All In! Living The Mission Of God

This week we are continuing our Lenten series using the prayer of Saint Ephrem. If you missed last week's episode, go back and listen and get up to speed on what we're doing. This prayer goes back about 1800 years. It is used around the time of Lent. Here is how it goes: The Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephrem O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust for power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant. Yes, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For You are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen. A. Today I want to focus on the first two negative parts of the prayer. Sloth and Faint-heartedness. Acedia:  “The demon of acedia, also called the ‘noonday devil,’ is the most oppressive of all demons.” Evagrius of Pontus B. The basic disease is Sloth It is that strange laziness and passivity that pushes us down, not up. Procrastination is one of its manifestations Sloth constantly con