← [[session-06-f2a|Counsels and Methods — Continued]] | [[formation-II-a-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-08-f2a|Purification of the Intellect by the Practice of Faith]] → # Counsels and Methods — Continued Required Reading: Ascent, Book One, ch. 13:11-13; ch. 14 and 15 (4) Fourth: “To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing… ” (A.1.13:11-13). These lines are those already written down in the sketch at the beginning of this book, that of the Ascent of Mt. Carmel. **Additional Reading:** Read the entire Maxims meditatively) Explanatory note: John underlines the importance of non-possessiveness. He also speaks about a fundamental truth of life, namely, “…they cannot rejoice in them (things of the world) if they behold them with possessiveness…In detachment from things they acquire a clearer knowledge of them and a better understanding of both natural and supernatural truths concerning them, and they receive great benefits and advantages from their joy. They delight in these goods according to the truth of them, but those who are attached delight according to what is false in them…One should seek this alone in the use of things, turning away from vanity and concern of one’s own delight and consolation” (A.3.20:2-3). “There is another exceptional and principal benefit of detachment from joy in creatures: freedom of the heart for God” (A.3.20:4). John teaches that it is only the non-possessive heart that is truly free, and although such persons “have nothing, possess everything with greater liberty” (A.3.20:3). Essential Points to Discuss: • “... and when you come to the possession of the all you must possess it without wanting anything. Because if you desire to have something in all your treasure in God is not purely your all” (A.1.13:12). • “In this nakedness the spirit finds its quietude and rest. For in coveting nothing, nothing tires it by pulling it up and nothing oppresses it by pushing it down, because it is in the center of its humility. When it covets something, by this very fact it tires itself” (A.1.13:13). Poverty of Spirit: A detachment from particular knowledge, earthly and heavenly, and from satisfaction and pleasure. The reality indicated by other expressions such as purity of heart, emptiness (void), night, nothing (nada), detachment, and nakedness (denudation); the negative aspect of the theological virtues, which bring it about. Those who have attained it are blessed; only they find complete satisfaction of heart (see Glossary of Terms, pg. 773). Sub-theme: “Fired with love’s urgent longings.” (Chapters 14 and 15) “When evening comes, you will be examined in love. Learn to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own way of acting.” (Sayings, 60) 22 Explanatory note: John concludes his counsel with a rather surprising note: but essential to the understanding of the Discalced Carmelite charism of prayer. He says that while we must make an honest effort, our disordered appetites will never be healed except by “another deeper love” of God (consolation in prayer). In this prayer, God becomes the intense desire. By finding satisfaction and strength in this love, one will possess the courage and constancy to readily deny all other appetites. John’s understanding is that by finding satisfaction and strength in this love (of God), one could readily deny all other appetites and temptations (see A.1.14:2). Again, John is not expecting from beginners the complete mortification of their appetites. Beginners do what they can with the help of God’s grace, but complete purification won’t come until God himself brings it about in the passive nights. Consequently, discursive prayer and meditation are essential practices that enable one to turn toward God. John observes that our focus should not be always on our imperfections and shortcomings. Rather, we turn to God in prayer for healing and transformation. One’s compulsive, sensual love needs to be replaced with a higher, nobler love. John promises that in the end all our desires will be fulfilled in God. “Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the nations, the just are mine, and mine the sinners. The angels are mine, and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me. What do you ask, then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in anything less or pay heed to the crumbs that fall from your Father’s table. Go forth and exult in your Glory!” (Sayings of Light and Love, 27) Essential Points to Discuss: • Chapter 14 of the Ascent, Book One is the most important: it gives a retrospective key to everything that has gone before, putting all John’s ascetical advice into perspective. In other words, John’s active night of sense does not begin with a grim determination to annihilate all desires in order to please God. Rather, God first takes the initiative, enkindling the soul with longings, so that it “wants” to make the effort to remove whatever impedes union. What gives the impetus is an infatuation with God. At the beginning, these longings are immature and sometimes misdirected, but they get the person moving and make one “want” to grow and change. (paraphrasing Fr. Steven Payne, OCD — For further understanding, see “Consolation in Prayer — enkindling of another love” Appendix C). • In this prayer, God becomes the object of intense desire. This is the heart of John’s teaching: that Christ is the source of one's focus, love and strength. When souls follow John’s counsels, and depart from those inner “houses” in which they have been imprisoned by inordinate desires and attachments, they too can sing with the Saint: “—ah, the sheer grace!— I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled.” 23 01.24 1-24-2024 OCDS Formation II, Year A Introduction to Part II of the Syllabus THE ASCENT OF MOUNT CARMEL - BOOK TWO PROGRESSION IN PRAYER AND UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF UNION WITH GOD ACTIVE NIGHT OF THE SPIRIT — PURIFICATION OF THE INTELLECT, MEMORY, AND WILL Prayer: Communion with God, requiring a will that is with Him and a mind set on Him. Its aim should be what is more pleasing to God. Objects and places should be a means to help one pray in the living temple, which is interior recollection. All the prayers of the Church are reducible to the Our Father. Interior prayer may be meditative or contemplative. In union, it becomes wholly the exercise of love (see Glossary of Terms, pg. 773). “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” — St. Thérèse of Lisieux “Seek by reading and you will find by meditating; knock in prayer and the door will be opened in contemplation.” — St. John of the Cross. Explanatory note: Part two of this formation year touches on the period of purification identified by John as the “active night of the spirit,” when the intellect is purified by faith, the memory is purified by hope, and the will is purified by charity. This active night of the spirit and the active night of sense are two aspects of the same night. “The purgation of the senses is only the gate to and beginning of the contemplation that leads to the purgation of the spirit. This sensitive purgation [of spirit] … serves more for the accommodation of the senses to the spirit than for the union of the spirit with God” (N.2.2:1). (emphasis added) When consolations are withheld, the person may not realize that God is continuing to work in the soul. “When the sweet breast of consolation is withheld, God does not withdraw. Rather, the mode of God’s presence changes… God is no longer found on the surface of the waves because he is present on the bottom of the ocean.” John calls this gentle, quiet mode of God’s presence “contemplation,” and the soul’s receptivity and response to it the “passive night of sense” (See Ascent Reflections pgs. 9-10). 24 --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year A: The Ascent of Mount Carmel* (US National Formation Program, 2024).