NELSON ROBISON

You wrote, "I too, suffer from some form of acedia, after many years of searching for the right church and leaving one after another, for lack of scholarship or lack of meaning, I find it hard to let myself trust that another church will fill the void that I feel."

Maybe instead of looking for a church to find meaning, you should look to God.

I am a Catholic and I cherish my Catholic Faith and I do not let religion get in the way.

I know that the Catholic Eucharist is Jesus because the Holy Spirit revealed it to me when He came into my body back on Jan 29, 2000.

Sometimes people, clergy and laity both, can get so much into the rules and regulations and even the dogma that they lose sight of God.

Even the bible seems to lead some people away from God, Who happens to be a Being of Pure Love and He is a Trinity and Jesus is God-Incarnate.

Some people refer to the bible as the Word of God but hopefully it will lead you to the Word of God because the bible is about the Word of God.

It very clearly states in the bible that the Word became Flesh well the bible did not become Flesh but Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews became Flesh.

We are all made in the Image and Likeness of God, page one, and God's Plan is for ALL to be with Him in His Kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth.

Christianity, not to be confused with some of those that call and have called themselves 'Christians', is part of God's Plan which is unfolding before our very eyes and His Plan will come to Fruition even tho the night of the sixth day is coming just like Jesus told us.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

I too, suffer from some form of acedia, after many years of searching for the right church and leaving one after another, for lack of scholarship or lack of meaning, I find it hard to let myself trust that another church will fill the void that I feel.
It is not that I don't care, but that sometimes I care too much and look for the meaning behind the words and rituals.
Should I find myself, in another church, I will certainly look for someone or something to fill the void left that is not taken care of by the church itself.
Yes I am in a crisis of conscience because of some of the words that have been said by the current Pope and I look more towards the earlier Popes, in the writings of Vatican II, there I find a vibrant and alive community that cares for all men, not just a select few. Yet with the installation of the newest Pope, I find a regression of ideals and ideas. One need only look towards the writings and words of Benedict and you will see the reversal of all that was to be accomplished in Vatican II.

Ms. Norris, thank you for your very informative essay.

In a 1993 Wall Street Journal article following the commuter massacre in Long Island, William Bennett wrote that he thought acedia was our essential problem. He also quoted Daniel Patrick Moyhihan's "defining deviancy down" and Walker Percy's "fear of seeing America, with all its great strength and beauty and freedom...gradually subside into decay...from weariness, boredom, cynicism, greed and in the end heplessness before its great problems."

However, I am optimistic, for since 9/11 I do believe we Americans are discovering how much we valuer this country and are working hard to recover its strength and beauty. Your article will help remember how hard we must try.

Even the credit card companies are acting like terrorists trying to collect bad debts from the customers they have screwed who now don't have money to pay bad debts. I believe we'll see lots of credit defaults and more of these companies going bankrupt. Personal bankruptcy is too time consuming, so the whole company just goes the way of the fannie. That was predicted decades ago, so it's nothing new. Use cash, it always works.

You don't care if you get hurt, just so the mission is completed. Get in the mud and stay in the mud until the job is done. Any grunt knows this. We are all enemy combatants in this war. Civilians are targets for terrorists. Stay alert.

Why Oh why the apathy about religions?? Could it be the flaws and errors of said religions??

Of course it is!!!!

Repetition is such a great learning tool.

To wit: A Synopsis of Said Flaws and Errors--

1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was either the embellishment of the lives of three different men or a
mythical character as was mythical Moses, the "Tablet-Man" who talked to burning bushes and made much magic in Egypt.
Many of the 1.5 million Conservative Jews and many of their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.
Current crisis:
Realization that the Jews are not god's not chosen people.
simpletoremember.com/vitals/ConservativeTorah.htm

2. Jesus was an illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/simple preacher man who suffered from hallucinations and who has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded/opined that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.

The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics. www. earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".

Current crises:

Pedophiliac priests, atonement theology and original sin!!!!

3. Luther, Calvin, Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingie thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).

Current crises:

Adulterous preachers, "propheteering/ profiteering" evangelicals and atonement theology. .

4. Mohammed was an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven, warmongering, hallucinating Arab, who also had embellishing/hallucinating/plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the assassination of Bhutto, the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the Islamic bombers of the trains in the UK and Spain, the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani “koranics”, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases, the Taliban nut jobs, and the Filipino “koranics”.

And who funds this muck and stench of terror? The warmongering, Islamic, Shiite terror and torture theocracy of Iran aka the Third Axis of Evil and also the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.

Current crises:

The Sunni-Shiite blood feud and the warmongering, womanizing (11 wives), hallucinating founder.

5. Hinduism (from an online Hindu site) - "Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centered and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question ‘Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?’ will have to be ‘Cosmic power, Divine power, God’."
The caste/laborer system and cow worship/reverence are problems when saying a fair and rational God founded Hinduism."

Current crises:

The caste system and cow worship/reverence.

6. Buddhism- "Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people living at that time had become disillusioned with certain beliefs of Hinduism including the caste system, which had grown extremely complex. The number of outcasts (those who did not belong to any particular caste) was continuing to grow."
"However, in Buddhism, like so many other religions, fanciful stories arose concerning events in the life of the founder, Siddhartha Gautama (fifth century B.C.):"

Archaeological discoveries have proved, beyond a doubt, his historical character, but apart from the legends we know very little about the circumstances of his life. e.g. Buddha by one legend was supposedly talking when he came out of his mother's womb.

Bottom line: There are many good ways of living but be aware of the hallucinations, embellishments, lies, and myths surrounding the founders and foundations of said rules of life.

Acedia sounds less like a malaise or genuine unconcern than it does a neurotic defense against the craziness of the world. You can't be hurt if you don't care.

Monks are making beer with flavor and then there is monkey beer being made. Start a brewery, that's what the economy needs. More beer and less searching for B S.

Anonymous,

I don't think the author is saying that at all. She's merely relating that acedia was subsumed under the term "sloth" which eventually came to mean the more physical type of listlessness.

"Western culture lost the word acedia because the monks' subtle psychology of the bad thoughts was eventually solidified into the Church's doctrine of the seven deadly sins."

Ah, yes, the Church ruined the people's sense of hope and purpose...

Give me a break...

Try the Protestant theory of pre-destination, Freud, Existentialism, Materialism, and Post-modern culture/art.

This writer is obviously a liberal Protestant.

Regardless of what some might think, purpose drives the universe. Although we humans may not be able to realize what that purpose might be, it manifests itself in the physical "laws" we can depend on that operate around us. Certain of those laws are doubtless what creates us living critters. The laws work through us and our intelligence by almost forcing us to imagine our own purposes that contribute to survival and development. When the reality around us becomes chaotic, when the world we know fails to stimulate the necessary purposes, anxiety ensues. That is the force I mentioned. The anxiety will increase and become almost unbearable to the point where, BAM!, new purposes will emerge, and a new world will be created from the ashes of the old, all in our collective minds. Wait for it, look for it, make it. It will happen.

Robert B,

"You and I both know that your T-shirt is very much tongue-in-cheek. If you were truly acedic, you posts would look like J Jovenz's or CCNL's.."

Or, worse, Spidey's posts! Yuck!

Arminius --

You and I both know that your T-shirt is very much tongue-in-cheek. If you were truly acedic, you posts would look like J Jovenz's or CCNL's...

:)

I have my New York-New Jersey Hitmen football T-shirt on. Kick the pigskin and don't forget to put some lipstick on it for good luck. The market may be looking bad, just look at it as waste elimination and don't get wasted. They now have oil coming down and somehow managed to get gasoline going up. Sounds fishy, but you can find cheap virgins on Google so bid your daughter away and follow the money all the way to hell for all I care. Speak in keywords, so the ads keep it real and it's searchable and all of that. Watch for virgins being sold on the Washington Post via Google. I call that a bargain, the best you never had.

I am old, and am wearing a t-shirt that proudly displays the message "My Giveadamner Is Broken". I guess I have the disease.... can't say that I give a damn, though!

There's a 9 11 weight loss ad above for idiots. How acedia keeps growing in digital form and producing fat pay-checks. I have an O50 plan to get you fat and happy. With Google you can lose 9 pounds in 11 days. Sounds worse than it looks. I'm eating a sandwich. I guess the plan is to use ads to make us all into idiotic drones who want to die of starvation. Google it and the Washington Post gets a few cents for non-sense in on the bargain. Then people call Sally an idiot. Have a sandwich, the idiots are all in California waiting on a quake. Keep burning man and we'll send you a woman to burn, so the fire should be bigger than ever. The next generation will feel the heat from it.

Well, there's an interesting word to think about. I'm not quite sure it's being appropriately-applied to certain modern social malaises, or how productive it is to chalk up as 'sinful bad thoughts' what sounds like symptoms of depressiveness and even 'compassion fatigue' in a mass-media society that thrives on bad news...

ROY

Have you ever had a thought?

If you have ever had a thought or thoughts, has any of them led to an action?

Have you ever thought that a thought could be an impetus to doing something which may be the right thing to do or it could be the wrong thing to do?

Have you ever thought that just because something is legal does not make it the right thing to do, just legal, and conversely have you ever thought that just because something is illegal does not mean that it is the wrong thing to do, just illegal?

Have you ever thought that some people's thoughts make them prisoners of their own hatreds, unforgiveness and bitterness among other things?

Thoughts can be very powerful in both constructive and destructive ways, don't you think?

Just some thoughts.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Dodge Doctrine
Nice ad for a new Dodge Ram. I have an old Dodge Ram, no payment and no plan to change. Don't laugh it's paid for and it runs. People losing out on mortgages are also not making car payments, so th repo man is busy taking cars and truck away. Perhaps after nationalizing the mortgage business, they can nationalize the automobile business. They seem to be working in that direction with $50 billion worth of loans for the big three losers. Better quality products are too easy of a solution. Why build quality, when the government can help you produce more junk? You can build scrap piles out of gold too. That means you could be in the airline business and need a bailout. You'll get a golden parachute for the way down. Keep dodging trouble, it's everywhere and it's expensive. It's going to keep getting more expensive. The best things in life are free, not always easy though. A little caring goes a long way. With gasoline a dollar doesn't go far enough. There will be free heating oil all winter long thanks to Citgo and the caring oil socialists too. They'll also pay your mortgage, just because they care. A bunch of dictators and so benevolent too.

Now the ads are pitching free gadgets and interfaith weddings. I think, so I don't need a gadget I have a mind. If the wedding idea is good, chances are you don't need to advertise it. Love isn't for sale, at least not my love. You can do what you want, it's a free country. Just not care free. I've seen interfaith in action and I stick with my own kind. It's kinder and gentler that way. Too many divorces and lawyers running ads for that business too. I'm not buying, but fools do rush in.

People are trying to get home and with the mortgage fraud, trying to keep home home. Keep your arms ready and your aim steady. Keep your steel sharp and watch your back. A lot of people care, but what can you do?

Aldous Huxley was a deeply insightful man, and no doctrinaire Catholic by any margin. His work went far beyond social commentary, and his entire family was brilliant - full of original thinkers.

He was into mind expansion and psychedelic experience before it ever became (briefly) popular among the masses.

See 'The Doors of Perception' and 'The Perennial Philosophy'. Mysticism fascinated him for decades. He dropped acid on his deathbed, and his wife of the time has written about it.

He was not interested in living that Dark Night, either here or in the hereafter!

Your Arms Feel Like Home
I think i've walked too close to love
And now i'm falling in
Theres so many things this weary soul can't take
Maybe you just caught me by surprise
The first time that i looked into your eyes

There's a life inside of me
That i can feel again
It's the only thing that takes me
Where i've never been
I don't care if i lost everything that i have known
It don't matter where i lay my head tonight
Your arms feel like home
Feel like home

This life aint the fairy tale we both thought it would be
But i can see your smiling face as it's staring back at me
I know we both see these changes now
I know we both understand somehow

There's a life inside of me
That i can feel again
It's the only thing that takes me
Where i've never been
I don't care if i lost everything that i have known
It don't matter where i lay my head tonight
Your arms feel like home
They feel like home
(hold on, you're home to me)

There's a life inside of me
That i can feel again
It's the only thing that takes me
Where i've never been
I don't care if i lost everything that i have known
It don't matter where i lay my head tonight
Your arms feel like home
They feel like home

3 Doors Down

There are Catholic scholars. The ignorant only see one side, the hellish side and proceed from there. See where it takes you Roy and look forward to the trip. The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr. Hate is a battlefield and it gets bloody and mean, so God lets things go, but only to a point. Evil takes you to the point of no returns. See the market news for verification of this truth. It gets better or worse depending on who is going to hell and who is watching out for who. So watch it.

Thank you for teaching me a new word.

Let me use it in a sentence:

I have acedia for Catholic stupidity that thoughts are a sin.

The cure.
"Happy is he who has laid up in his youth, and held fast in all fortune, a genuine and passionate love for reading."
God looks good in print, the devil looks good in hell. From what I can tell, there are no newspapers or books in hell, they all got burned in the fire and the fire still burns. You can't stop the presses any more than you can stop the press. Who cares? The publisher and reader for starters. I have morning reading to do, hope you do too.

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Vote: YES to California P R O P O S I T I O N-8!
Vote Yes Proposition-8! .... P R O P O S I T I O N-8!
-- And,

Vote Yes to Florida’s Proposition-2
Vote Yes to Florida’s Proposition-2
--
VOTE: To Undo what a Usurping Public ’Justice’ employee self served!

VOTE: “NO” to GLBT Marriage, zero sacred!

Contrary to not only against 'Separation of Church & State', but also against the ‘sanctity’ [if ye know what that Word means] Of MARRiAGE' between a Real Man & Real Woman, not a Mr. & a Mr., nor a Ms. & Ms.

Next thing we know they [non-straight vile folks] will want to marry their 'BEASTS', Chimps, Dogs or Pigs (with or W/out Lipstick) to Coochy Poochy with; hence deliberateley (Jealously) destroying or Defiling, thee sacred word [real] “Marriage” (on Paper or by a knot & or by Word) that gives us parental Birth, not between a Mr. & Mr.s etc..

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