How to Regulate the Powers of the Human Soul

In a previous article, I discussed how to regulate the concupisciple and irascible appetites, which are part of man’s lower faculties. In this article, I consider how man can regulate his higher faculties and the powers of his human soul.


Active Purification of the Imagination 

Exterior mortification of the body and senses would be without great result if it were not accompanied by the interior mortification of the imagination and the memory. But, to be useful, the imagination must be directed by right reason illumined by faith. 

We must brush aside at once dangerous images which often unwillingly “pop” into our imagination. We must also put away useless reading, vain musings, spiteful thoughts, daydreaming that drags the soul down, and imaginative scenarios where evil befalls those whom we dislike. Such mental visions make us lose precious time, expend useless energy, and often mire us in more sin.

Our memory must also be purified due to both original sin and our repeated personal sins, which often fill it with useless, even dangerous, memories. Herein lies an important motivation for preserving innocence as much as possible. Once we see or read about something, it is “recorded” in the storehouse of our memory. The devils can then use it to tempt us by evoking it in our mind’s eye when we least expect it.

The following analogy may help illustrate this concept. We are in a battle against the devil for our soul. If our memory only has innocuous and beautiful thoughts, the devil can only use these to tempt us. It is as if he is hurling cotton balls at us. More sinful memories give the devil greater ammunition. Now he has swords and bullets. Very grave sins give him the most powerful ammunition, likened to cannonballs that smash our soul’s fortifications. We must therefore strive, every day, to give him less powerful ammunition. (One of the great graces of the Sacrament of Confession is that it limits the devil’s ability to tempt us with past sinful memories.)

Active Purification of the Memory

Our memory, which is made to recall to us what is most important, often forgets the one thing necessary – God. 

To focus our memory and imagination more on God, we must spend less time on worldly things. If we frequently read novellas or watch movies, then our memory and imagination will repeatedly go there. If instead we read the Scriptures, and lives of the Saints, then our mind will naturally drift in that direction. Spend more time meditating upon heavenly things, eternal truths, and the Four Last Things. Our memory and imagination will naturally be filled with what we chose to place in them by our daily choices.

The memory which forgets God must be healed by the hope of eternal beatitude, as the intellect must be purified by the progress of faith and the will by the progress of charity.

Active Purification of the Intellect

Since the commission of original sin, man’s intellect is wounded. Every sin darkens the intellect further and leads to greater ignorance. The graver the sin, the greater the intellect is darkened. An unrepentant sinner’s ability to perceive error and to reason rightly is severely impaired. His sins have made it that much more difficult for him to recognize the truths contained in Natural Law and revealed by God. This is why souls weighed down by un-absolved sin often simply can’t recognize the truth which seems so obvious to others.

Baptism begins the process of healing the wound of ignorance since Baptism restores our soul to a union of life with God and infuses in us the theological virtues and the infused virtues. 

However, personal sins – especially curiosity – exacerbate this wound. Saint Thomas calls curiosity a defect of the mind and intellectual pride which lead to spiritual blindness. In fact, idle curiosity in studying something may be a sin. The Angelic Doctor mentions four such incidents: [1] when we study something but forsake a more profitable study or obligation, [2] when we engage in superstitious curiosity through someone unlawful to teach (e.g., demons who promise to tell people the future), [3] when we study empty curiosity about creatures rather than abiding truths on God, or [4] when we attempt to know the truth above our capacity of intelligence since doing so allows us to easily fall into error (cf., Summa Theologiae, Secunda Secundae Partis, Q. 167).

Spiritual blindness is a punishment of God which takes away the divine light because of repeated sins. Purification of the intellect must be made by progress in the virtue of faith.

Active Purification of the Will

The will is inclined to the good of the entire man. And a man is said to be a man “of good will” only if he has a fundamentally upright will. Every sin weakens the will further and leads to greater malevolence (self-interest even at the expense of the good for another). The graver the sin, the more malevolent the will becomes.

Baptism heals the will that was wounded by original sin, but this wound is reopened by our personal sins. The principal defect of the will is the inordinate love of self, which forgets the love due to God and neighbor. Self-love corrupts everything, rendering even fasts or sacrifices done out of self-love as unacceptable to God. 

The training of the will must be made by progress in the virtues: the virtue of justice, which renders to everyone his due; of religion, which renders to God the worship we owe Him; of penance, which repairs the injury of sin; of obedience to superiors; and above all, of charity, to God and neighbor. To those who wish to make progress, they should ask themselves daily what the will of God is for them.

O Lord, be it done to me according to Thy word.

Note: This topic will be continued in an article, ‘Detachment Helps Conquer Pride and Sloth.’

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