Ascent of mount carmel [clip 4]

On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings

Briefly, then, the soul means by this stanza that it
went forth (being led by God) for love of Him alone,
enkindled in love of Him, upon a dark night, which is the
privation and purgation of all its sensual desires, with
respect to all outward things of the world and to those
which were delectable to its flesh, and likewise with
respect to the desires of its will. This all comes to
pass in this purgation of sense; for which cause the
soul says that it went forth while its house was still
at rest;77 which house is its sensual part, the desires
being at rest and asleep in it, as it is to them.78 For
there is no going forth from the pains and afflictions
of the secret places of the desires until these be
mortified and put to sleep. And this, the soul says,
was a happy chance for it -- namely, its going forth
without being observed: that is, without any desire of its
flesh or any other thing being able to hinder it. And
likewise, because it went out by night -- which signifies
the privation of all these things wrought in it by God,
which privation was night for it.

By St. Johm of the cross