September 9, 2009

Acedic Community

Lately for my subway and bus reading I have been working through Sr. Mary Margaret Funk's Humility Matters for Practicing the Spiritual Life. Her books have been a real treasure for me over the years in my own spiritual practice, especially Thoughts Matter, and she is one of the contemporary writers on the Christian spiritual life whom I most hope to meet one day.

This midday, sneaking out for confession and tacos al pastor I arrived at this stinging passage on the recently popular topic of acedia:

...once this affliction has been detected, action must be taken before the whole community becomes infected. I've seen entire communities caught in these chronic acedic patterns. No one knows exactly what's wrong, but the virtuous or zealous newcomer is jeered, and any new leader that takes on the crowd is met with disdain... Zeal is loathed, deprecating talk saturates conversations, and expectations are low. Comfort-seeking replaces mission and self-seeking pleasures replace spiritual practice. (60-61)


Wow. When have I been patient zero in this scenario? Have I repented?

Click here for Sister's Amazon page, from which you should shop or add to your wish list, and which in the course of looking up I found also her blog!
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1 comment:

  1. Qualis Rex3:45 PM

    Father Charles, Tacos al Pastor is my FAVORITE (next in line is carnitas). I'm glad there is a place you can get them out where you are. They banned the practice here in California for awhile, citing "sanitary" reasons. But now you find good places here all over (still not quite as good as in Mexico tho).

    ReplyDelete

Faithful, or even just thoughtful criticisms are always welcome. Uninformed rudeness to other posters or to the Lord and His Church is not.

I also reserve the right to reject comments promoting things like private revelations and fringe points of view, if it seems to me like they are being presented in a misleading way.

If you raise a disagreement with something I say but I do not respond, please do not feel slighted or insulted, or imagine that this automatically means I disagree or agree with you. It's just that I don't find the comment box to be a constructive medium for certain forms of debate.