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Sometimes it happens this way.

Sometimes when you are closest to God, you feel as though you are farthest away.

It seems to happen that when you are a new Christian, God speaks clearly, you feel His presence solidly, light is all around you.

As you progress in your faith, God’s voice gets fainter, His presence is harder to grasp, the clouds begin to form around you.

This is how it was for Mother Theresa who began her life full of fire and certainty and spent the last fifty years of her life full of darkness and silence. She continued to obey, even when the dry times outnumbered the rich times.

As a baby, you need God to discernibly carry you. When you become more mature, you need to trust that God is still carrying you.

When God first showed Himself to Moses, it was in the light.

In a miracle of a fiery bush that did not become ash, He revealed Himself to a man who did not yet know Him.

Later, God showed Himself to Moses in a cloud.

In the middle of the cloudy dimness of a pillar of cloud, God spoke to a man who was learning to trust Him.

Once Moses became more perfected, he saw God in the darkness.

In the darkness on the top of a mountain, God gave His Word to a man who knew Him.

We should not think that this is unusual. We should not despair when we must enter the darkness. We should not give up on God when we can no longer see Him.

Rather, we should continue to obey, continue to trust, continue to speak and to listen.

What you discovered about God in the fiery light does not disappear once He cloaks Himself in darkness.

He is still there, He still loves you, and He is still working to perfect you.

Especially in the darkness.

Ideas in this post come from St. Gregory of Nissa (335-395 AD)

Art Credits: God Appears to Moses from Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg; Pillar of Cloud is a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company; Promulgation of the Law by Gerard Hoet