Sloth is a common sin among us. See my posts below.
Here is Garrigou-Lagrange on this point.
In the letter of Fr. de Paredes, General of the Order of Preachers in the year 1926, which is to be found at the beginning of the new edition of the Constitutions, the following description is given of the spirit of human nature (p. 20): "Although a man's holiness is the result of God's grace working in his soul, it presupposes on our part a long and difficult process of purification and transformation of everything within us, until we have destroyed completely the old self which is corrupted by the desires of the flesh and put on the new self 'which is created in God's image, justified and sanctified through the truth.' Hence the need for the spirit of obedience, self-denial, and sacrifice with which we must all observe these rules perseveringly and to the letter . . ."
In contrast: "Any human relaxation, any spirit of faintheartedness, any concession made on these matters to human considerations, any unlawful dispensation which is not based on the Constitutions, may all be considered as a deviation from duty on the part of superiors . . . and, on the part of his subjects, as a disowning of their obligation to sanctify themselves and make themselves fit instruments for carrying out their sacred ministry. Such surrender to slothfulness would make it clear that our motive in entering the religious state was not to pursue the ideal set before us by God and the Church but simply to solve the problem of life here on earth with the minimum of trouble, so that in the religious state we might be more certain of receiving all the necessities of life and the more easily provide for ourselves comforts which we might not have enjoyed in the world.
We are all called to this life of virtue...all by and in and through our baptism.
Pray for priests today to follow the way of perfection. We need holy priests, and we need holy families to raise holy priests.
to be continued....
01 Feb 2014
These are reviews of repeats this past week and long ago, but someone mentioned sloth to me and I guess I wanted to encourage this person on the way to perfection. Most Americans are work-alcoholics. We have the ...
21 Dec 2013
Those adult Catholics, who do not study their faith and persist in ignorance fall into intellectual sloth, leading to ignorance, for which one is culpable. In America and in Europe, I do not believe there is such a thing as invincible ...
21 Jun 2013
I have noted that anti-intellectualism is not only dividing the Church into groupings, but weakening the Church's ability to evangelize. Sloth is behind this anti-intellectualism, as sloth is not only a sin of the body but of the mind.
21 Jun 2013
Hence sloth implies a certain weariness of work, as appears from a gloss on Psalm 106:18, "Their soul abhorred all manner of meat," and from the definition of some who say that sloth is a "sluggishness of the mind which ...
26 Mar 2014
Could be a sign of spiritual sloth. Posted by Supertradmum. Lay people are in the world to make the world holy. We are called to convert, to evangelize those who are falling away. We are the salt of the world. Christ said this of ...
25 Sep 2013
Sloth leads to abdication of roles, a nine to five attitude towards duty, a curtailing of personal growth. That sloth can be found in some who are priests is a tragedy for the laity. Without leadership, the ship of the Church crashes ...
06 Aug 2012
According to St. Gregory and St. Thomas,(12) pride or arrogance is more than a capital sin; it is the root from which proceed especially four capital sins: vanity or vainglory, spiritual sloth or wicked sadness which embitters, ...
18 Nov 2014
I am beginning to believe that the basic sin of the laity is sloth. One will not get to heaven by feeding the emotions with consolations and messages, but one will form one's conscience by studying the CCC and the teachings of ...
12 Sep 2014
(1) There are temperaments inclined to effeminacy, indolence, sloth, gluttony, and sensuality. Others are inclined especially to anger and pride. We do not all climb the same slope toward the summit of perfection: those who are ...
22 Dec 2013
Envy is, like sloth, not always considered a serious sin. There are three aspects to envy. The first is jealousy, in which one is fearful of losing something one has. This could be a girlfriend, or a position at work, for examples.
23 Jun 2013
The antidote to Sloth, according to Prudentius, is the virtue called Diligence, which may be seen as connected to Justice, Prudence and Temperance. Diligence is zeal for the Faith and industry-hard work, in other words.
12 Aug 2012
As I was defining and examining the great sins, here is Newman perfectly describing sloth and cowardice, as well as acedia, that melancholy which causes inaction in the spiritual life and a cynicism. And it must be confessed, ...
10 Feb 2014
Some souls, because of their negligence or spiritual sloth, do not pass from the age of beginners to that of proficients. These are retarded souls; in the spiritual life they are like abnormal children, who do not happily pass ...
06 May 2014
Twice I started theses on Newman and have not, for good reasons, not sloth, not been able to finish these. I have been studying him off and on for over 30 years, but only really read this phrase today. Amazing how when one ...
13 Aug 2014
Acedia (sloth), hatred of spiritual things, whence are born: malice, rancor, pusillanimity, discouragement, spiritual torpor, forgetfulness of the precepts, seeking after forbidden things. in regard to one's neighbour, Envy, from ...
21 Aug 2013
For others, the cause could be sloth, not cultivating a prayer life, or not receiving the sacraments frequently. A habit of sin can destroy faith. One of the greatest enemies of faith is materialism, the belief that the life on earth is ...
12 Sep 2014
(1) There are temperaments inclined to effeminacy, indolence, sloth, gluttony, and sensuality. Others are inclined especially to anger and pride. We do not all climb the same slope toward the summit of perfection: those who are ...
07 Feb 2014
This psychiatrist explored the reality of evil,. and even more fascinating, the fact that some people actually choose evil on purpose, rather than the good. Peck pointed to self-deceit, laziness or sloth, and narcissism as some of ...
15 Nov 2014
The great sin of men who are refusing the call is one of sloth. It is too easy to just be single, go with the flow, live a completely self-centered life. Those who are answering the call understand that the day of the comfortable ...
14 Jun 2014
And what is it that clouds it? The venial sins that we commit so easily—sins of worldliness, sins of self-indulgence, sins of temper, sins of jealousy, sins of pride, sins of vain-glory, sins of sloth, and the like; wherever there is any ...
22 Jul 2012
Lust and Sloth (who has beads) point to the need for deep, persistent prayer, as do all the other Deadly Sins. Garrigou-Lagrange writes that we must ask God, seek Him, for enlightenment as to one's predominant fault.
25 Jan 2013
I do not mind liberals having good arguments but if they refuse to read or study, I have no time for such laziness of mind. The sin of sloth is a deadly sin. We forget that this sin applies to the mind as well as the body.
14 Sep 2014
This causes sorrow, but only for the person who has not put the nail in the predominant faults of vainglory, pride, presumption. sloth, gluttony, anger, and so on. When one is made holy, one is no longer upset about people ...
10 Feb 2014
Perseverance is not easy: a struggle must be carried on against self, against spiritual sloth, against the devil, who inclines us to discouragement. Many souls, on being deprived of the first consolations which they received, turn ...
28 Jan 2014
And, I state that sloppiness is Sloth. In the past 30 months, I have had the sad experience of meeting some priests who are anti-intellectual and think it a virtue. These priests, and they number four, are into private revelations, ...
01 Dec 2014
One, replace hatred, anger, sloth, and all the deadly sins with love and the other virtues. Without living a life of virtue, you and I shall not remain faithful to the end. Second, teach your children and help older family members ...
13 Aug 2014
The list of this pre-saint's sin is staggering: lust, pride, curiosity, wastefulness of time, spiritual sloth, anger, heresy, and so on. I have actually, heard from the mouths of priests, that St. Augustine was too hard on himself.
09 Jan 2014
Most people who do not pursue knowledge fall into the sin of sloth. Another reason could be pride, as one may not want to know one is sinning, one is choosing evil. If one is running away from God, then one may ignore the ...
18 Sep 2013
If the predominant fault is sloth, one will not study the Catholic teachings, but want others, like seers, to tell them truths. Of course, this is a laziness. Garrigou-Lagrange states that sloth is the hardest fault of all to destroy as a ...
28 Jan 2013
The necessity of this purification, as the saint shows in the same book,(3) arises from the defects of beginners, which may be reduced to three: spiritual pride, spiritual sensuality, and spiritual sloth. St. John of the Cross teaches ...
27 Jul 2012
According to St. Gregory and St. Thomas,(12) pride or arrogance is more than a capital sin; it is the root from which proceed especially four capital sins: vanity or vainglory, spiritual sloth or wicked sadness which embitters, ...
04 Aug 2014
At times they must be checked, and at other times awakened, jolted, in order to react against sloth, inertia, timidity, or fear. At times a great effort is required to break an impetuous horse; the same is true of disciplining certain ...
