Acedia -- "Lethal Boredom"

Well, I'm back to the grindstone, here at St. Meinrad Seminary. It's very wonderful to be back to task. My goal... even though it may still be far away, is one semester closer to fruition.

During J-Term, I'm taking a class entitled "Introduction to Christian Spirituality," taught by Fr. Joe Moriarty. In it, we are learning the groundwork for what has now become identified with the Catholic Church historically, theologically, philosophically etc.

While learning about the early eastern monastic movement, we also discussed certain others that impacted the spirituality of the Church. one such person was Evagrius Ponticus, a 4th century philosopher of Origin's tilt. One of his best-known works is his Praktikos, which involves Evagruis' beliefs on asceticism and prayer.

In the Praktikos, Evagrius outlines and systematizes practical stages of the spiritual life principally by distinguishing eight basic vices: gluttony, impurity, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory, and pride.

Acedia, particularly, was looked at in my class. Its definition is "the disgust of spiritual things that is brought on by weariness and boredom with the ongoing struggle." (Cristian Spirituality; Charles J Healey, SJ)

Evagrius goes on to further illustrate the vice of acedia:

"The demon of acedia -- also called the noonday demon -- is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all... First of all he makes it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and that the day is fifty hours long. Then he constrains [us] to look constantly out the windows, to walk outside... to gaze carefully at the sun to determine how far it stands from the ninth hour, to look now this way now that to see if perhaps one of [our] brethren appears from his cell. Then to he instills in the heart... a hatred of the place [where one dwells], a hatred for [one's] very life... a hatred for manual labor. He leads [us] to reflect that charity has departed from among [our] brethren, that there is no one to give encouragement."

I thought I'd share this intriguing tidbit.

Cheers!