From Jimmy Akin's Blog at www.jimmyakin.org – one of the Catholic blogs to watch! 🙂
Spiritual writers often refer to "the dark night of the soul"–the experience of great souls of seemingly being abandoned by God, as (perhaps) when Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes ("Vanity, vanity; all is vanity!"), or (even more perhaps) when Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Mother Theresa, it was revealed after her death, experienced this phenomenon as well, and recent evidence suggests that it lasted for a very long time–decades, in fact. Truly an antarctic dark night of the soul. GET THE STORY. See here also.
Papal Preacher Fr. Cantalamesa comments here: http://www.zenit.org/article-20348?l=english. Article in First Things here.
For Liz Lev's usual brilliant thoughts, visit http://www.zenit.org/article-20371?l=english