# Question: How do I beat the passion of acedia? ## Synopsis All of the passions are difficult. They require realization of their existence in our lives as well as intentional effort to do battle against them. Prayer is the first step, and most important. ## Detailed Answer & Discussion Let's start by reviewing [[Passion of Acedia|acedia]]. In short, acedia is the passion of spiritual sloth or laziness. It comes in many forms and not always in the "I'm too tired to..." or "I really don't want to..." ways, some experience it as "I would rather do..." or as I wrote before, "let's take this way too far." Acedia is heavily focused on preventing us from engaging with the spiritual world in a positive manner. In fact, all of the passions orient us in a way that is opposed to spiritual growth, but acedia on its face is overtly anti-spiritual. I have to start this by saying, I suffer greatly from acedia, see my notes linked above for a more detailed explanation of this. I know that this is one passion that I have allowed to push me further and further away from Christ. It's far too easy for me to say "I'm almost done with this email, then I'll pray" only to find another email or a Teams message has arrived in the meantime. So, I say this to say I have not beaten this, I do not intend for this note to express the absolute "path to beating acedia" (or any of the passions for that matter). It is, however, intended to be a chance for me to express what I'm trying to do and what I believe will help me. For me to be able to win a battle against acedia I need a great lot of help. See my notes on [[Among the angels|living among the angels]]. And honestly it starts with recognizing that acedia is there. As I was sitting here at the church tonight, I sent a message to a good friend that I knew I was fixing to be going to war against acedia. I have a personal programming project that I'm working on and this quiet time where I can just sit and work would be an optimal time to make serious progress. I then sat here for another 10 or 15 minutes just thinking of what to write debating within myself whether this whole writing thing was worth the effort. I knew, before it even hit that I was fixing to battle this. And as kids of the 80s and 90s know, "Knowing is half the battle." I was able to pray and think on heavenly things, I'm even sitting under a giant replica painting of "Christ of St. John of the Cross" by Dali. This was the next step in the battle. Replace the pull of the passion with something intentionally heavenly. We hear it in psychology all the time "when you have a bad thought, think something good instead" (see my notes on *[[What are logismoi and how do they affect our daily lives|logismoi]]* for my thoughts there). But in a lot of cases of battling against the passion, the way we wage war against it is by running to our defender, Christ. We do not have to go about this alone, He's there already. Many, many of the saints of old talk of running to pray when tempted and this is why. When we intentionally choose Christ during the temptation toward any passage, but especially acedia, we are capable of standing against it. Once the temptations left me to succumb to the acedia, I was able to think about what I could write and ultimately landed on this in particular. I sent another message to a friend that I was struggling with choosing something of value when I said, "I found myself distracted by another project and haven't really been pastoral to myself." It was this statement that made it click. ## Closing Thoughts Whether it is possible to "beat" acedia and never experience it again remains to be seen, but when I realized that I needed these writing sessions not for your benefit (though I hope you glean something of value from the dung heap here...) but for my own it started to come together. I've truly recognized these last several weeks all of the ways that the passions attack me and beat me down. I have to be more intentional. I have to name the attack for what it is and then act accordingly to defeat the temptation in the moment, right now. The Jesus Prayer ("Lord, Jesus Christ the Son of God have mercy on me the sinner") should be the first thing to roll off my lips when I feel a temptation. But I have a long way to go... --- Canonical Link: <a href="https://bryangarrison.com/Questions/Beating+Acedia" rel="canonical">How do I beat the passion of acedia?</a>