Loving

Clouds and light.

Lift up your heart to God with simple love. Let God be your aim rather than the things he can provide. Try to forget the world and everything material. Focus on God alone.

When you begin you will only find darkness. This is like a cloud of unknowing. You will not be able to identify it. As you reach out to God, this dark cloud will always be between you and God. There is nothing you can do about it. It will prevent you from seeing him clearly. Neither the reasoning powers of your rational mind nor the affections of your emotions will permit a complete experience of God.

Accept this as natural. Try to be comfortable and content in this darkness for as long as it takes. Continue to call out for God. If you are going to have any experience of God in this life, it will be in this cloud and in this darkness.

You have a knowing power and a loving power. God, who gave both of them to you, is incomprehensible to the knowing power. But he is entirely comprehensible to the loving power. This is the miracle of love.

Anonymous,
The Cloud of Unknowing