Sights and Insights
Devotion for Feb. 1, 2021
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues them from them all. – Psalm 34:18-19 (NRSV)
Are you experiencing acedia in these times? I would suggest that more than a few people are. The word “acedia” is a rare and largely forgotten one, but recently I have begun to see it pop up more frequently. It is an ancient spiritual concept that speaks to our times. To understand it, we need a quick history lesson.
Evagrius of Pontus was a 4th century theologian. He was a well-known preacher in Constantinople, but had a spiritual crisis. Eventually he ended up in the desert in Egypt, as part of the relatively new spiritual movement of becoming a monk. He spent the rest of his life writing about the spiritual life in ways that have influenced the majority of Christian spiritual traditions, and especially monastic ones. One treatise that he wrote was “On the Eight Principal Vices.” In the Latin Christianity of Western Europe, these concepts eventually evolved into the “Seven Deadly Sins:” pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. There is great wisdom in this tradition, and perhaps at some point I may be able to have some Adult Forum time on how these spiritual understandings might speak to us today. What is not included directly in this list, though, is the other vice that Evagrius’ student John Cassian described: acedia. It got folded into sloth.
Acedia is a “train of thought” or attitude confronted when living in the confines of limited space and social interaction, such as solitary monastic living. It is a strange emotional state of undirected anxiety and difficulty concentrating, leading to a sense of listlessness. It was thought to only apply to monks living solitary lives rather than communal ones, but today so many of us are living isolated existences that it has become relevant to many of us. It is perhaps the most challenging of spiritual obstacles faced because it feels as if your spirit has been drained of energy. Having a name for this feeling can help in beginning to face it, however.
More than that, identifying acedia as a spiritual malaise can also help point to how to combat it. Rather than thinking that we are wrong for feeling listless and down, or that we can overcome this feeling through the force of our will and determined resolve, as a spiritual issue it requires God at work in us to move through it. Clearing a few moments for spiritual practices – prayer, meditation, bible reading, or whatever else may speak to you – can help you to recognize the Holy Spirit filling you and moving you forward. There is no magic practice that immediately overcomes such feelings, but such practices open us to the movements of grace, and grace is experienced unexpectedly to move us forward.
Interesting in reading more on acedia? A recent helpful article can be found at: https://theconversation.com/acedia-the-lost-name-for-the-emotion-were-all-feeling-right-now-144058