Introductory notes for readers of this thesis - Theses - Flinders ...

Rahner does not claim for himself the mystical awareness of the ‘great souls’; he simplyasks God for the grace to continue ‘this awful waiting’: the clearing of the ‘ground of thesoul’ in readiness for the anticipated divine hour of grace.Rahner’s thinking represents a dual spirituality of silence. All his words and activities—including his human attempts to ‘pray’—are expressions of both his powerlessnesstowards God and his faith that such a moment of divine empowerment will come, orperhaps already has. Rahner recognises that words cannot represent the depth of spiritualexpression that is ‘prayer’: the giving of a person’s whole life to God. God’s actionenables prayer on a level deeper than verbal expression or human consciousness.Though the extent to which Rahner is actually using John of the Cross (1542–91) as asource is not clear, the connections are notable; the original ‘dark night’ text stresses aspiritual movement of the soul that ‘has left discursive meditation and entered the state ofproficients, it is God who works in it’ 56 .Furthermore, those entering the dark night should recognise their utter powerlessness tomake an interior connection to God. The appropriate response to the ‘night of the senses’is toliberate themselves from the impediment and fatigue of ideas and thoughts… theymust be content simply with a loving and peaceful attentiveness to God… withoutthe effort, and without the desire to taste and feel Him 57 .The movement of the Spirit in such a dark night is a ‘secret contemplation’ that isexperienced at an unconscious and meta-sensory level: ‘[t]hrough this contemplation,God teaches the soul secretly and instructs it in the perfection of love without its doinganything or understanding how this happens’58 .56 Book I, Chapter nine, ‘The Dark Night’ cited in Egan, H, An anthology of Christian mysticism,(Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 456.57 Book I, Chapter ten, ibid in Egan, 457.58 Book II, Chapter five, ibid.70