Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch

Office of the Presiding Bishop

A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Laity of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch

On Trusting the Holy Spirit in the Midst of Humanity’s Dark Night

Dear Beloved in Christ,

Grace and peace to you in the name of the One who walks with us through every shadowed valley and who breathes life anew at every dawn.

We find ourselves, as a global family, in a time of profound disorientation. The signs of crisis are many: overpopulation strains our ecosystems and communities; ecological ruin threatens the very breath of creation; economic disparity widens the chasm between abundance and scarcity; and political authoritarianism rises in many lands, casting long shadows over the dignity of people and freedom of conscience.

These are not merely social or political challenges. They are spiritual thresholds. We are passing, collectively, through what the mystics have long called a dark night of the soul—a time when the familiar lights go dim, when the scaffolding of certainty collapses, and when the soul, stripped of its comforts, must walk by trust alone. But let us be clear: this night is not abandonment. It is transformation.

The Holy Spirit—She who hovered over the waters of chaos, She who overshadowed Mary, She who descended as fire and breath—is not absent. She is at work in the deep. Though Her movements may be hidden from our immediate sight, She is guiding humanity toward a new dawn. The Spirit does not forsake the world She indwells. She is not overwhelmed by our crises. She is not defeated by our despair. She is leading us, even now, through the crucible of purification into the spaciousness of resurrection.

To navigate this dark night, we must cultivate the spiritual posture of trustful surrender. Not passive resignation, but active fidelity. We must become contemplatives in action—rooted in prayer, grounded in justice, and attuned to the subtle promptings of grace. We must resist the temptation to despair, to cynicism, to spiritual fatigue. Instead, we must hold vigil with hope, knowing that the Spirit is gestating something holy in the womb of this suffering.

Let us remember: the dark night is not the end. It is a time of passage, a time of liminal space. It is the labor before the birth. It is the silence before the Word is spoken anew. And just as the soul, in its individual journey, emerges from the night with deeper clarity, compassion, and communion, so too shall humanity emerge with a renewed vision of justice, ecological harmony, and spiritual maturity, but only if we remain open to the Spirit’s quiet guidance, to the sacredness of every life, and to the deeper truth that love, not fear, is the final word.

I urge each of you—clergy and laity alike—to be midwives of this emergence. Preach hope. Practice mercy. Protect the vulnerable. Pray without ceasing. And above all, trust that the Holy Spirit is in control, even when appearances suggest otherwise. She is the wind that cannot be harnessed, the fire that purifies, the breath that revives. She is leading us home.

With trust in the Spirit and with solidarity in Christ, I remain your companion on the Way,

+Mark

Mark Elliott Newman

Presiding Bishop
Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch