during the existential alienation...

O spiritual soul, when thou seest thy desire obscured, thy Will arid and constrained, and thy faculties incapable of any interior act, be not grieved at this but look upon it rather as a great good, for God is delivering thee from thyself, taking the matter out of thy hands; for however strenuously thou mayest exert thyself, thou will never do anything so faultlessly, perfectly, and secure as now -- because of the impurity and torpor of thy faculties -- when God, taking thee by the hand, is guiding thee in the dark as one that is blind, along a road ... and to an end thou knowest not, and whither thou couldst never travel by the help of thine own eyes and thine own feet, however strong thou mayest be...

Extract from The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross of the Order of Mount Carmel