Ideas

Feeling Desolate? There Is a Cure for That.

Everyone sooner or later faces a dark night of the soul. Don’t hide from yours; learn from it.

First published in The Atlantic on October 16, 2025.

by Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic

October 23, 2025 | reading time: 7 Min.

Any darkening of the mind, disturbance therein, instigation to the lowest or earthly things; together with every disquietude and agitation, or temptation, which moves to distrust concerning salvation, and expels hope and charity; whence the soul feels that she is saddened, grows lukewarm, becomes torpid, and almost despairs of the mercy of God.