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JaredR
Guest
Can you explain to me in detail what the passions are? I have read about them many times, but I have not really grasped what they are or how to identify them.
Thanks.
Thanks.
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T
Tybourne
Guest
Hi Jared
The best explanation Iāve read comes in the 5th Conference of John Cassian.
Itās freely available online here: osb.org/lectio/cassian/conf/index.html
The passions are described here as the 8 principal faults, the original basis of the 7 capital sins.
God bless, let us know how you get on.
P
puzzleannie
Guest
itās when your brains are operating out of another part of your anatomy instead of the craniumāas in, under your zipper, or in your stomach, in your spleen, or in your itchy fingersCan you explain to me in detail what the passions are? I have read about them many times, but I have not really grasped what they are or how to identify them.
Thanks.
P
presidentjlh
Guest
So, if I am reading this correctly, the more we avoid somethingā¦the harder the temptations get and the harder it is to avoid? 
throws hands up I just canāt win at life.
throws hands up I just canāt win at life.
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JaredR
Guest
If you are irritated at someone and feel like snapping at them, but instead reject these feelings in your will and treat the person like Christ instead, is this an example of passions and overcoming them?
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presidentjlh
Guest
I guess so. But the problem for me is that even though I may win one battle, it just keeps getting more difficult in the next battle. I guess thatās whatās supposed to happen, but, man, Iām honestly sick of having free will. I donāt want to have āpassionsā. I wish I could just be the metaphorical ārobotā and perfectly obey God from now on.
M
Monica4316
Guest
me tooā¦ hahaā¦ I think in Heaven, thatās how it will be, only WITH our free will
(weāll be perfect in our love for God, and wonāt be tempted any more)
T
Tybourne
Guest
Yes, life is a spiritual battle. For the desert fathers and their interpreters to the West, such as Cassian, these passions were sometimes described as demons. For example, acedia, the passion of restlessness that affects so many of us, was referred to as the ānoonday demonā ("You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday, Psalm 91). Yet, through these battles we gain our glory. Our glory in heaven will be to see how we struggled and overcame these passions, even though we may have fallen many times, in union with the Blessed Trinity.
L
Lief_Erikson
Guest
Praise be to God!
Well said!
B
Bookcat
Guest
ARTICLE 5
THE MORALITY OF THE PASSIONS
1762 The human person is ordered to beatitude by his deliberate acts: the passions or feelings he experiences can dispose him to it and contribute to it.
I. PASSIONS
1763 The term āpassionsā belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings or passions are emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.
1764 The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind. Our Lord called manās heart the source from which the passions spring.40
1765 There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it.
1766 "To love is to will the good of another."41 All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. Only the good can be loved.42 Passions "are evil if love is evil and good if it is good."43
II. PASSIONS AND MORAL LIFE
1767 In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and will. Passions are said to be voluntary, "either because they are commanded by the will or because the will does not place obstacles in their way."44 It belongs to the perfection of the moral or human good that the passions be governed by reason.45
1768 Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the holiness of persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case. The upright will orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to the good and to beatitude; an evil will succumbs to disordered passions and exacerbates them. Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.
1769 In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as is visible in the Lordās agony and passion. In Christ human feelings are able to reach their consummation in charity and divine beatitude.
1770 Moral perfection consists in manās being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: "My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God."46
IN BRIEF
1771 The term āpassionsā refers to the affections or the feelings. By his emotions man intuits the good and suspects evil.
1772 The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger.
1773 In the passions, as movements of the sensitive appetite, there is neither moral good nor evil. But insofar as they engage reason and will, there is moral good or evil in them.
1774 Emotions and feelings can be taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices.
1775 The perfection of the moral good consists in manās being moved to the good not only by his will but also by his āheart.ā
vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a5.htm
THE MORALITY OF THE PASSIONS
1762 The human person is ordered to beatitude by his deliberate acts: the passions or feelings he experiences can dispose him to it and contribute to it.
I. PASSIONS
1763 The term āpassionsā belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings or passions are emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.
1764 The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind. Our Lord called manās heart the source from which the passions spring.40
1765 There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it.
1766 "To love is to will the good of another."41 All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. Only the good can be loved.42 Passions "are evil if love is evil and good if it is good."43
II. PASSIONS AND MORAL LIFE
1767 In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and will. Passions are said to be voluntary, "either because they are commanded by the will or because the will does not place obstacles in their way."44 It belongs to the perfection of the moral or human good that the passions be governed by reason.45
1768 Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the holiness of persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case. The upright will orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to the good and to beatitude; an evil will succumbs to disordered passions and exacerbates them. Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.
1769 In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as is visible in the Lordās agony and passion. In Christ human feelings are able to reach their consummation in charity and divine beatitude.
1770 Moral perfection consists in manās being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: "My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God."46
IN BRIEF
1771 The term āpassionsā refers to the affections or the feelings. By his emotions man intuits the good and suspects evil.
1772 The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger.
1773 In the passions, as movements of the sensitive appetite, there is neither moral good nor evil. But insofar as they engage reason and will, there is moral good or evil in them.
1774 Emotions and feelings can be taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices.
1775 The perfection of the moral good consists in manās being moved to the good not only by his will but also by his āheart.ā
vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a5.htm
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