During the "dark night" of faith, one must let himself be guided to reality not by visible and tangible things, not by the evidence of sense or the understanding of reason, not by concepts charged with natural hope, or joy, or fear, or desire, or grief, but by "dark faith" that transcends all desire and seeks no human and earthly satisfaction, except what is willed by God or connected with His will.
— Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience by Thomas Merton, William H. Shannon, editor