Ordering Desires

The goal is not to eliminate desire but to ORDER it toward God. John of the Cross: the problem is not that you desire too much, but that you desire the wrong things — or the right things in the wrong way. Food, rest, friendship, beauty — all good gifts from God. They become disordered when they become ultimate — when you NEED them more than you need God. (Ep 643, 644)

To appreciate the full significance of this teaching, it helps to situate it within the broader framework of the Catholic spiritual tradition. The great masters of the interior life — Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, and Ignatius of Loyola — each brought their distinctive charism and experience to bear on questions like this one. Their convergent testimony, spanning centuries and diverse vocations, gives this teaching a depth and authority that goes far beyond any single author's perspective.

Understanding "ordering desires" requires attending to both its doctrinal foundations and its practical implications. The Catholic tradition insists that authentic spiritual knowledge is never merely theoretical — it must be tested in prayer, refined through experience, and ultimately verified by its fruits in the life of the soul. This is why the Church's greatest teachers on the spiritual life are not only theologians but saints — men and women who lived what they taught, and whose writings carry the authority of verified experience.

At the same time, the tradition is careful to anchor experiential testimony in sound doctrine. The Doctors of the Church do not simply report their own experiences; they interpret those experiences in light of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Church's magisterial teaching. This integration of experience and doctrine is one of the defining characteristics of Catholic spiritual theology, and it is what gives the tradition its remarkable combination of depth and reliability.

The richness of the tradition becomes apparent when we listen to the voices of the masters themselves. Each brings a distinctive perspective to this teaching, yet all converge on its essential truth.

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

Or again according to Chrysostom [*Hom. xvii in Matth. in the Opus Imperfectum falsely ascribed to St. John of the Cross], He forbids the judgment which proceeds not from benevolence but from bitterness of heart. Reply to Objection 2: A judge is appointed as God's servant; wherefore it is written.

(Source: summa_english.txt)

St. Teresa of Avila writes:

Fray Antonio nevertheless persevered, and bore all contradiction in peace, and ‘the persecution of evil tongues ’ (ch. ii. 15) never shook his good resolution. The other friar was Fray Juan of S. Mathias, afterwards and now known as S. John of the Cross. He had been received into the order in the. house of S. Anne in Medina del Campo in the year 1563, when he was about twenty-one years of age,.

(Source: book_of_foundations.txt)

St. Francis de Sales writes:

SPIRITUAL FLOWERS A soul dedicated to God entirely, in act and in will, deserves that God should give Himself entirely to her—St. John of the Cross. We ought always to have our eye fixed upon the Will of God alone, recognising it, and with all joy, or at least courage, following it carefully in all our actions.

(Source: 06_selected_letters.txt)

St. Ignatius of Loyola writes:

Father de Guibert^s fine phrase his was a mysticism of service, and no one can read his letters without being struck by the complete absence of that mystical language which only a few years later St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross were to make so familiar. His sights were focused on the praise and reverence of His Divine Majesty, and this he beheld with a clearness and sought with a consistency.

(Source: letters_young_1959_NOTE_may_be_copyrighted.txt)

The Catechism (PD) writes:

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were also illustrated by St.

(Source: deharbe_catechism.txt)

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

4:5, "Judge not before the time." Therefore a judgment based on suspicion would seem not to be unlawful. On the contrary, Chrysostom [*Hom. xvii in Matth. in the Opus Imperfectum falsely ascribed to St. John of the Cross] in comment on the words of Mat. 7:1, "Judge not," etc., says: "By this commandment our Lord does not forbid Christians to reprove others from kindly motives, but that Christian.

(Source: summa_english.txt)

St. Teresa of Avila writes:

Andrew. This is the date given in the depositions in the process of beatification of S. John of the Cross at Medina (/éid. p. 47, note). Father Gerardo suggests that the 28th may have been the date of the arrival of Antonio de.

(Source: book_of_foundations.txt)

The Church's doctrinal tradition provides authoritative grounding for this teaching. Proposition T2.O.006 (sententia_certa) states:

The consequences of original sin in each person include a darkened intellect, a weakened will inclined to evil, disordered concupiscence, subjection to suffering and bodily death, and a general diminishment of the natural powers — though free will itself is not destroyed.

• Scripture: ['For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and...
• Aquinas: ['Through the sin of our first parent, his descendants are deprived of grace, and the powers of the soul are left in a manner weakened and...
• Councils: ["If anyone says that since Adam's sin the free will of man is lost and extinguished... let him be anathema.", "If anyone says that the whole man,...
• Fathers: ['By the greatness of the first transgression, our nature had fallen and deteriorated, and was changed for the worse... Not that free will was...

Additionally, proposition T4.G.005 (de_fide) affirms: The grace of justification can be lost through mortal sin. The justified person is not assured of final perseverance without a special privilege of God.

For the engaged learner, understanding "ordering desires" opens a path to deeper prayer and more fruitful cooperation with grace. The sources cited above show that this is not abstract theology but a lived reality that has shaped the spiritual lives of countless saints and ordinary Christians across two millennia.

The practical challenge is to take this teaching into one's own prayer and daily life. This might begin with reflective reading of one or more of the sources quoted above, followed by prayerful consideration of how this teaching applies to one's current spiritual situation. The tradition consistently emphasises that spiritual growth comes not from accumulating information but from allowing truth to penetrate the heart through prayer, sacramental life, and faithful practice.

As St. Francis de Sales reminds us, the devout life is possible in every state — what matters is not extraordinary circumstances but extraordinary love applied to ordinary duties. This teaching invites precisely that kind of response: a deepening of one's relationship with God through understanding and practice, sustained by the rich resources of the tradition.