The Notion of Faults and Remedies

THE FAULTS

Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: "I cannot teach what I have not learned. I have not thought it appropriate to describe the ascents, for I am one who knows more about descending than ascending."  .... Bernard was more interested in tracking down and identifying the sources of aberrant behavior, which he synthesized under the headings of 

curiositas - mental restlessness

cupiditas - acquistiveness

and  singularitas - individualism  / Singularity is not morally neutral; it implies a rejection of what is common, approved, and holy.  Inevitably it proclaims that the way followed by the majority is without value and invites others to find alternative routes to holiness.

Aelred of Rievaulx .... interprets the seven hostile tribes of Deuteronomy 7:1 as pointers to the inner incitements to infidelity and sin.

Negligentia - negligence - "How often does my soul fall asleep through boredom [tadium] Psalm 118:28] so that I consume nearly the whole day in inertia as if time were not irrevocable!   ... Inattention and a failure to take seriously the challenges of daily life are the root causes of negligence.  

Tepor - tepidity or lukewarmness and pigritia - laziness; languid - idle at the level of thoughts; dilatory (segnis); dull (socordia) Slackness ... can be qualitative or quantitative: we can be sloopy in our performance, careless because we consider what we do to be of slight importance, or reluctant to do more than the bare minimum, idle, dilatory, and ungenerous.  The effect of tepidity is the cessation of the desire for the wisdom and knowledge that nurture the experiential capacity to discern between virtue and vice and that must be cultivated by prayer and frequent reading.  The lazy man (piger) sits down on the raod and sleeps.

Sadness - The state of misery, miseria, a lack of peace, unquietness (inquietudo), a tendency to wobble (vacillatio).  To be unquiet is a dangerous state.

Stubbornness, a certain obstinacy, effectively resists and blocks out any external advice or correction and condemns (the monk) to repeating his mistakes and shutting himself in a prison of his own making. They are relunctant to receive direction.  This fault makes way toward the worst of vices:  superbia, pride.  

Dissipation - a monk who is locked into his own delusional self-perception and is resistant to feedback or correction will necessarily find it hard to remain stable.  The underlying cause of acedia is an inability to take anything seriously, to commit oneself to a line of thought or action to an ongoing lifestyle.  As a result there is no contentment in the present and a continual searching for gratification or entertainment that, once found, no longer satisfies.  .... Where there is levity and inconstancy of mind the soul is always restless and in motion, unable to concentrate even duirng psalmody.  Acedia is the opposite to mindfulness.  It is what Saint Benedict regarded as "death-dealing.  A constant state of forgetfulness and lack of concern generates idle thoughts and these soon give way to foolish conversation, loud laughter, foul talk and detraction.  Acedia dissipates the energy .... "they are continually moving among different life-giving dishes, and yet they are dying of hunger."   In its pursuit of entertainment and pleasure it not only opens the door to many aberrations in behavior but also leaves us defensless before demonic attack and our own foolishness.

Harshness - 

A rudis is someone who has not been through a process of education (erudito), not only in the sense of schooling but also in the cultivation of apprpriate manners of social behavior. "Now everyday you hear complaints and troublesome murmurings:  "This is bad, this is bad, this heavy."  .... those who are ungrateful are generally ungracious.  The opposite of gentlenss is violence - doing violence to others by our manner of acting.  .... Where humility and gentleness are lacking, relations become brittle, and rivalries and contentions easily emerge in the community.  The litigious are prepared to make an issue out of anything.  Driven by their inner demons and bolstered by their habitual obstinacy, they shatter the peace and harmony of the community without any concern for the labor involved in repairing the damage.  There is no reason for them, because they have stopped listening.  One who attempts to make a pastoral intervention will face the same difficulities as the preacher who finds himself blocked, first by those lacking in faith ... and others who are envious, who engage in destraction and mockery, .... and by the lukewarm, who fall asleep and yawn during his exposition.  

When the spiritual life seems to have gone sour, the monk tends to search for alternative gratifications.  The first means of compensation is to seek comfort in food.  the connection between acedia and gluttony is well attested in monastic tradition.    ....  A monk who is a "lover of pleasure" lives under the thrall of concupiscence and finds himself in unending pursuits of pleasure and vanity.  Progressively he puts himself in danger of having his vocation nibbled away by the onslaught of sexual sin .... Chastity is essential for monks .... for it serves as a receptacle for other virtues and graces.  It is a dynamic element in the transformation of the whole person.  Infidelity in the small actions of daily life progressively closes the avenues of spiritual renewal and leaves us open to the worst vices. 

THE REMEDIES

"I don't know if there is more efficacious and more pleasant means of improving morals ... than the faithful and loving consideration of this mystery of the Word become flesh ... "

All spiritual progress is predicated on a person's taking life serioiusly and, in particular, paying attention to the quality of the thoughts that are allowed access to the mind and heart.

As with all the 12th cnetury Cistercians, self-knowledge is a priority.  We must return to the heart.  First of all we must know what we are lacking, just as, according to Cicero, the first step of knowledge is to knowwhat we do not know.  The first effect of the inpouring of the Holy Spirit is to make the madman (phreneticus) experience himself and know himself and return to the heart. 

The dangers of mindless conversation is averted by the interior embrace of monastic obsrvance of silence.  Silence is necessary to welcome the Word and it is a source of strength and healing.  

In order to overcome the vice of gluttony, a person needs to develop the virtue of discretion:  not commanding oneself to "stop eating," since that frequently makes "the forbidden" even more attactive, but rather beginning the practice of discerning what food is appropriate to eat, in what moderate proportion, and when.  

The opposite of forgnication ... is selflessness; the opposite of avarice (jealousy aobut someone else's good fortune or possessions) is patience with one's own life; anger's opposite is detachment; dejection's is hope or equanimity; accidie's is persistence; vainglory's is practicing genuine care; pride's opposite ... humility. <Edward Sellner, Cassian and the Elders: Formation & Spiritual Direction in the Desert & Today, CSR, Volume 36.4, 2001>

Michael Casey, OCSO,  The Failings of Monks in Guerric's Sermons, CSR,  Volume 43-44, 2008