In his Institutes he describes the dejection and weariness that was a frequent foe of the monks, and was denoted by the Greek word ‘acedia’ – the word itself might be translated as ‘lack of care’, though the struggle itself is a complex state that’s hard to pin down. John Cassian, born around 360AD, compiled and digested the teachings of those ‘desert monks’ who had withdrawn from society to live lives of prayer on the Nile Delta. Yet in recognising and naming the struggle – this “stale boredom” which so many of us have been confronted with – what was striking was the way in which he reached back into the history of the monastic experience. His words capture the feeling of constraint even within the monastery grounds while monks might be thought of as experts in self-isolation, life for Benedictines is not typically one of total confinement to the enclosure. That is the real pity – to miss the spring colours and smells.” Yesterday I just went to the end of the drive, simply to look outside and enjoy (really enjoy) the sight of the wisteria in the road. Cassian of course had just the word for it – acedia. “Now, inevitably, it has begun to shift to a kind of stale boredom. The sudden decision to close places of learning feeling almost like an unexpected holiday excitement quickly engulfed by the fear and uncertainty about the situation, anxiety of risk from the infection and grief amidst the rising deathtoll.
From a monastic perspective such struggles echo in history.īack in April, Fr David Foster, a Benedictine monk I met years ago during my PhD fieldwork at Downside Abbey, and now teaching at the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome, described the sharp shifts in emotion as Italy struggled with the wave of COVID-19 infection. Difficulty summoning any interest or energy to do anything – in fact, the sense that there’s very little point getting out of bed in the first place.
The listlessness that comes from staring at the same set of walls, as the days seep into one another.
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