I really enjoyed this article, and I am sooo looking forward to part 2. Enjoy your weekend with friends! I am busy making preparations for another trip into the Real. I'm making new modifications to that tent I wrote a bit about, and I am preparing to make a much bigger one soon. TTFN, JW
Thanks again Hilary. Good insights into our present condition--a Kafkaesque world, absurd without the recognition that God is the ruler.
Our lives are all Garden of Eden episodes which we live out our particular 'Knowledge of Good and Evil' as a result of not following the will of God for us in particular.
What's happening now is the coming to fruition of the Will of Man. The only way forward for us is to want to want to love God and obey His will for us. That should be our prayer.
I think that our world has been a false one since the Fall: that pivotal time when man decided to do his own thing. We decided to walk our own path and in our pride turned our backs on the One who is, the Real. When our first parents gave up Paradise they were told that they would experience a very different existence to that which they had known when they walked with God, Who actually is Paradise, or the Promised Land. The land/ world that we now occupy is not that which God intended for us, but a place of toil and sadness where we are subject to our passions that give no peace. Despondency, and many other negative emotions are a sad consequence of this.
A friend of mine, yesterday, coincidently sent me Garrigou-Lagrange “On Spiritual Sloth.” I paused for a moment, remembering Hilary’s enthusiasm for old Reginald, and wondered whether it would in fact be the fabled cure for insomnia. Not so. I don’t exactly recommend it to take to the beach with you this summer, but, there were these two gems:
“It is more difficult to lead souls to a true life of profound and persevering prayer than to induce them to read and talk about books which appear on the subject.”
And,
“Spiritual sloth not infrequently grows out of an excessive, unsanctified natural activity in which a person takes complacence instead of seeking God and the good of souls in it.”
That’s just Reg’s take. But, I think there’s something to it. Leading souls to prayer, real prayer—if you can get good at that, you’re cookin’ with gas. There’s no way to get anyone to pray without at least attempting to make headway at it yourself. Also, his knock against reading & talking about books as a substitute for prayer is well taken. It’s not that he excludes good old fashioned spiritual reading at all. Rather, real prayer is better, and no book-club will ever be able to take its place.
Also, as for resting in too much unsanctified natural activity instead of God, yeah, that’ll do you in before too long. It’s like choosing to stop the race at the rest stop just before the finish line. So close, but yet so far.
Interesting article. The NYT article on languishing has a lot of people discussing it in my corner of the world (central Oregon). My question in two parts: was the world of your grandparents (my grandparents) real and if so why did it fail? I will be interested how you suggest returning to reality and perhaps what you suggest identifies reality.
it's a useful term, I guess, but its really just Modernians re-inventing the wheel. the spiritual tradition already has it covered with Acedia, and that's what we all really need to be talking about.
I really enjoyed this article, and I am sooo looking forward to part 2. Enjoy your weekend with friends! I am busy making preparations for another trip into the Real. I'm making new modifications to that tent I wrote a bit about, and I am preparing to make a much bigger one soon. TTFN, JW
Thanks again Hilary. Good insights into our present condition--a Kafkaesque world, absurd without the recognition that God is the ruler.
Our lives are all Garden of Eden episodes which we live out our particular 'Knowledge of Good and Evil' as a result of not following the will of God for us in particular.
What's happening now is the coming to fruition of the Will of Man. The only way forward for us is to want to want to love God and obey His will for us. That should be our prayer.
It just so happens that today Luisa Piccarreta Official Website published a great article on this very subject: https://www.luisapiccarretaofficial.org/news/dantes-point-of-view-on-the-will-of-god/1694
Another really good one! I can't wait to read the next installments on it. It seems like there is so very much to do. Where do we even begin?
I think that our world has been a false one since the Fall: that pivotal time when man decided to do his own thing. We decided to walk our own path and in our pride turned our backs on the One who is, the Real. When our first parents gave up Paradise they were told that they would experience a very different existence to that which they had known when they walked with God, Who actually is Paradise, or the Promised Land. The land/ world that we now occupy is not that which God intended for us, but a place of toil and sadness where we are subject to our passions that give no peace. Despondency, and many other negative emotions are a sad consequence of this.
A friend of mine, yesterday, coincidently sent me Garrigou-Lagrange “On Spiritual Sloth.” I paused for a moment, remembering Hilary’s enthusiasm for old Reginald, and wondered whether it would in fact be the fabled cure for insomnia. Not so. I don’t exactly recommend it to take to the beach with you this summer, but, there were these two gems:
“It is more difficult to lead souls to a true life of profound and persevering prayer than to induce them to read and talk about books which appear on the subject.”
And,
“Spiritual sloth not infrequently grows out of an excessive, unsanctified natural activity in which a person takes complacence instead of seeking God and the good of souls in it.”
That’s just Reg’s take. But, I think there’s something to it. Leading souls to prayer, real prayer—if you can get good at that, you’re cookin’ with gas. There’s no way to get anyone to pray without at least attempting to make headway at it yourself. Also, his knock against reading & talking about books as a substitute for prayer is well taken. It’s not that he excludes good old fashioned spiritual reading at all. Rather, real prayer is better, and no book-club will ever be able to take its place.
Also, as for resting in too much unsanctified natural activity instead of God, yeah, that’ll do you in before too long. It’s like choosing to stop the race at the rest stop just before the finish line. So close, but yet so far.
Here’s the link: https://www.stjohnstadworth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Acedia-Spiritual-Depression-by-Garrigou-Lagrange.pdf
Best,
Drew
Contemptus mundi.
Interesting article. The NYT article on languishing has a lot of people discussing it in my corner of the world (central Oregon). My question in two parts: was the world of your grandparents (my grandparents) real and if so why did it fail? I will be interested how you suggest returning to reality and perhaps what you suggest identifies reality.
"Languishing" is a great word for these days.
Aquinas calls languor a passion like the grief or sadness at a beloved's absence.
Augustine calls Original Sin the "Languor of Nature."
The Greek root, "λαγαρός," even takes us into the territory of the lewd & lecherous.
it's a useful term, I guess, but its really just Modernians re-inventing the wheel. the spiritual tradition already has it covered with Acedia, and that's what we all really need to be talking about.