of struggles within the faith.\u00a0 John became acquainted with Teresa of nearby Avila. Teresa was a Carmelite sister who had undertaken a great reform in that group, attempting to move it to deeper holiness.\u00a0 John was inspired to the same.<\/p>\n
By 1577 tensions led to a split among the Carmelites, and the factions became violent.\u00a0 John was kidnapped, dragged to Toledo, and thrown into a windowless cell above the Tajo River.\u00a0 There he was for months, tormented by his captors to give up his crusade.<\/p>\n
In that dim, cold place that John came to face his inner self.\u00a0 Stripped of everything, he was forced to confront the deepest, darkest parts of his mind and soul.\u00a0 It was here he crafted his epic poem, \u201cThe Dark Night.\u201d\u00a0 From that loneliest and lowest point, John was drawn to God, the true light.<\/p>\n
John, one of Spain\u2019s greatest poets, ends the Dark Night joyfully as he finds God, his beloved:<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, night that guided me!
\nOh, night more lovely than the dawn!
\nOh, night that has united the lover with the beloved!\u201d<\/p>\n
We were staying in the old part of Toledo, which looks much like the medieval city of John\u2019s time. \u00a0I could retrace John\u2019s steps he trod at night after his escape.\u00a0 It turned my vacation into a small pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
The Dark Night of the Soul is an important work in theology.\u00a0 John\u2019s journey to the depths of his being has counseled believers for centuries.\u00a0 Many of the saints had similar experiences when they came to find the light, when they came to God.<\/p>\n