If we only want nice experiences on the journey, then we’re going to be disappointed. But these difficult times or dark times or dark nights or acedia moments, they contain seeds of new life. At the time, of course they may be difficult, painful, dry, empty, with a sense of loss or abandonment. But these dark or difficult times, they nevertheless contain the seeds of new regeneration and further progress. ‘Everything works together for good for those who love God,’ St Paul says (Rom 8:28).