February 14, 2024 / 04:42 AM
Continuing with his cycle of catechesis on vices and virtues, Pope Francis reflected in the General Audience this Wednesday, February 14, on acedia, a little-known but “very dangerous” temptation that causes “life to lose its meaning.” and whose remedy is the “patience of faith.”
At the beginning of his catechesis given from the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican, the Holy Father explained that, often, this term is replaced by laziness. However, he specified that laziness is a consequence of acedia, whose root in Greek means “lack of care.”
The Pontiff referred to this vice as “a very dangerous temptation,” whose victim “is as if crushed by a desire for death: everything disgusts him; His relationship with God becomes boring; and also the most holy acts, those that had warmed his heart, now seem completely useless to him.”