An age old devil named Acedia, now seemingly forgotten in our modern age, continues to drag us down at every opportunity. The faithful Catholic must face all sorts of spiritual battle, to secure our soul for Our Lord, and Acedia can be especially difficult and devious to succeed against.
Acedia can be described as a spiritual sloth. When we just stop caring about being holier or stop trying, we are in a battle against this insidious temptation. In order to succeed in the Spiritual Life, you need to learn how to shrug of this feeling of apathy.
It turns out its not just apathy though, Acedia also includes a feeling of listlessness, anxiety with no cause, and not being able to concentrate. If you keep trying to avoid what you’re supposed to do, you might be battling Acedia. If you want to get things done, get stronger, and grow more faithful, you need to learn how to beat this.
Why is Acedia called the Noonday Devil?
Acedia was described by the desert fathers as the Noonday Devil, and they came up with this name because of their own experiences in their spiritual warfare. As part of a daily routine of the monks and nuns in the desert, around noon they would return to their huts and pray. The oppressive heat of the day at noon in the desert, coupled with the monotony sitting still and praying in the middle of a busy day, made it difficult to concentrate. They struggled with thoughts of wanting to to other things so they could be productive, thoughts of what they need to do after, thoughts of discouragement, and thoughts of worry that they were wasting time. They would have frequent battles against this demon and would have to fight to stay in their huts, where they were called to be.
The forces of evil hate prayer, and will stop at nothing to stop us. How often do we procrastinate with our prayer life because we think of other things to do? How often are we distracted with that huge to do list? This can be detrimental to a structured prayer life, and something we all need to fight against if we want to grow in our Faith. When God calls us to prayer we must answer, and we must fight for it sometimes.
What Causes Acedia?
The desert fathers lived in a literal desert, but every Christian is in a metaphorical and spiritual desert. Like the Hebrews who wandered for forty years in the desert after disobeying God, we are wandering ourselves through life, trying to make it out and into Paradise. This wandering is so exhausting to our souls. We get tired of wandering in the desert. The best way to describe this is spiritual exhaustion.
Catholic spirituality is such a human experience. The ultimate goal is to be close to God, to love and be loved back. Acedia inflicts us when we stop seeking this relationship with God. This is a spiritual life that has become dehumanized, stripped of the love it needs and replaced with formulaic words. This type of life inevitably leads to a desolation that Acedia thrives on.
What does it look like?
Acedia was well recognized by the desert communities and is still recognized by monasteries today. It tends to manifest in these ways:
1. Interior Instability-constant need for distraction, easily bored, feeling restless often.
2. Too much/not enough concern for our own health- we either obsess over being healthy or gorge ourselves in gluttony, one extreme or the other.
3. Aversion to Manual Work- avoiding or ignoring work that requires moving. Letting dishes pile up, not doing laundry, etc.
4. Minimalism-doing what we perceive as the bare minimum in our duties in our life, and especially our prayer life. Skipping prayers because we’ve “prayed enough already,” and not working on a project because we “deserve a day off,” are common sentiments.
5. General Discouragement- this is when we just want to stop fighting. We start hating so much that we even have a spiritual battle to fight, and temptation to give up becomes strong. We start thinking things like, “God wouldn’t be able to forgive all my sins anyway,” or “I’ll just go to confession after I do this,” or “God loves me how I am, I don’t need to change.”
These are things we have all experienced, especially in today’s day and age. When you start to notice several of these consistently, you may have a deeply rooted problem of Acedia.
How do we fight this?
In his book, The Noonday Devil, Dom Jean-Charles Nault gives 5 remedies that can be helpful:
1. Tears-Turn to God in tears, tears can soften our hearts for grace. It is a gift from God that can purify and strengthen us. Tears are an outward sign that we truly do desire to be saved by God. Pray to God for holy tears, bring to God all your sorrows.
2. Work and Prayer-set a goal in your work and do not let up until you complete it. Likewise set a goal for you prayer life. Work and prayer was what St Benedictine taught his monks, and for good reason. He knew how important a balance between the two was in defeating this devil of Acedia.
3. Contradictions-Rebuke every negative and demoralizing thought with scripture verses that contradict those thoughts. Like Jesus rebuking the devil in the desert, have verses ready and memorized. Use these verses against those evil thoughts of mediocrity and carelessness.
4. Meditate on Death- regularly meditate on the hour of your death. Ask yourself how God would see you in this moment, not how others will remember you. Where will you go when you die? Ask yourself these questions at least once a day. There is a practice in th Catholic Church called Memento Mori, that is making a resurgence in our modern times. These words simply mean “remember that you will die.” This helps put things in perspective and keeps you focussed on what is important.
5. Persevere-keep doing what you know you aught to be doing. Or start what needs to be done and stick with it. We need to get back up after set backs and remain still against the storms that life throws at us. Building this mindset could be the most important way to battle this devil. Acedia is really trying to stop us from doing important things, so let’s keep doing those important things!
Advice From a Saint
St Teresa of Avila also gave advice for battling Acedia. “Psalmody” she would say, a one word answer for a complex issue. But that’s the beautiful thing about prayer, it’s simple yet effective. So another piece of advice is to pray the Psalms. These prayers are so full of passion, conflict, peace, joy, and sorrow. A wide range of emotions is sure to shake yourself from bad thoughts. Traditionally the Psalmody was prayed throughout the day. The desert fathers would in fact pray them, all 150 were prayed daily! Today you could go immediately to the Book of Psalms or you could pray the Liturgy of the Hours, which contains the Psalms and the prayers of the Church. Either way, structured prayer throughout the day helps you sanctify the entire day, giving you a better ability to overcome this demon.
Final Thoughts
Acedia threatens to destroy our spiritual life by making us apathetic toward it. We stop caring about God’s love and mercy, and we stop caring about the prayers that we owe to God. In addition to destroying your spiritual life, Acedia threatens to destroy your life here on Earth. When we get so distracted and can’t focus on our tasks, nothing gets done. When we have constant feelings of listlessness we cannot figure out solutions to problems. As we zone out on the couch our world falls apart due to inaction.
Combatting Acedia requires a structured prayer and work life. It also requires a deeper knowledge and more reliance on scripture. Keep fighting the Noonday Devil, and you will succeed in taking back your life for God.
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