Presentation on Ignatian understanding of desire, given to Cafechurch, Melbourne, 2014.

1. DDeessiirree
PPaarrtt OOnnee
2299tthh JJuullyy 22001144
CCaaffeecchhuurrcchh

2. The Power of Desire
• Our lives are stories of desire
• Desire is energy for living
• Ignatius recognises the importance of
desire in the Spiritual Exercises, inviting
us always to name and ask for:
id quod volo ‘that which I desire’

3. The Marshmallow Test

4. The Power of Desire
• Desire shapes our decisions, actions and
reactions: we do our own will (what we
want)
• Multiple and often conflicting desires
• Desire can be a spring of life, or a
destructive power

8. Reflection
• What desires are you conscious of right
now?
• What desires are shaping your life and
decisions at the moment?

9. God’s Will and My Desiring
… desire is usually presented as a
dangerous tendency; something to be curbed
and brought into submission to ‘the will of
God’, which is the only ‘legitimate desire’ for a
conscientious Christian. Gerard
Hughes, God in all things, p73
•Split spirituality: ANYTHING I desire must
be rooted in my own selfishness, which I
must oppose

10. God’s Will and My Desiring
• In this view, the will of God is seen as:
o remote and unknowable
o probably opposed to my desires
o I will be punished for not carrying it out
• Some possible responses:
o I hide my real self from God
o I pretend: forced self-transcendence
o I feel bad about feeling good

11. Discussion
• Do you recognise this approach to desire?
• Where have you encountered it?
• What are the effects (on you or others)?

12. God’s Will and My Desiring
• We are called to do God’s will
o Jesus in the garden prayed ‘Let your will be
done, not mine’ Luke 22:42
• BUT this is not a matter of submitting my
will to the remote will of God

13. Finding God through our
Desires
• Instead of seeing the longings of our
hearts as opposed to God, can we see our
desires as helping us to find God?
• God is involved in our desires
• God’s Will – his desire for me – and my
own deepest desire (when I am really
‘living true’) are one and the same thing
• Margaret Silf, Landmarks, p135

15. The Thrust of our Desiring
• Desires for security and nourishment (root
desires)
o Desire for safety and comfort, for stability, for
friendship
• Desires for expression (branch desires)
o Desire to do creative work, to reach out to
others with compassion

17. Our Deepest Desire is for God
• Desires are multi-layered and have deep
roots in our longing for God, towards
which all other desires point.
• Our deepest, most authentic desire:
You have made us for yourself, and our
hearts are restless until they rest in
You. Augustine, Confessions

19. Authentic Desires
• All desires are real experiences
• But not all desires are equally authentic
• Authentic desires move me to love God
and others

20. For your prayer and reflection
How is God speaking to you through
your desires?
What is life-giving for you?

21. DDeessiirree
PPaarrtt TTwwoo
99tthh SSeepptteemmbbeerr 22001144
CCaaffeecchhuurrcchh

22. To Recap Part One
• Noticing my desires
• Understanding the relationship between
my desires and God’s will
• Learning to listen to and act on my
deepest, most authentic desires

23. The Story of Ignatius
• Two kinds of daydreams
o Great deeds to win the love of a great lady
o Outdoing the saints
• Daydreaming about the saints revealed a
deeper layer to his desiring

24. A Journey of Discovery
• I have a true self that I must never try to
overcome, but that I must allow to
overcome me
Gerard Hughes, God in all things, p75
• My deepest desire is centred on becoming
the person God created me to be – and
God’s will for me is to become that person

25. As kingfishers catch fire
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89)

26. What is God’s Dream for You?
• Highly individual and unique: only you can
live God’s dream for you
• The longings of your heart are God’s gift
to you
• God is speaking to you through your
desires
• Every time you choose in favour of your
deeper, more authentic desires, you
reinforce them

27. Discussion
• What do I make of the idea that my
deepest desire is for God?
• In what ways am I responding to the
invitation to become the person God is
creating me to be? (be as specific as you
can)

28. Ordering Desires
• We face choices all the time between
competing desires
• Desires need to be ordered ‘Seek first the
Kingdom of God’ Matthew 6:33
• This ordering of desires is the invitation to
holiness

29. What Diverts my Energy?
• Am I focusing my energy towards
wholeness in the life of God, or away from
this life-giving journey?
Am I watering the sunflowers or the
weeds?
• Disordered attachments divert my energy
from what is truly life-giving for me

32. Practical Steps
• Become aware of my desires
• Notice which desires are life-giving,
resonating with me at the core of my being
• Give space to these desires, allowing
them to shape my life in my concrete
circumstances

33. The Worlds of Limits and Desire
• Desire involves imagination and inquiry –
it is a world without limits
• Yet we also live in a world of limits – we all
have some things we cannot change
• The two worlds interact, testing, correcting
and sustaining each other

34. Think Small!
• Make your desires concrete
• God is in all things
• Start where you are now: a spirituality of
the ordinary

35. Discussion
• What do you think about the idea that we need
to develop a ‘spirituality of the ordinary’?
• What is your experience of the interplay between
the world of desire and the world of limits?
What limits do you experience?
How are you able to live out your desires,
despite these limits?

36. Prayer Exercises
• Examen prayer: reviewing my day
• Reflection on my life story: where have I
been drawn?
• If I had my life over again, what would I
change?

37. Being Transformed
• God is acting in us and reaching out to us all
the time, in our everyday lives
• Can I ask for the grace of desire to love God
in my daily life?
• This is a lifetime’s work of transformation, in
the context of a growing love for Jesus

38. What You Are In Love With
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love,
and that will decide everything.
Pedro Arrupe, S.J.

39. For your prayer and reflection
How is God speaking to you through
your desires?
What is life-giving for you?