How to Subdue Sloth

In order that you may not fall into the ruinous evil of sloth—which will cut off your progress toward perfection and deliver you into the hands of your enemies—you must flee every form of idle curiosity (prying at what is here and there, aimless wandering, empty talk, gawking), every attachment to anything earthly, and every willful self-directed action, that is, doing-as-one-pleases entirely unsuited to your condition. On the contrary, you must compel yourself with all your might to willing and prompt fulfillment of every good direction and every command of your superiors and spiritual fathers, and to perform every task at the time and in the manner they wish.

Do not delay in the least to begin every task you have to do, for a first brief delay will lead you to a second, longer one, and the second to a third, longer still, and so on. As a result the task is started too late and does not get done in its proper time, or is abandoned altogether as too burdensome. Having once tasted the sweetness of doing nothing, you will begin to love it and desire it more than doing something—and by satisfying this desire you will gradually arrive at the habit of not working, that is, at laziness, in which the passion for idleness will take such hold over you that you will cease even to feel how absurd and sinful this is—unless, perhaps, when wearied by the laziness itself, you take up your affairs again with full zeal. Then, with shame, you will see how negligent you were before and how many necessary tasks you omitted for the sake of futile self-willed doing-as-you-please.

This sloth, beginning almost imperceptibly, penetrates into everything and with its poison wounds not only the will—instilling in it an aversion to every kind of labor and every spiritual exercise and obedience—but it also blinds the mind, not allowing it to perceive the full unreasonableness and falsity of the thoughts on which such a disposition of the will is sustained, preventing it from presenting to the consciousness those sound judgments which would be powerful enough to move this sluggish will to fulfill its duty as quickly as possible and with full zeal, without postponing it to another time. For it is not enough to do things quickly; each thing must be done at its proper time—the time required by its very nature—and with full attention and care, so that it may appear in the best possible form. Hear what is written: ”Cursed is everyone who does the work of the Lord with slackness” (Jer. 48:10). And to this misfortune you expose yourself because you are too lazy to reflect on the worth and value of the task before you, so as to move yourself to do it in its proper time and with such determination as would dispel all the thoughts of its supposed difficulties which sloth breathes upon you, seeking to turn you aside from it.

Let there never depart from your mind the conviction that a single lifting of the mind to God and a single humble prostration to the glory and honor of God is immeasurably more valuable than all the treasures of the world; and that every time we drive away sloth and compel ourselves to perform our duty with care, the Angels in heaven are preparing for us a crown of glorious victory; and that on the contrary, for the slothful there are not only no crowns from God, but He little by little takes back from them the gifts He previously gave for their former zealous service to Him—and in the end will deprive them of His Kingdom itself if they remain in sloth; as He said in the parable of those invited to a supper who were too slothful to come: ”I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper” (Luke 14:24). Such is the lot of the slothful; but to those who are diligent and compel themselves without self-pity to every good work, the Lord multiplies His gracious gifts here and prepares an eternally blessed life in His Heavenly Kingdom, as He said: ”The kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12).

If the evil thought, striving to cast you into sloth, begins to represent to you that in order to acquire the virtue you have come to love and wish to possess, you must inevitably take on the greatest labor, and that for many days; that your enemies are strong and many while you are alone and weak; that you must do many great things to achieve such a goal—if, I say, the thought of sloth begins to set all this before you, do not listen to it. On the contrary, picture the matter to yourself thus: yes, certainly you must do some things, but not many; and yes, you must take on some labor, but very small and not for many days; and yes, you will meet with enemies, but not many—only one, and though that one might be strong against you alone, yet with the help of God, which is ever present to you because of your great hope in it, you are incomparably stronger than he. If you act in this way, sloth will begin to recede from you, and in its place, under the influence of good thoughts and feelings, a diligent zeal for all that is due will gradually enter into you and will at last take possession of all the powers of your soul and body.

Act in the same way with regard to prayer as well. If completing a certain order of service requires, say, an hour of prayerful effort, and this seems burdensome to your sloth, then when you begin it, do not think that you will have to stand for an hour—but imagine that it will last only about a quarter of an hour, and imperceptibly you will stand through the prayer for that quarter. Having stood it, say to yourself: let us stand just one more short quarter—that is not much, as you see. Then do the same for the third and fourth quarters; and you will finish this act of prayerful service in this manner, without noticing the difficulty and burden. But if at some point during this you feel such heaviness that it interferes with prayer itself, then leave off the prayer service for a time and then, after a little while, take it up again and complete what was left undone.

Act in the same way with regard to handiwork and the tasks of your obedience. If it seems to you that there are many such tasks and you are agitated and ready to give up—do not think about this multitude of tasks, but take heart and begin with the first task at hand and do it with all diligence, as if the others did not exist at all, and you will accomplish it calmly. Then act in the same way with regard to the other tasks, and you will get through them all calmly, without agitation and fuss.

Act thus in all things, and know that if you do not take yourself in hand and begin to resist in this way the feelings of difficulty and burdensomeness which the enemy presents to you regarding the tasks before you, sloth will finally overcome you completely—so that not only when some labor lies immediately before you, but even when it is still far ahead, you will feel as though you have a mountain on your shoulders; you will be weighed down and tormented by it, like slaves in inescapable bondage. Thus even at rest you will have no rest, and without work you will feel yourself burdened with work.

Know also, my child, that this sickness of laziness and sloth with its poison invisibly and gradually corrupts not only the early and still small roots from which habits of virtue might in time have grown, but also those which have long since gone deep and serve as the foundation of all the patterns of a good life. As a worm little by little eats through a tree, so sloth, continuing on, imperceptibly consumes and destroys the very nerves of the spiritual life. Through it the devil knows how to spread nets and snares of temptation for every person, and he takes particular care and cunning ingenuity to do this for those who are zealous for the spiritual life—knowing that a lazy and negligent person readily succumbs to lusts and falls, as it is written: ”every idle person is given to desire” (Prov. 13:4).

Be therefore always watchful, pray, and maintain good diligence in what is good, as befits a courageous warrior: ”for the hands of the diligent are in earnest labor” (Prov. 13:4). Do not sit with folded hands, deferring the sewing of your wedding garment until the moment when you must go out in full adornment to meet the coming Bridegroom, Christ the Lord. Remind yourself every day that “today” is in our hands, while “tomorrow” is in God’s hands, and that He who gave you the morning did not thereby bind Himself with a promise to give you the evening. Therefore do not listen at all to the devil when he whispers to you: give me “today,” and you will give “tomorrow” to God. No, no; spend every hour of your life in a manner pleasing to God, keeping in mind that after the present hour no other will be given to you and that for every minute of this hour you will have to render a most detailed account. Remember that the time you have in your hands is beyond price, and that if you waste it in vain, an hour will come when you will seek it and not find it. Count as lost any day in which, even if you performed good deeds, you did not overcome your evil inclinations and desires.

I conclude my lessons to you on this subject by repeating the apostolic command: ”Fight the good fight always” (1 Tim. 6:12). For it has often happened that one hour of zealous labor gained paradise, just as, on the contrary, one hour of sloth lost it. Be diligent, if you wish to testify how firm before God is your hope of salvation. ”For he who trusts in the Lord will be diligent” (Prov. 28:25).