"to desire the end is to desire the means to the end"

"Benoît-Dominique de La Soujeole offers a helpful distinction between a sacrament of desire and desiring a sacrament, though I modify his definition of each.  The sacrament of desire is usually understood as an explicit desire for a sacrament (voto) with no interior obstacles from receiving the sacrament, but with some exterior obstacle preventing the person from actually having or receiving the sacrament. . . .

     "Desiring a sacrament (desiderium), on the other hand, entails explicitly wanting a sacrament but not being properly disposed to receive the res of the sacrament.  Both the sacrament of desire and desiring a sacrament involve an explicit desire or wish for the sacrament.  They differ, however, inasmuch as the latter, the desire for a sacrament, involves some obstacle (obex) to receiving the res of the sacrament. . . .

     "We must be clear about this:  not all desiring may be fulfilled. . . .  Desire, in and of itself, is not the necessary [(sufficient?)] pre-condition for attaining an object. . . . While one may wish or desire to go to Holy Communion at some particular Mass, or even wish for the Sacrament from afar (as when not present at Mass), without the proper dispositions to be able to enjoy union with Christ and the Church, the desire amounts to not much more than wistful thinking.  It is an inherently frustrated desire.  One might say it is not a real desire, for to desire the end is to desire the means to the end. . . .  To desire Holy Communion rightly, to make a true spiritual communion, entails being able to make such a communion."

     Paul Jerome Keller, O.P., "Is spiritual communion for everyone?," Nova et vetera (English edition) 12, no. 3 (2014):  643-645 (631-655).