Attend to the words, for they have an especial force, "many walk" in the broad way - "few find" the narrow way. For the broad way needs no search... . Whereas the narrow way neither do all find... . Many, after they have found the way of truth, caught by the pleasures of the world, desert midway.
- St. Jerome
[B]ecause they are very few that endure and persevere in entering by this strait gate and by the narrow way which leads to life, as says Our Savior... . The strait gate is the night of sense... .
- St. John of the Cross
The night of sense is the strait gate. To enter the narrow passage, we must pass through the dark night of sense. This night of sense is not a time of "meditation" or "reasoning," but for quietness and stillness, for the cessation of knowledge and thought, as the Saint says.
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