I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My lover is knocking: "Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night." Song of Solomon 5:2

'I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. (Haggai 2:7)

Active desire pushes us to exceed our present place

There can be a lot of angst about discerning the source of our desires and the direction they would take us. We may end up frozen and stay haunted and harried by them, driven to lock them up. Philip Sheldrake, theologian at Durham University argues: "...we can learn the truth of our desires by attending to them, not trying to work out in the abstract where they come from but perhaps by asking ourselves where they would lead if we were to follow them through...more fragmented, more selfish, more angry, less peaceful [or]...towards harmony, unity, peace." The 14th century saint Teresa of Avila echoes the 21st century theologian. We must go through, or attend to, our desires. They are the path to the true source and end of those desires: he who is the desire of all nations. Our passions help to lift us. I loved what I could love until I held Him, for then – all things – every world disappeared.