The second step causes a person to search for God unceasingly. When the bride said that seeking him by night in her bed (when in accord with the first step of love she was languishing), she did not find him, she added: I will rise up and seek him whom my soul loves [Sg. 3:1-2], which as we said the soul does unceasingly, as David counsels: Seek the face of God always [Ps. 105:4]. Searching for him in all things, it pays heed to nothing until it finds him. It resembles the bride who, after asking the guards for him, immediately passed by and left them behind [Sg. 3:3-4]. Mary Magdalene did not even pay attention to the angels at the sepulcher [Jn. 20:14].

From St. John of the Cross, Dark Night (2, 19, 2) [Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD, revised edition (1991)].

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