When God sees that they have grown a little, he weans them from the sweet breast so that they might be strengthened, lays aside their swaddling bands, and puts them down from his arms that they may grow accustomed to walking by themselves. . . . This usually happens to recollected beginners sooner than to others since they are freer from occasions of backsliding and more quickly reform their appetites for worldly things. A reform of the appetites is the requirement for entering the happy night of the senses [initial contemplative prayer]. Not much time ordinarily passes after the initial stages of their spiritual life before beginners start to enter this night of sense [initial contemplative prayer]. And the majority of them do enter it, because it is common to see them suffer these aridities…. We could adduce numerous passages from Sacred Scripture, for since this sensory purgation [initial contemplative prayer] is so customary we find a great many references to it throughout, especially in the Psalms and the Prophets. But I do not want to spend time citing them, because the prevalence of the experience of this night should be enough. –St John of the Cross ‘Dark Night of the Soul’