I had learned that sloth was one of the seven capital sins. I knew the term "acedia" and had thought of it more or less as Latin for sloth. But in a talk given in an audience on Ash Wednesday, Pope Francis described sloth as more an effect of the vice of acedia than a cause.
NCR had a good article summarizing the pope's talk: Laziness is a symptom of 'acedia,' a dangerous vice, pope says | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)
"The vice of "acedia," often translated as "sloth," can cause laziness, but it is much more than that; it is a lack of caring for anything and being bored with everything, even one's relationship with God, Pope Francis said. "The demon of acedia wants precisely to destroy the simple joy of the here and now, the grateful wonder of reality; it wants to make you believe that it is all in vain, that nothing has meaning, that it is not worth taking care of anything or anyone," the pope said at his weekly general audience Feb. 14."
"...People spend too little time talking about "the capital sin" of acedia, he said, and even when they do, they refer to it as sloth or laziness
But "in reality, laziness is an effect more than a cause," the pope said. "When a person is idle, indolent, apathetic, we say he is lazy. But as the wisdom of the ancient desert fathers teaches us, often the root is acedia, which from its Greek origin literally means a 'lack of care.'
"Francis described acedia as "a very dangerous temptation ....because it makes a person "feel disgust at everything; their relationship with God becomes boring to them; and even the holiest acts, those that in the past warmed their hearts, now appear entirely useless to them."
"Acedia can sometimes feel like depression, but it is a vice that tempts people to let go of caring for themselves and for others, he said. "For those caught up in acedia, life loses meaning, praying is boring (and) every battle seems meaningless." It is a bit like dying in advance and it's awful," the pope said.
"When a person feels acedia creeping in, he said, they need to try to cultivate "the patience of faith" with a few small steps."
"In the clutches of acedia, one's desire is to be elsewhere, to escape from reality," the pope said, so to fight it "one must instead have the courage to remain and to welcome God's presence in the 'here and now,' in the situation as it is."
"Take a breath, he said, set smaller goals and "persevere by leaning on Jesus, who never abandons us in temptation."
"The pope ended the audience encouraging Catholics to live Lent "as an opportunity for conversion and inner renewal in listening to the Word of God and in caring for our brothers and sisters most in need," including by praying for those suffering because of war and violence in Ukraine, Palestine and Israel."
Update: This little short video is a good explanation of acedia:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1AHWlZ_ptvc
It mentions procrastination as being part of acedia. That hit home for me. I'm not a person who feels that life has no meaning. But I am a big time procrastinator.
Lots to chew on here. Thanks for posting. I think one way acedia worms it's way in is thru scrupulousity and guilt. If you persuade yourself you're not salvageable, its easy to just quit trying. Then everything truly does seem meaningless.
ReplyDeleteSorry. Not sure why auto correct is incorrectly changing all my it's/its. Bad proofing on my part.
DeleteJean, I think you have an editor's scrupulosity :-) Compared to some of the auto-correct-instigated bloomers we've seen around here, that one needs no apology. (I don't even have auto-correct; I just type badly, and sometimes don't proof-read very well before hitting Publish - which may be an indication of incipient acedia!)
DeleteI am not sure I have a full grasp of acedia, but I see it as the bored-with-life attitude that one sees too often. I think it can be a consequence of prosperity and living in a time/place of super-abundance. I think it manifests itself sometimes in substance abuse. Or am I on the wrong track here?
ReplyDeleteTo try to draw an example from literature: I wonder if we could say that Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, suffers from acedia? And perhaps Daisy, too?
ReplyDeleteI think the people in the Great Gatsby could be described as suffering from acedia.
DeleteBut it isn't only privileged rich people who manifest it. What Jean said above about scrupulosity and guilt struck home with me. Going to Catholic school in the '50s and '60s I had a big dose of that as a child. What the pope said, "...the demon of acedia wants precisely to destroy the simple joy of the here and now, the grateful wonder of reality..." I can attest that scrupulosity can definitely destroy the joy of here and now.
My notions about the Great Gatsby people is heavily colored by a Cambodian student in my graduate seminar. As far as she could see, "Gatsby" was the quintessential American novel about strivers trying to reinvent themselves by buying their way into a higher caste, and about the upper caste striving to keep out the strivers.
DeleteI don't see acedia in that interpretation. People care about stuff on both sides of the equation. Just the wrong stuff from a spiritual point of view.
A similar novel is Wharton's "The Custom of the Country," which I just finished re-reading after 30 years. Wharton has not aged well for me. She sees striving as a largely female malady caused by men not giving them any meaningful roles as family advisers. I think she is wrong about this for a variety of reasons too tiresome to enumerate. But it is interesting that her striver, Undine Spragg, falls into acedia at points when her striving fails.
Kathleen Norris, author of The Cloister Walk, wrote an entire book on Acedia - by that title. I related to a lot that was I. It. I read it years ago
DeleteI am writing this in another ER. Sick to my stomach with worry. The second time in less than a week-
DeleteTrying to distract myself-
DeleteAnne, is it you, or your husband having the emergency? Either way, not good! Keeping you both in thoughts and prayers.
DeleteMy husband.
DeleteDon't know whether any folks here have read the Dickens novel Bleak House? Thinking that Lady Dedlock suffers from acedia.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t read much about acedia. I am not sure I would recognize it in myself or others.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I have just been too busy to have time to recognized it. I do a lot of procrastination, but that is mostly about things that other people want me to do, not what I want to do. I am usually very good about prioritizing things. I usually have a long list of personal interests plus what society expects of me. I was fortunate when I worked in the mental health system that I did things that I found interesting and valuable. My creative juices were engaged. Of course, being retired for twenty years, I keep myself well occupied.
I may have had acedia when I was in academia (graduate school, postdoctoral, teaching) although I did not recognize it because I was too busy. I really was not interested in much of the research that I was doing which reflected mostly my mentors’ interests. Unlike most of my fellow graduate students I saw a doctorate as a necessary evil rather than an accomplishment.
William James wrote a famous essay called the “Ph.D. Octopus” in which he lamented that educational institutions were becoming credentialing factories by requiting the Ph.D. of their faculty members. I found that academic interfered more than helped my intellectual life.
When I moved to the mental health system, I immediately discovered wells of creativity within myself, that I knew just what I could do to help the people around me.
If you let other people tell you how to lead your life, you will likely end up being bored and procrastinating a lot.
I guess Lady Dedlock fits the definition of acedia if not full-blown despair, though I think Dickens means for us see her as a person damaged as much by social conventions as her own weaknesses.
ReplyDeleteAcedia/despair/depression are major themes in The Banshees of Inisherin. Not a movie for all tastes. Raber wouldn't speak to me for 36 hours after I picked it out for movie night.
I guess I'm less concerned with pointing fingers at acedia sinners, real or fictional, than in looking at how much it operates in my own thoughts and actions. Maybe, however, clergy need to be able to recognize it in others so they can better counsel/demonstrate.
Demonstrate s/b remonstrate
DeleteI'm just trying to make sure I know what the term means.
DeleteGood point that it's a good topic for introspection.
Re: The Banshees of Inisherin - okay, wonderful insight. When I watched it, what struck me most was how much it reminded me of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (by the same filmmaker, I believe). But whether Three Billboards is an indictment of acedia, I'm not sure. Maybe the Sam Rockwell character's rising out of acedia is really what the movie is about.
I am not sure I understand what acedia, despair, and depression are, but folks in my cancer group deal with it daily.
DeleteInterferon drugs can cause some pretty severe depression that has to be treated with antidepressants. People who struggle with mild depression on a regular basis sometimes feel that their depression worsens after the diagnosis, especially if their cancer was found as a result from a clot or bleeding episode. Some try anti depressants or anti anxiety meds
I think most find that being available in the support group helps them fight the temptation to fall into acedia or full blown despair. Helping someone else can help stave off the idea that you are now sick and useless so what is the point of trying.
To me, this song epitomizes acedia:
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRZZC-DH7M
It's Peggy Lee's "If That's All There Is"
Katherine - Interesting! I had not heard that song before. I didn't realize Peggy Lee was charting as recently as 1969. I would have been 8 years old then; I wasn't really paying attention to popular music until a few years later.
DeleteInterestingly, the song "Is That All There Is?" was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote numerous hit songs of the 1950s and 1960s, one of the earliest being Elvis Presley's 1956 No. 1 hit "Hound Dog." (My father bought me the 45-rpm record at, if I am remembering correctly, the A&P. I was 9.) They also wrote Presley's No. 1 hits "Jailhouse Rock" and "Don't."
DeleteThey wrote many novelty songs, such as "Charlie Brown," "Along Came Jones," and "Poison Ivy," by the Coasters, and "Love Potion No. 9" by The Clovers.
They also wrote "There Goes My Baby" and "On Broadway" by The Drifters and "Stand by Me" and "I Who Have Nothing" by Ben E. King.
Wow, I didn't know Leiber & Stoller wrote that Peggy Lee song. Hit in 1969. (Along with "Touch Me" by The Doors, its idiot lyrics seared into my brain because this guy at camp that everyone was in love with played it incessantly until some other boys made a Frisbee out of it.) George Benson did a great funk version of "On Broadway."
DeleteI am remembering that my twin aunts taught me to pick out "The Wayward Wind" on the piano with one finger when I was about five years old. I think I probably drove my dad crazy with it. The singer who made it popular was Gogi Grant. My aunts Dorothy and Dorinne were identical twins and even looked a little like Gogi Grant at that age.
Delete