Too many people ignore the role of the intellect in prayer and in the spiritual life. Unfortunately, this is a result of the charismatic emphasis and new age stress on emotion in religion.
If there is one thing which has ruined the spiritual life of many in the past 50 years, it has been the misunderstanding of the importance of the rational in the spiritual life.
St. John of the Cross and other mystics were not emotionally motivated, nor did he or others look for emotional cookies and cream.
In fact, the memory, understanding and will are ruled by the rational and St. John points this out.
May I remind readers what Kieran Kavanaugh reminds readers in his text, that St. John had classical training. He knew Ovid, Boethius, Dionysius, Gregory, Augustine, Francis, Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas. He knew Aristotle as well.
This is a list which would make most Catholic blush today if asked if they have studied these great minds.
Our faith is not one of mere feelings but of appropriating the Truths which God has handed down through the saints and great Catholic minds.
Why the rational is important is that the will is moved by reason and not by emotions. I am not going to enter the theological fray as to whether memory is part of the intellect or separate. Aquinas states it is part of the intellect, while John and St. Ignatius Loyola separate memory out of the intellect.
If there are two or three spiritual faculties, for the sake of argument, one can say these are memory, intellect and will, or maybe intellect including memory and will.
The point is that reason brings one to apprehend the truth of God.
Knowledge is also a gift of the Holy Spirit. Too many modern commentators split this knowledge into some type of purely charismatic knowledge, which is totally false.
Knowledge involves the intellect and the gift builds on nature and super-naturalizes nature.
To become steeped in the emotions is to seriously stray from the path which God has revealed to us in Scripture and in Tradition. To be anti-intellectual is to be anti-Catholic.
Those who remain stuck in emotional religion are spiritual pygmies and will not be purified on earth.
The will overcomes all affections and all passions. If one is stuck in the emotional pursuit of the spiritual life, one simply will not find God, nor will He allow one to find Him. Why?
Because we are made in the Image and Likeness of God, and that image includes the intellect and free will.
The likeness is grace, given back to us through baptism.
To be continued....