Askesis

With Ash Wednesday almost upon us, this seems a fitting time to launch a blog dedicated to a subject that has been on my mind for some time, the practice of asceticism. The importance of asceticism for the Christian man seems to be something like a lost secret, although it was not long ago a commonly accepted fact. There are levels of asceticism, of course, and one need not wear a hairshirt and live in the wilderness on locusts and honey to practice it. In his book, The Struggle with God, Paul Evdokimov pointed out that every Christian is called to asceticism (Latin ascesis) as one part of the spiritual life.

“Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." St. Paul exhorts all the faithful to exercise themselves in the combats of the faith and gives us an image taken from military life and from that of sports--the soldier and the athlete. The word “ascesis” comes from the Greek askesis and means exercise, effort, exploit. One can speak of the athletic ascesis when it seeks to render the body supple, obedient, resistant to every obstacle. . . Monastic tradition has given to this term a very precise meaning; it designates the interior combat necessary in order that the spiritual acquire a mastery over the material.