Why, since you wounded
this heart, don’t you heal it?
and why, since you stole it from me,
do you leave it so,
and fail to carry off
what you have stolen

St John of the Cross

A hunter stalks through a forest. Suddenly he spots a deer, takes aim, releases the arrow. The animal falls, then rises again, struggling to live, but however hard it tries, “the stag dies”. That’s how the soul feels at this stage. It is shot through by love’s stinging arrow, but there is no remedy to assuage her pain. Whatever she tries to do only succeeds in deepening the wound. There is no cure for her other then to find her life in blind faith to God. Since God is the cause of her pain, only God can heal it.  –Susan Muto