← [[session-02-f2a|Disordered Desires and Inordinate Appetites Greatly Hinder One's Prayer Life]] | [[formation-II-a-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-05-f2a|Counsels and Methods on How to Overcome Miseries]] → # The Harm That Inordinate Appetites Cause in the Soul Required Reading: Ascent, Book One, ch. 6-10; The Ascent of Mount Carmel Reflections, pg. 27-52 Explanatory note: In chapters 6 through 10 of Book One of the Ascent, John sets before the reader the self-inflicted misery, damage, or harm that comes from indulging inordinate appetites. John mentions two types of harm that inordinate appetites cause in the soul: privative and positive. The deepest harm that inordinate desires cause is privative — the loss of desire for God. The specific effects that flow from this privative harm are the positive harms that “weary, torment, darken, and defile the soul” (Ascent 1.6:5; Reflections p. 29). John states time and again, “this is a venture in which God alone is sought and gained” (Ascent 2:7:3). John uses powerfully descriptive language to convey one’s miserable condition and possessive attitudes. Essential points to discuss: • “To begin with, it is clear in speaking of the privative harm that a person by a mere attachment to a created thing is less capable of God...Since love of God and attachment to creatures are contraries, they cannot coexist in the same will” (A.1.6:1). Obsession with an object, person, project or idea makes one neglectful of his or her duties toward God and neighbor. Side note: The phrase “attachments to creatures” can include possessive relationships, over-indulgence in otherwise legitimate pleasures, over-concern with rules and procedures, self-willed ideas, excessive interest in programs of self-help, personal fulfillment, materialism, over-use of electronic devices, etc. • John uses the passage of Matthew 15:26-27 to segue into expressing his experience as a spiritual director. He takes the concept of dogs feeding on crumbs and applies the image to people who settle for the crumbs of created things when God is inviting them to eat at His table. “The crumbs serve more to whet their appetite than to satisfy their hunger” (see A.1.6:2-3). • The five positive harms to the soul are: o weariness o torment and affliction o blindness and darkness o defilement and stains o weakness and tepidity (A.1.6:1) • Discuss how these harms manifest in the Christian’s life in the world. • John observes that life is thrown out of balance by disordered inclinations. Behavioral patterns stem from tendencies (inclinations) that are often unconscious and reflexive. While external improvement in behavior is praiseworthy, the root tendencies need deeper healing. By responding to God’s invitation (prayer and meditation), one’s body, mind, and spirit are realigned toward God. God works deep healing in the soul that habitually seeks Him. In Christ’s words: “Come to me... I will refresh you; and you will 14 find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:28-29). God’s invitation: “Come listen to me, come to the waters” is further explained in Ascent 1 ch. 7:3-4. • John is also making another important observation about those who practice extraordinary penances and other religious practices (outward observances) without striving to deny their appetites (inner purification). “The ignorance of some is extremely lamentable; they burden themselves with extraordinary penances and many other exercises, thinking these are sufficient to attain union with Divine Wisdom. But such practices are insufficient if these souls do not diligently strive to deny their appetites. If they would attempt to devote only half of that energy to the renunciation of their (inordinate) desires, they would profit more in a month than in years with all these other exercises” (A.1.8:4) (emphasis added). Side note on external practices: It would be appropriate for the candidates to reflect on how their prayer life has evolved over the past three years. John is not against penitential practices. The focus is on inner purification rather than outward observances. Understanding the term “penitential practices”: A. John’s observation reflects the teaching of St. Therese of Lisieux regarding penance and growth in virtue. Therese was very much disappointed when her entrance to Carmel was delayed: “… I was unable to hold back my tears at the thought of such a long wait…The trial was very great and made me grow very much in abandonment and in the other virtues… I made a resolution to give myself up more than ever to a serious and mortified life. When I say mortified, this is not to give the impression that I performed acts of penance. Alas, I never made any. Far from resembling beautiful souls who practiced every kind of mortification from their childhood, I had no attraction for this. My mortification consisted in breaking my will always so ready to impose itself on others, in holding back a reply, in rendering little services without any recognition…etc., etc. It was through the practice of these nothings that I prepared myself to become the fiancée of Jesus…” (Story of a Soul ch. VI). B. The following is a commentary on Ascent, Book One, 8:4, by Fr. Steven Payne, OCD, courtesy, Cincarm -- a Carmelite platform I thought I’d mention one comment that struck me again in Chapter 8 paragraph 4. There, John notes that “the ignorance of some is extremely lamentable; they burden themselves with extraordinary penances and many other exercises, thinking these are sufficient to attain union with Divine Wisdom. But such practices are insufficient if these souls do not diligently strive to deny their appetites. If they would attempt to devote only half of that energy to the renunciation of their desires, they would profit more in a month than in years with all these other exercises.” I was struck because I can see in my own life how much easier it has always been to substitute works of piety and religious practices for the more difficult challenge of purifying my own desires. Think how much people run after the extraordinary today, instead of focusing on the very ordinary struggle to overcome our own selfishness in 15 01.24 1-24-2024 OCDS Formation II, Year A the very ordinary circumstances of our daily lives. Saint Teresa talks somewhere about meeting a group of pious women whose devotion impressed her — until she said “no” to their plans, and then they became unbearable. She said they frightened her “more than all the sinners in the world.” Anyway, it struck me because it’s a theme that will recur so often in John: that the greatest dangers on the spiritual journey come not so much from obvious evils but from apparent (even real) goods that are nonetheless not properly ordered to God • John presents three privative harms: o “The appetites sap the strength needed for perseverance in the practice of virtue” (A.1.10:1). o When the soul dissipates its energy in other things, it loses its fervor for God and its strength in the practice of virtue (see A.1.10:1). o “Ordinarily, the reason many people do not have diligence and eagerness for the acquisition of virtue is that their appetites and affections are not fixed purely on God” (A.1.10:4). Note: For a detailed study of John’s explanation of the five effects of positive harm, please refer to Appendix A “Positive Harms. ” 16 Understanding “voluntary” and “natural” appetites. Freedom from all voluntary appetites, even the smallest, is necessary to attain divine union Required Reading: Ascent, Book One, ch. 11 and 12; Ascent of Mount Carmel Reflections, pg. 53-54. “Those who do not allow their appetites to carry them away will soar in their spirit as swiftly as the bird that lacks no feathers. ” (Sayings, 23) **Essential Points to Discuss:** • Having spelled out in vivid detail the privative and positive effects inordinate attachments can cause in the soul, John is careful to explain in chapter 11 that not all appetites (desires) are harmful, nor equally a hindrance to union with God (see A.1.11:2). John is not speaking of good, natural desires for God-given things — food, drink, good music, healthy friendships, etc. These are part of human existence. The concern here is attachments which take away the soul’s freedom to follow God unreservedly and instead cause one to stumble, to grow lax, and to be uncharitable. • Voluntary appetites that involve imperfections must be “put in order.” “That is, one must not give consent of the will advertently and knowingly to an imperfection…” (A.1.11:3). The word “knowingly” is important because “one will fall into imperfections, without having knowledge or control of them” (A.1.11:3). Of course, one cannot do much about imperfections or disordered appetites that one is not even aware of. First, they must be brought to consciousness. Note: It is the “disordered” that needs to be eliminated, not the appetites (desires) themselves. • When voluntary desires become habitual, they become an obstacle to union with God. As long as one is sincerely trying to serve God, scattered failings are not necessarily a hindrance to prayer, but habitual desires that are not resisted and conquered become a barrier to spiritual progress and divine union (see A.1.11:3). Some examples of these habitual imperfections are: the common habit of being very talkative; love of gossip (including electronic “gossip” through cell phones and the internet); a small attachment one never really desires to conquer, for example, to a person, to clothing, to over-eating (A.1.11:4), and in the modern world, attachment to TV, cell phone, internet, social media, and not having times of silence in one’s day. • John offers a telling image. “It makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord… Admittedly the thread is easier to break, but no matter how easily this may be done, the bird will not fly away without doing so. This is the lot of those who are attached to something: No matter how much virtue they have they will not reach the freedom of the divine union” (A.1.11:4). 17 01.24 1-24-2024 OCDS Formation II, Year A • “If a small crack in a pitcher goes unrepaired, the damage will be enough to cause all the liquid to leak out… Accordingly, one imperfection leads to another, and these to still more” (A.1.11:5). • Resisting first movements (the first stirrings of temptation) “wins strength, purity, comfort, and many blessings” (A.1.12:6). Virtue is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). John’s solution lies in looking away from self to Jesus who is the fullness of life; for, as John says, souls become like the things they love. • Mortifying inordinate desires does not lead to the elimination of desire, but rather the release of our deepest desire for God, which in turn, purifies, transforms, and integrates all natural desires” (Ascent to Joy, pg. 55). Imperfections: From the viewpoint of their object, the diminutive is used: “small attachments,” “little satisfactions.” The problem lies not in the object but in the subject; that is, one’s attachment interferes with the dynamism of love and spiritual progress. Habitual imperfections, when known, recognized, and voluntary, impede one from reaching the freedom of union (see Glossary of Terms, pg. 770). 18 --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year A: The Ascent of Mount Carmel* (US National Formation Program, 2024).