Deus Misereatur

The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times by Jean-Charles Nault My rating: 4 of 5 stars The first time I read  this 205-page paperback, "The Noonday Devil: Acedia, The Unnamed Evil of Our Times" was back in August 2015. I have picked it up a second time, and was even more impressed with it than the first. This is an intriguing read on the subject, written primarily from within the context of monasticism, and for monastics. It includes an interesting historical trek through Benedict, Evagrius, John Cassian, Gregory the Great and Aquinas. And it takes on the dead-end concoction of William of Ockham, and his "liberty of indifference" (96). Acedia, that "Noonday Devil" is a broad vice that shows itself in loss of heart and motivation, discouragement, despair, desertion from place, perpetual need for activity and change, and so forth. "Acedia is the temptation to withdraw from the narrowness of the present so as to take refuge in what ...

The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times by Dom Jean-Charles Nault My rating: 4 of 5 stars This intriguing read on the subject of acedia is written primarily from within monasticism, and for monastics. It includes an interesting historical trek through Benedict, Evagrius, John Cassian, Gregory the Great and Aquinas; and stops at the dead-end concocted by William of Ockham. Acedia, that "Noonday Devil," of which I have written before , is a broad vice that shows itself in loss of heart and motivation, discouragement, despair, perpetual need for activity and change, and so forth. It affects people in the middle of the day and the middle of life. And the "chief remedy for acedia is found in the joy of the gift" (201), which is the joy of God himself. "The Noonday Devil" is a very Roman Catholic book written by the Abbot of Saint-Wandrille. It will not likely resonate with many, or most Protestants, Reformed or Evangelicals, though it s...

One of the rich enjoyments I have as a pastor who prepares sermons week-in-and-week-out, is that I reap far more than I have time to give out. Much of what I receive may be useful later, but hopefully it is at work on me and in me now. If so, then Paul’s admonition to Timothy will be alive and well through and in me: “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all” (1 Timothy 4.15.). So, thoughtfully, and prayerfully rummaging through my readings for this Sunday’s sermon, I tripped over something by Dorothy Sayers (a Christian writer contemporary with C.S. Lewis). It caught me up short and forced me to read it again. “The sixth Deadly Sin is named by the Church Acedia or Sloth . In the world it calls itself Tolerance; but in hell it is called Despair. It is the accomplice of the other sins and their worst punishment. It is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, ...