CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 1:

• God and His Attributes
• The Blessed Trinity
• Creation
• The Angels
• The Days of Creation
• Man
  • 75. Man's Soul
  • 76. Union of Soul and Body in Man
  • 77. Faculties of the Human Soul: In General
  • 78. Faculties of the Human Soul: In Particular
  • 79. The Intellective Human Faculties
  • 80. The Appetitive Human Faculties
  • 81. The Sensitive Appetite in Man
  • 82. The Intellective Appetite in Man: The Will
  • 83. Free Will
  • 84. Man's Knowledge of Bodily Reality
  • 85. The Manner or Mode of Man's Understanding
  • 86. What the Intellect Knows in Material Things
  • 87. Man's Knowledge of Himself
  • 88. Man's Knowledge of Nonmaterial Things
  • 89. Knowledge in the Separated Human Soul
  • 90. The First Production of Man's Soul
  • 91. The Production of the First Human Body
  • 92. The Production of Woman
  • 93. Man as the Image of God
  • 94. The Intellect of the First Man
  • 95. The Will of the First Man
  • 96. The Ruling Power of Man in the State of Innocence
  • 97. The Preservation of Man in the State of Innocence
  • 98. The Preserving of the Human Race in the State of Innocence
  • 99. The Bodily LIfe of Offspring in the State of Innocence
  • 100. The Righteousness of Offspring in the State of Innocence
  • 101. The Knowledge of Offspring in the State of Innocence
  • 102. Paradise
• The Divine Government

80. The Appetitive Human Faculties

1. Everything has an inclination towards what accords withits nature; this inclination or tendency is called appetency orappetite. Things that lack knowledge have naturalappetency only; this is exampled in the tendency of a plant togrow, of a body to cohere, of a stone to fall to the ground. Livingbodies that have knowledge (animals and men) have, in addition tonatural appetency, tendencies that are roused in them by theirknowing, by their cognition; these are cognitionalappetites. Cognitional appetency is of two orders: the order ofsense, and the order of intellect. Sentient or sensitive appetencyinclines animal or man towards what is sensed as good or desirable,and away from what is sensed as evil or harmful. Intellectualappetency inclines intelligent creatures (angels and men) towardswhat is intellectually understood as good, and away from what isunderstood as evil. The intellectual appetency or appetite iscalled the will.

2. The will is a faculty distinct from the sentientappetite, for it belongs to the intellective order, not thesensitive order. These two appetites sometimes conflict, as, forexample, when a Catholic has hunger (i.e., sentient appetite) formeat on Friday, but wills not to eat it.

"Lord, take from me everything that hinders me from going to You. give me all that will lead me to You. Take me from myself and give me to Yourself."
St Nicholas Flue

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"The supreme perfection of man in this life is to be so united to God that all his soul with all its faculties and powers are so gathered into the Lord God that he becomes one spirit with him, and remembers nothing except God, is aware of and recognises nothing but God, but with all his desires unified by the joy of love, he rests contentedly in the enjoyment of his Maker alone."
St Albert the Great

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"If, devout soul, it is your will to please God and live a life of serenity in this world, unite yourself always and in all things to the divine will. Reflect that all the sins of your past wicked life happened because you wandered from the path of God's will. For the future, embrace God's good pleasure and say to him in every happening: "Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight." "
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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