(St John of the Cross)….reiterate the lowly and impure capacity of the natural appetites and faculties for the things of God. They need to be recast in a radical manner if, as vast inner “caverns of feeling”, they can be filled by God. Only by a purging and emptying of their natural activity, in which they ordinarily seek natural satisfactions even in the spiritual exercises of prayer, can they become suitable for the reception of a deeper spiritual satisfaction that has a source in God himself. But this requires especially an alert and attentive response in prayer. A disciplined approach not to seek for the easier satisfactions of the past is crucial for the advancement of a soul in contemplative prayer. As Saint John of the Cross writes: “At this time there should be no activity or satisfaction relative to spiritual objects, because the soul’s faculties and appetites are impure, lowly, and very natural. And even were God to give these faculties the activity and delight of supernatural, divine things, they would be unable to receive them except in their own way, very basely and naturally” (Dark Night of the Soul).

‘St John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation’ written by Father Donald Haggerty