Free Republic

One of the more misunderstood of the deadly sins is sloth. In the wider culture sloth is often equated simply with laziness.But sloth has a lot more subtleties than simple laziness. In fact, sloth can sometimes manifest as workaholism and other frantic worldly activities and busyness.This is because sloth is most fundamentally defined as a “sorrow or aversion to the good things that God offers” such as a moral life, and deeper spiritual fruitfulness etc. There are some who find such things unappealing, and instead of joyfully accepting these gifts, they are sorrowful toward them or averse. One way to...

The Church's monastic tradition sees as one of the most dangerous enemies of the spiritual life what the psalmist calls "the noonday devil" (Ps 91:6). The monks took this phrase as an apt description of the lethargy or fatigue they battled at about midday.By that time, they had already risen early for prayers, returned to prayer a number of times, and still had a good chunk of the day ahead of them. They were tired, of course, but not just physically. They were spiritually tired — weary of prayer, exhausted with the things of God. The noonday devil precipitated thoughts...