Desire (Good and Bad), Envy, Concupiscence

    From Wiki Maria Valtorta
    The dance of Princess Salome (stepdaughter of Herod), with the desire to obtain the death of John the Baptist - James Tissot - Brooklyn Museum.
    Truly I tell you that you yourselves are the greatest support of Satan when you welcome and cultivate in yourselves "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life"[1], all things that do not come from the Father but from the world. For if you did not consent to prepare a fertile ground for the invasion of internal factors, they could not enter into you, disturb your deep being and exacerbate the internal factors.[2]

    In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"

    • Desire always precedes action. "Do not covet another's wife"[3]
    • "Do not desire what belongs to others." Immoderate desire leads to stealing. There is only one step from one to the other. Is every desire illicit? I do not say that [...] Envy separates from God, my children, and unites with Satan. Do you not think that the first who desired the good of another was Lucifer?[4]
    • The desire for God always precedes the desire of the creature: "Aglaé, how little you still know the Lord! This desire you have for Him is a proof for you that God answers your love, that He is for you a friend, that He calls you, that He invites you, that He wants you. God is incapable of remaining inert before the desire of the creature, for this desire was kindled in this heart by Him, the Creator and Lord of every creature.
       He kindled it, He, because He loved with a privileged love the soul that now desires Him. The desire for God always precedes the desire of the creature, because He is the Most Perfect and His love is much more active and burning than the love of the creature."[5]
    • Good desires are kindled by God. If He kindles them, it is a sign that He desires for them to become reality.[6]
    • Do you know by which path Satan comes? There are three commonly beaten paths, and there is one that never fails. Three: sensuality, money, pride of the spirit. Sensuality is the one that never fails. It is the courier of the other lusts.[7]
    • "Resist the desire for gold as you do the desire of the flesh, the carnal desire as you do the desire for power. This is what Satan offers you. Ah! His deceptive riches! Honors, success, power, money: these are all impure goods that you buy at the price of your soul.
      Be content with little. God provides you with what is necessary. That is enough. He guarantees it to you, as He guarantees it to the birds of the air, and you are worth much more than birds. But He expects trust and temperance from you. If you trust, He will not disappoint you. If you are temperate, His daily gift will be enough for you."[8]
    • Say that the Savior awaits those who wait for and desire divine help, at Passover, in the City Holy. Tell this to those who need it and also to those who are simply curious. From the impure movement of curiosity may spring for them the spark of faith in Me, the Faith that saves.[9]
    • God does not disappoint the "good" desires of man, because He Himself kindles them in your hearts. It is He, foreseeing and wise, who creates circumstances to favor the desire of His sons and not only that, but to correct and perfect a desire to honor Him which follows imperfect ways, and to bring it to a desire to honor Him by following just paths.[10]
    • And how is it then that a woman who leaves indifferent ten men who look at her as a creature like themselves, who even see her as a beautiful work of Creation, but without feeling rise in them obscene attractions and imaginations, disturbs the eleventh man and leads him to unworthy desires? It is because this eleventh has corrupted his heart and his mind and where ten see a sister, he sees a female.[11]

    In other works by Maria Valtorta

    The Notebooks of 1944

    • Catechesis of January 2: When Satan wants to catch a prey, he presents the woman, for the conquest of which money and honors are necessary. Once he has caught her, he withholds money, honors, and the woman, leaving only despair and death.[12]

    The Notebooks from 1945 to 1950

    • Catechesis of February 18, 1947: Truly I tell you that you yourselves are the greatest support of Satan when you welcome and cultivate in yourselves "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life"[13], all things that do not come from the Father but from the world. For if you did not consent to prepare a fertile ground for the invasion of internal factors, they could not penetrate you, disturb your deep being and exacerbate the internal factors.[14]

    In fundamental Christian texts

    In the Bible

    • Several kinds of people accumulate faults, but some particularly attract divine wrath: their passion burns like a fire and will not extinguish until exhausted. The one who delivers his body to debauchery will not cease before consuming himself there.[15]
    • O God, you are my God, I seek you, I have thirst for you. All my being longs for you, like a parched, dry land without water.[16]

    In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

    Notes and references

    1. ↑ 1 John 2:16
    2. ↑ Catechesis of February 18, 1947
    3. ↑ EMV 128
    4. ↑ EMV 131
    5. ↑ EMV 200.3
    6. ↑ EMV 531
    7. ↑ EMV 420
    8. ↑ EMV 98.11
    9. ↑ EMV 534
    10. ↑ EMV 565
    11. ↑ EMV 567
    12. ↑ Catechesis of January 2, 1944
    13. ↑ 1 John 2:16
    14. ↑ Catechesis of February 18, 1947
    15. ↑ Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 23:16
    16. ↑ Psalm (62)63
    17. ↑ CCC 27 and following
    18. ↑ CCC 1852
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