A Rule of Life in an Age of Acedia

The opening scene of the acedia movie shows a monk standing in the midday sun after hours in the fields, his face a map, rivers of sweat winding through the grime to empty into his habit. His posture screams: “What’s the point? Why am I here?”

The malaise carries many designations: “a lack of care,” a mix of boredom and sadness, “sadness for good,” or a loss of purpose. If cast as a religious horror flick, the poster features the “midday devil” or “noon-day demon.” Bouts of acedia could send even the most devout monks back to their cells, their souls soaked with emotional and spiritual confusion.

Immediate rescue from the noon-day demon involves a return to the cool, quiet room, food, water, and rest. Then, at some point, exploration. Ideally, the abbot or abbess would gently probe symptoms and history. Why was the vocation chosen? Remember, explore, identify. This process was rarely instant; as the body needs food and rest, so does the soul, the work sobering and humbling.

I do not have a monk’s cell to retreat to. The couch in front of a big-screen TV, with an assortment of junk food, provides a poor imitation. And, more critically, the remote control does not guide me to where I want to be. Or so I have learned.

Neither enthusiasm nor will-power cures acedia. What is required, in more formal ethical language, is virtue practiced in the face of resistance. In other words, the path through requires a rule of life, a series of practices, not dependent upon mood.

Like in so many biblical and therapeutic practices, the first step past survival towards thriving involves naming the demon, gently and without shame. A quiet acknowledgment, “I’m feeling weighed down today,” or softly saying, “Hello, acedia, my old friend.” Kindness opens the door, judgment shuts down healing.

My mother would designate such times as “having a bad day.” Later in life, she might acknowledge a touch of postpartum depression, but never a condition that couldn’t be remedied by the shame-filled admonishment, “I just need to buck up.” Scattered throughout our house were various imprints of the Serenity Prayer, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” She could never reconcile being “right with God” with such a deep malaise of the spirit as acedia. And, to be fair, she did not have theological or spiritual tools to assist.

The development of a rule of life begins with naming the truth.

On my best days, I accept that acedia, like grief, will never be over. Acedia and grief are not problems to be solved.

This hard-won acknowledgement does not mean I have abandoned the quest for joy and peace. I just see the path differently.

The musical term counterpoint means two or more independent melodies sounding together. Each has its own integrity, but when played together, something new emerges from the tension. According to one definition found by ChatGPT, “contrasting realities are held together without being collapsed into one another.” The lines do not drown out one another nor resolve into a single idea. They coexist but do not battle.

In physics, the discovery that light can behave both as a wave and a particle caused quite a stir. By 1900, everyone knew that light behaved like a wave. Then Einstein and Planck broke the paradigm. No more clean either/or. And so, as in many subsequent discoveries of modern physics, the scandalous possibility that we might not be able to know and understand everything emerged. We began to live with paradox as a feature of reality, part of the enlarged model of life.

So I wonder about the quest for joy and the reality of acedia. Might acedia  function as a counterpoint to joy?

Even when I am experiencing joy in the presence of my grandchildren, journaling, being with my wife, or discovering a new hamburger joint, my acedia is not vanquished. It was simply not playing lead guitar in the band.

Acedia is selfish. It likes to flatten life, to bully the spirit into believing that the music of life is just a single line, that nothing else really matters. Acedia commands centre stage, likes to sing solo and compels everything else to sing along. Acedia resists complexity because complexity invites harmony, counterpoint, and a larger score to sketch reality.

What if life is not a problem to be solved, a series of crises to be navigated, or lessons to be learned like the notes in the primary book of piano?

Life now feels like playing in a jazz ensemble.

Even though jazz allows for, and often seems like, unrelated improvisation, the musicians operate within a basic structure, even if only a bare chord chart.

The early monks discovered that acedia responds to structure – in a day, a week, a month or a year.

Pope Leo names the weekly eucharist as a vital survival tool for Christians during this time. Various monastic orders developed their own chord chart.

The famous Rule of St. Benedict became the backbone of Western monasticism. Other movements improvised, reinterpreted or tightened it but did not discard the fundamental insight.

According to ChatGPT, the Cluniacs expanded their liturgy and prayer life, sometimes at the expense of manual labour; the Cistercians reacted against Cluniac excess, returning to simplicity, manual work, and austerity; and the Trappists pushed that austerity even further, emphasizing silence and ascetic discipline.

Even orders that didn’t adopt the script wholesale—like the Dominicans or Franciscans—absorbed its assumptions about:

• structured community life
• obedience under a rule
• disciplined daily rhythm

The rule allowed communities and, at best, those within them to thrive in a social context of upheaval, violence and uncertainty. Music of the soul could be discovered and inspire not only the individual monks but also the surrounding culture.

For me, this question emerges: What are – or could be – the key elements of daily, weekly, monthly, yearly practice that are not dependent upon mood or emotion but whose failure to practice or nurture starves the soul? The goal is not to become ascetic, but to develop a practice that can be sustained. Traditional recipes include ingredients such as prayer, Scripture, rest, work, and recreation.

Acedia is not eased by intensity but by rhythm and persistence; it is overcome by faithful practice sustained over time.  As with any good athletic training program, when desire flags, the discipline of practice carries the weight. Show up, engage the practice. Stability is so countercultural in a chaotic, uncertain world.

The best athletic training programs are not simply downloaded; they are customized,  with no one-size-fits-all prescription. Please, share in the Comments below which practices suit you. Even imperfect steps nourish the soul. Agency and sustainability matter more than rigid rules.

This blessing works for the week

May the steady ground hold beneath your feet when the sun stands still, and the soul grows thin.

May you keep the small rule when the great desire fails you,
and find in its rhythm a stubborn mercy.

And when the music flattens, and meaning runs dry,
may grace meet you in the ordinary hour—

until, by faithful steps and quiet courage,
joy finds its voice again beside you.

Note: This article was written by the author with research assistance from ChatGPT, which provided historical overviews of monastic orders and background context for key terms. All interpretations, personal reflections, and conclusions are the author’s own.

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