Fourteenth Subject. Idleness

Brother Philippe, Subjects for Particular Examen, 1870, pp. 19–20

I passed by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the foolish man, and behold it was all filled with nettles, and thorns had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall was broken down.—PROV. xxiv. 30.
Among the vices which afflict humanity, there is not one more dangerous than idleness, for it teaches much wickedness. Indeed, in point of evil, of what is he not capable, who occupies himself neither with God nor with the duties of his state. He of whom the Holy Ghost says, as the door turneth upon its hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand under his arm pits and will not so much as bring it to his mouth.
Having nothing which occupies him seriously, his imagination transports him from object to object, each more dangerous than the last; his thoughts have no fixedness for serious things; his heart wearies and gets a distaste for God; even his body becomes enervated, and urges him incessantly to the gratification of his senses. Thus how many faults, how many wrong steps in the performance of his duties! He has sometimes certain desires to quit this condition, but he does nothing, for desires kill the slothful.
The sluggard, scarcely corresponding to any grace, little by little hardens his heart, and soon falls into a sort of apathy, which generally conducts him to the abyss of blindness and indifference. As rust corrodes and destroys iron, so does idleness corrode both body and soul, and imperceptibly changes their nature.
Since then this vice is so dangerous, let us seriously examine our conscience, and see if we have not something to reproach ourselves with on this subject.
Are we always occupied? Do we fulfil the duties of our vocation? Have we the resolution to perform all our acts, at the time, and in the place prescribed? Do we suitably employ our time? Do we not sometimes hide our idleness, our distaste for labor and useful occupation under the false pretext of infirmity or impossibility, which have no other foundation than the love of repose, and the dread of all fatigue? Do we not fear that the words of the wise man may be applied to us? The slothful hideth his hand under his arm-pits and will not so much as bring it to his mouth. Because of the cold, the sluggard would not plough, he shall beg therefore in the summer and it shall not be given to him. He shall be filled with poverty and destitute of goods both temporal and spiritual.—PROV. xxviii. 19.
Pause.
ACT OF CONTRITION.—I see plainly, O my God! that a great number of the faults I have committed, had their origin in my idleness and negligence. Satan, finding me unemployed and void of Thee, entered into my heart and filled it with his fatal delusions. Pardon me, and grant me through the lowly and laborious life of my Saviour, and through the intercession of Mary, grace to employ better, for Thy glory and my salvation, the time Thou mayst be pleased to grant me.
I make the resolution to......