← [[session-01-f2a|Who John Is, Overview, and Terminology]] | [[formation-II-a-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-03-f2a|The Harm That Inordinate Appetites Cause in the Soul]] → # Disordered Desires and Inordinate Appetites Greatly Hinder One's Prayer Life Appetites: Generally, inordinate affective desires in which the will participates; that is, willful desires not rightly ordered to a moral or spiritual good. Appetites, when habitual, impede union with God. These weary, torment, darken, defile, and weaken the soul (see Glossary of Terms, pg. 767). Required Reading: Ascent, Book One, ch. 1-5 One dark night, Fired with love’s urgent longings —ah, the sheer grace!— Explanatory note: Book One of the Ascent deals with the active night of sense. John calls this night “the point of departure” (A.1.2:2). “Its focus is on behavioral change; correcting obvious faults, choosing to mortify our self-centered ego, and exercising restraint regarding sensory (disordered) pleasures. The purpose of the active night of sense is not to repress desire but to reorient it. It is the soul’s first attempt to change its life (a new form of life). In short, God is luring the soul away from the pleasures of earth by means of the pleasures of heaven” (Ascent Reflections pg. 7-8). “The point of departure” is a sense of need, a recognition that our life will not be complete until God is at the center. In essence, “the point of departure” is the orientation toward one’s prayer life. Hence, this night is “the sheer grace!” “Though the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit.” (Sayings 3) **Essential Points to Discuss:** • Here John uses the expression “night” to signify the denial of gratification of the soul’s inordinate appetites in all things (see A.1.2:1). • It is the nature of human desire and attachment which is at issue, not the things of the world and relationships that are part of daily life. Created things and human relationships are good and worthy of desire, provided they are used as God intends. “Since the things of the world cannot enter the soul, they are not in themselves an encumbrance or harm to it, rather, it is the will and appetite dwelling within that cause the damage when set on these things” (A.1.3:4). Note to formators: This clarification is essential to the understanding of John’s teaching throughout his work (see footnote 2 in the Ascent). • John is talking about stripping away the craving for gratification (gusto, apetito) in those things (something internal). “This is what leaves it free and empty of all things even 12 though it possesses them.” Likewise, even though David (Ps 88:15) was manifestly a wealthy person, he says he was poor “because his will was not fixed on riches” (A.1.3:4). When desires are put in order, one can be rich or poor and still turn everything to God. Side note: “John does not mean to say that we have to kill all our desires since he is going to say we find all our desires satisfied in God, which would be impossible if they were all eliminated. What we want to be rid of is not desires as such but the disorders. Adam and Eve before the fall had a perfectly integrated human nature in which none of the desires were disordered and all led to God's glory. John does not want us to become bodiless angels without human desires, but fully integrated human beings as God created us to be.” “From this chapter 3 paragraph 4, I always take away one important point for self-examination: What is disordered in my desires? Am I as ‘detached’ as I like to think? I am surrounded by so many possessions. How many of them really possess me? It's easy to think I am ‘detached’ when my ordered little world is not threatened. The test, for me, is not how much I have or lack right now but how I respond when those things are taken away” — Fr. Steven Payne courtesy Cincarm - a Carmelite platform • “When inordinate desires are cast out, the soul will be clothed with new knowledge of God. As a result, one’s activities, once human, now become divine. This is achieved in the state of union, when the soul in which God alone dwells has no other function than that of an altar on which God is adored in praise and love” (A.1.5:7). • “Those who have no other goal than the perfect observance of the Lord’s law and carrying of the cross of Christ will be true arks, and they will bear within themselves the real manna, which is God…” (A.1.5:8). • As can be seen, John’s attention is on the inner person, and not on things themselves which are value-neutral. Understanding one’s own shortcomings and imperfections leads to growth in self-knowledge, which in turn leads to truer knowledge of God. “Night” is an encounter of God’s presence — purifying and transforming one’s life. • Participants may wish to discuss practical applications of these concepts. 13 01.24 1-24-2024 OCDS Formation II, Year A --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year A: The Ascent of Mount Carmel* (US National Formation Program, 2024).