Knowing God, Knowing Ourselves - Tackling Sloth

In my last post I spoke about tackling the 7 Deadly Sins over the next 7 weeks in preparation for Christmas. This week I am tackling sloth in particular. I'll first go over a few of the signs or symptoms of sloth. This is not a complete list but it may be helpful for others who aren't quite sure how much of a problem this is in their lives. Sins often "ride upon the back" of other sins so it's useful to tackle one in a powerful way because when you overcome one that's a particular "trouble maker" in your life it often makes it easier to overcome other sins. Sort of like knocking the front pin down in bowling - if you hit it just right it will often take down others with it. For me, the head pin is sloth, so I'm tackling that one first. It can take some discernment to identify the head pin.

Sloth can be physical, spiritual, or both. Many times people don't think they are slothful because their lives are so busy but the truth is that over-activity CAN be as much as a symptom as under-activity. We so love to fool ourselves. The funny thing is...we are not always aware that we are deceiving ourselves. It's probably best to look at the quality of your output rather than the quantity. This goes for prayer, too - quality supersedes quantity. You want to get at the heart of the issue and surface appearances can be deceiving. A person can run around all day and still be slothful in the things that matter. It's helpful for those who are chronically ill (it was for me) to remember that quality counts over quantity. Sometimes people look upon those who are ill as slothful when nothing could be further from the truth.

In this post I am using a widely accepted definition of sloth. Sloth and acedia are often used interchangeably though they have slightly different meanings. Sloth is often thought of as mere laziness but it is more complicated than that. Laziness is more an effect of sloth. Here is a link which speaks about sloth in more detail. Thomas Aquinas said that sloth is "sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good...its evil is in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away from good deeds".

These are some of the signs and symptoms of sloth, especially spiritual sloth:
~ An aversion to prayer - this can be mild or great depending on how deeply rooted this vice is.
~ Aridity
~ Lack of zeal
~ Disorganization
~ Confusion (spiritual)
~ Apathy or discouragement
~ Boredom
~ Putting off tasks or leaving them undone without good reason
~ Sadness (melancholy)
~ Focusing too much on the past or the future


 Some of these can also be signs of gluttony. So as God removes layers of dirt from your soul you might run into these symptoms again. Gluttony and sloth are often partners. I would also like to point out that I am referring to sin in this post not levels of prayer. A person can have an aversion to prayer when God is first leading them into deeper prayer such as contemplation but it's fairly easy to discern when this is the case because virtue steadily grows during these times and you don't get the feeling that you've hit a brick wall for an extended period of time. I've always thought that it's a good rule of thumb to first check and make sure that the fault isn't within you. There are layers to sin and God usually lifts these layers over time. The seven deadly sins are known as the roots of sin so removing these often takes many years. We can help with their removal to a degree, thankfully, by our disposition and our response to grace. Along with the proper disposition, God has provided a number of other remedies to help us along the way.

So, if we notice these signs, what can we do? God has given us so many ways of rooting out sin, here are some of the ways that I am tackling this vice:

- Praying specifically for the grace to overcome this: God does not refuse those who petition him with an honest heart, if anything, He gives more than the person has asked for. He will not be outdone in generosity. One of the reasons that I know that the Lord wants me to work on this particular fault is because of a word He gave me a while back, "Put your hands to the plow." I received this word numerous times so there was no doubt that He was calling me to respond in some way. He will not ask something of someone without supplying the necessary grace to overcome it. Further prayer confirmed the area He wanted me to tackle. God can make things very obvious if He chooses to. I sometimes have to request this (clarity) because I can be resistant at times to correction (spiritual pride). I'm being painfully honest here in hopes that somehow my words may be helpful to others.

- Going to Mass: Receiving the Eucharist often is a powerful remedy for all our ills. I am reading an excellent book called The Healing Power of the Eucharist by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F. that speaks about the spiritual, emotional, and physical healing that the Eucharist brings us.

- Adoration: Once again the healing properties of the Eucharist come into play here. Simply sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament and soaking in the healing rays emanating from the Heart of Jesus. I am of the belief that every person is changed and receives healing during Eucharistic Adoration even if the healing is imperceptible to us.

- Reading the Bible: I am focusing on the Book of Wisdom this week and certain Gospel passages that will help me keep my eyes on Jesus and "put my hands to the plow".

- Practicing the opposing virtue: The opposing virtue of sloth is diligence. Exercising virtues builds your spiritual muscles. I have also been praying for prudence (wisdom) because this is a "kingpin" virtue. Another virtue which opposes sloth is charity.

I may do one more post on sloth since I think it may be helpful to dig a little deeper into this capital sin and I hope to post some links and helpful books. It's easy to be deceived by the rush, rush, nature of our society today into believing that sloth isn't a problem these days but I am convinced that it is a HUGE problem, more of one than we think.