If there's something I want to change with myself it's to get rid of my laziness. No I'm not lazy with everything but there are things that I just don't do because it always seems like I cannot do it. Have you ever noticed that in your life?
Look at the rooms in your house. Is everything tidy because you have helpers/maids cleaning everyday? What if you don't have enough money to pay for anyone, what would your house look like?
Ladies of Hive community's writing theme for the week came just in time so I can expound on what I'd like to get rid of. Perhaps you also can relate to what I will share.
You've heard about it for sure. There's an old saying that says, "Cleanliness is next to godliness." Why is this a popular statement? Because nobody likes to live in a messy place, right? No one likes to stand next to someone who didn't take a bath for a month. And surely you won't eat something dirty and full of maggots taken from the trash can.
And yet we see streets littered with all kinds of garbage. Beaches get filthy from all sorts of trash despite our "love for nature". Our rooms aren't always tidy and uncluttered either. What's up with us? Why can't we even keep our own house clean and truly organized?
I'll tell you why. Because of Original Sin, which we all inherited from Adam and Eve, we have concupiscence. "What's that?" It's what naturally makes us do bad things to ourselves and other people.
"Aren't demons the ones telling us to do evil?" Well aside from our own sinful inclinations they also do everything they can 24/7 to influence us so we would end up in Hell.
(Don't believe me? Ask any Catholic exorcist priest and he'll tell you about all of that. Better yet, watch their talks and interviews from reputable YouTube channels. Plenty of that online now.)
Oh you wanna read such in the Bible? Go ahead and do a search online if you want to, that's fine. For now I'm here to say I wanna get rid of this disgusting and invisible bad behavior that we have. Another word for it would be one of the 7 Capital Sins: SLOTH or ACEDIA.
Yeah who cares if we're lazy from time to time, right? Oh it's not much of a problem if it happens rarely or even occasionally but if it's ever present in your life then it's something serious. If it also adversely affects the people around you then we really gotta change ourselves.
Here's a vid of Pope Francis talking about this capital sin.
I'll give you some examples of the effects of this invisible illness. Let's see if you can tell which ones you are doing too. Or maybe you have some situation of your own. And I'm sure you won't even notice it especially if you're already used to it.
For sure you've procrastinated before. It's something we've all done and still do whenever we feel like it. Guess what? Avoiding or delaying the things we should be doing is part of being slothful.
I'm not even talking about being lazy to improve our spiritual lives yet. 馃槀 Don't worry I won't get into it here. We're still dealing with the physical or worldly aspect of this capital sin and yet I already have a lot to say.
You'd rather be somewhere else than in the current situation you're in? Well, that's acedia creeping in. Not accepting reality and dealing with it early is what makes problems worse.
When we just daydream our life away and live in our fantasies, we won't get anywhere. This is a problem of many people. Everybody thinks and talks but only a few are brave to act and change their lives.
Okay I call this such because there are parents who don't or won't discipline their children. We can blame it on their work or culture, whatever. The problem is, if our parents aren't able to instill good habits in us, we will grow up and be like them. Like the saying goes: "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
For example, I will call myself a slob at this point of my life. But heck who am I kidding, it started when I was a kid. Anyway, now the house is really messy and I don't even do anything about it. Yeah I used to have someone clean from time to time but I have too many excuses now so my stuff are all over the place.
Like wtf I don't understand why I can't even organize my stuff on my own. 馃槅 It shouldn't be this hard but something in me is just meh with the mess. This is the real problem. 馃槄
I used to justify being messy with creativity, as that's what's being circulated online. Of course I had a job for years but even when I stopped everything to rest for my sickness I still don't care much about this situation. So no, it doesn't have anything to do with being an artist or a creative person. It's a bad habit that's ingrained in the system.
It's gotten to the point that I have lived with disorganization for many years and now I don't think I want this behavior anymore. Won't even invite guests at home, like wtf. The thought of having visitors doesn't even motivate me to clean up. Oh what a slob. Bla bla bla. Haha.
Here's Fr. Ed Broom and the three kinds of this bad behavior.
I'm at that stage where I really wanna get rid of this "silent bad habit." Because of my recent physical illness, this feels like it's been magnified 5x than normal! If I don't do something about this I'm afraid I'd go to purgatory. haha. God forbid pls. 馃檹
So I did a quick search online a few days ago to know what to do about this problem. I'm already doing frequent confession so here are three more tips from different priests who know more about this topic!
In an article, Fr. Harrison Ayre says we gotta do stuff. Manual labor is the key. He's known for a trending Twitter thread of acedia during the pandemic which unfortunately can't be found anymore. In an interview, he also says we gotta schedule our life in order to avoid this terrible behavior.
And then as I'm writing this, I just realized I've heard this before from another priest. Fr. Chad Ripperger, an American exorcist priest, is the first person I heard it from actually. He wasn't talking about fighting laziness when he said it though.
In one of his interviews (or was it a talk, I forget) he said that people need to have a regular schedule for prayer in order to build discipline. As a result it can get rid of demonic harassment. For example, the Angelus/Regina Coeli is prayed every 6 am-12 nn-6pm. That's one of the "assignments" exorcist priests give to "victims" of demons in order to be rid of them, especially when the person is possessed.
Well hey I have a problem with schedules. I've never been able to use planners ever unlike other people who live by it. Now I should start scheduling more but I don't know what to put in my "daily plan" yet except prayer times. 馃槄 Gotta work on this some more!
I also found out Pope Francis said, "Laziness is a symptom of acedia". Well heck it sure is. And here's his advice:
Here's Fr. Mike Schmitz giving advice on this.
I'd love to write more but hey maybe you can just share your tips on getting rid of this bad habit too. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
XOXO,
