We cannot admire sufficiently the perspicacity with which Evagrius unmasks as a temptation of acedia all secret doubt about the authenticity of one’s calling, of one’s decision to follow a certain type of life, whether it be as monk, priest, or married man. These thoughts infiltrate slowly, and with time they hollow out inner confidence, like water dripping on stone. Considered from the purely human point of view, in every decision, in addition to the high-minded and authentic, there are all types of merely foregrounded and entirely ignoble motives at play. But God Writes straight with crooked lines, since he calls sinners, not the righteous. Each “calling” turns out to be, in a retrospect of belief, an ultimately grace-full election.
+Archimandrite Gabriel Bunge, from Despondency: The Spiritual Teaching of Evagrius Ponticus on Acedia, Chapter 4 Manifestations of Despondency.
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