This is a bit heavy. Up until 2 days ago, I'd never even heard of the word "acedia". But suddenly this word began cropping up everywhere I looked. I finally googled it and found an amazing wealth of information. At first it seemed daunting, but after reading through several resources, I found it enlightening and, well, even hopeful for me personally. It resounded so strongly that I can't help but believe that it's no accident that I've been encountering the word so much in the past couple of days.

Has anyone else heard of this? Lola, have you come across this in your theological studies? I've taken various theology courses for over 30 years, and for many years had a special passion for reading the writings of the monastics and mystics, like St John of the Cross, but never came across this, or at least it never made an impact before now...though I have been living it off and on for so much of my life, always using either the psychological term "dysthemia" (chronic depression) when it felt like imbalance, or St John's term "dark night of the soul" when it felt spiritual.

This was the most helpful (and hopeful) resource thus far:

http://www.hermitary.com/solitude/acedia.html