Apathy

[superblue]

So, I have learned about " apathy / Acedia " I have researched and it appears that St. Martha is the patron saint against this vice Acedia , does she also cover apathy, and while i have not fallen into spiritual solthness as of yet, i do find my mind wondering or hard to concentrate during certain parts of prayers and i try to not beat myself up about it, but to recognize it and draw myself back to the present. Sometimes during scripture readings i get lost so fast either due to the readers voice or what ever and i am learning i need to find the readings before hand so i can read along in my bible, so i got that tiny part covered. What about Apathy in general, what are some ways to work on that .... ? And what is a good prayer to St. Martha in general on either of these.

 

Help is appreciated.

[BarbTherese]

Apathy, I think, is more about not caring than loss of devotion.  Perhaps when we do undergo spiritual dryness, there is a false temptation to accuse ourselves of spiritual sloth or acedia and to disturb and upset our Peace of Soul with related anxiety.  A good move would be to talk with a spiritual director.

Three Ages of The Spiritual Life  (Fr Garrigout-LagrangeOP)  (This Chapter on Acedia is lengthy but worthy of a read)    "The latter confounded spiritual sloth with the aridity and dryness of divine trials, not observing that the soul which bears these trials well, far from being slothful, has a keen desire for God and for perfection, and therefore preserves a true, substantial devotion of the will in the absence of sensible devotion of which it is deprived. Molinos confounded sensible and absolutely involuntary disgust for divine things with the disgust which is at least indirectly voluntary and culpable because of sloth and negligence."

Link to above and scroll down to "The Cure for Spiritual Sloth" - you might find it helpful too.

Prayer to Overcome Sloth and Lukewarmness

God bless

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

So, I have learned about " apathy / Acedia " I have researched and it appears that St. Martha is the patron saint against this vice Acedia , does she also cover apathy, and while i have not fallen into spiritual solthness as of yet, i do find my mind wondering or hard to concentrate during certain parts of prayers and i try to not beat myself up about it, but to recognize it and draw myself back to the present. Sometimes during scripture readings i get lost so fast either due to the readers voice or what ever and i am learning i need to find the readings before hand so i can read along in my bible, so i got that tiny part covered. What about Apathy in general, what are some ways to work on that .... ? And what is a good prayer to St. Martha in general on either of these.

 

Help is appreciated.

​Remember I am not a Spiritual Director, and also have not experienced religious life. But, based only on the posts you've made since you entered, you do not sound Apathetic. A person who is apathetic just doesn't care. I expect if you were truly apathetic you wouldn't even bother to make the post above.

Give yourself a break! You JUST entered! It's going to take time and practice to learn to focus and become familiar with the Office. When you find yourself losing focus, don't beat yourself up, just put your brain back to the present. 

It sounds as if you have found one tool to help with focus, that is, reading along in your Bible. That sounds like a good solution.

I assume there is someone in charge of those in formation. Don't you have daily contact with this person? Ideally you are getting direction from them as to what they want you to be working on.

There is a good reason that it takes years of formation before you take final vows--these things take time and practice. Think of yourself as a child who has just discovered walking. When a toddler falls down, they just pick themselves up and try again. It will be a while before that toddler can walk a block and YEARS before he or she can run a mile. God knows that, and in the same way we are patient with a toddler who is just learning to walk, I am sure God is VERY pleased with the efforts you are making.  

[MarysLittleFlower]

So, I have learned about " apathy / Acedia " I have researched and it appears that St. Martha is the patron saint against this vice Acedia , does she also cover apathy, and while i have not fallen into spiritual solthness as of yet, i do find my mind wondering or hard to concentrate during certain parts of prayers and i try to not beat myself up about it, but to recognize it and draw myself back to the present. Sometimes during scripture readings i get lost so fast either due to the readers voice or what ever and i am learning i need to find the readings before hand so i can read along in my bible, so i got that tiny part covered. What about Apathy in general, what are some ways to work on that .... ? And what is a good prayer to St. Martha in general on either of these.

 

Help is appreciated.

If you get distracted but are trying to not be distracted, that is not a sin... Its only a sin if you encourage it. Sin is in the will. 

Like it was mentioned, acedia or apathy involves a type of not caring. 

With what you described, I would really recommend mental prayer and the books "Soul of the Apostolate" about interior life, and "Ways of Mental Prayer" by Dom Vitalis Lehodey both are from TAN. Don't be too hard on yourself with getting distracted, but try to fight it, and working on interior life and mental prayer can help to advance in that I think

God bless you!