Noonday Devil Chapter Three

[Susan Margaret]

Feel free to post your comments about chapter three. I have been on jury duty since April 6th and today was my last day! I am a bit behind on my reading due to being too stressed out to concentrate on reading, but I plan to catch up very soon.

[Irene]

I found this chapter less clear than the previous ones. I suspect that my familiarity with the Desert Fathers and Patristic writings made chapter 1 so easy that I expected to be able to breeze through the book. I may need to reread chapter 3.

[Susan Margaret]

I'm caught up on my reading. I like Nault's description of passing through and passing beyond. Too often I find myself just passing through and taking the easier way. Television and other media have told us over and over again that there are many things you can purchase to make life easier. Take out a loan or charge it so you can get what you want now. This thinking has spilled over into other areas of life. We want it and we want it now. Passing beyond is the better way, although it is the harder way if you've been merely passing through. Once again, this is where perseverance, planning, and keeping faith come into play.

I can see how acedia has crept into my life in both the spatial and temporal dimensions. I saw some of my faults in each category.

[Greg]

To be honest, I found the first half of this chapter very discouraging, almost the writings of someone in a kind of social despair - the assessments of the modern world were so, so dark and theoretical: existentialism (p. 109), Cartesian method (p.124), deep ecology (p. 118), nihilism (p. 109), a modern world of "negligence and mediocrity" (p. 129)- they seem like easy targets. And for all I hear of abounding nihilism, I've met very few true nihilists. I truly believe that for most people, an encouraging touch on the shoulder is all they need before they turn their face to the world with compassion, just a moment to consider & stop, a smile even. People in my experience are for the most part very kind. The nightly news makes the world look lost, but I don't find most people to be like that, not at all.

Still, scattered through chapter 3, I found some great insights for me to take and consider in my own spiritual life:

- the warning not to dwell too much on the present or the future:

"It is necessary to be able to live in the present moment intensely, knowing that it is an opportunity to encounter the Lord." (p. 130)

- the importance to allow enough solitude for reflection and prayer:

"In solitude one discovers what one is like, with no cosmetics or mask" (p. 117)

- the importance of believing enough to not settle for less; the insistence on a standard of holiness. This is something I need to think of more; it touched me deeply. I think I do struggle with faint heartedness in some areas. It is something for me to pray over.

- as in the other chapter, what he said about "activism" spoke to me as well ... the doing of things "obsessively" as though "we needed to cram our schedules full to have the feeling of being alive."

The second half of the chapter was a much welcome respite for me as it turned back to the question of joy and to the practical things I can do in my religious life when faced with acedia. I especially loved the little prayer from Psalms that he gives on page 142:

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."