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The Virtue of Rest (Requies) a Part of Fortitude - VirTrue Episode 45

VirTrue - Helping Man Grow in Truth and Virtue

We live in a culture that doesn’t know how to rest. Some of us are always working. If we’re not working, we’re checking email, scrolling our phones, listening to something, planning the next project, or worrying about everything we haven’t finished. Others have made rest into something entirely different. “I need to protect my peace.” “I need some me time.” “I deserve this.” Rest becomes another appetite to satisfy. We arrange our lives around comfort and call it self-care. Neither of these is true rest. The Christian life has always understood that there is a time for work and a time for leisure. There is a time to labor for the good and a time simply to receive the goodness that God has already given us. True rest is not laziness. And it is not merely recovering so that we can become productive again. It is the ability to cease from labor when reason tells us that labor should cease, to enjoy creation, friendship, family, beauty, celebration, contemplation, and worship without needing them to accomplish anything. Our work does not sustain the universe. Our comfort is not the purpose of the universe. We can simply receive. And that’s why Rest matters. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today. 🎙️ Intro Welcome back to VirTrue, where we are learning how to become saints by cultivating virtue and overcoming vice. Today we begin our journey through the season of Fortitude with a virtue that might seem like a strange place to start: Rest. In Latin, Requies. We normally associate Fortitude with action. Stand up. Fight. Endure. Keep going. But before we can learn when to keep going, we have to learn when to stop. A person who cannot stop working is not necessarily courageous. A person who cannot put down his phone is not free. A person who needs constant stimulation is not at peace. And a person who makes his own comfort the measure of everything is not truly resting either. Fortitude requires self-possession. And one of the first signs that we possess ourselves is that we can work when it is time to work and rest when it is time to rest. 🛏️ The Virtue of Rest — Requies What it is Rest is the virtue by which we cease from labor according to reason and enter into true leisure, receiving the goods of contemplation, recreation, celebration, relationship, and worship, while remaining ready to return to labor when the good requires it. St. Thomas Aquinas does not formally list Requies among the potential parts of Fortitude. But he gives us an important foundation for understanding it when he discusses recreation. In the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas explains that just as the body becomes fatigued through physical labor, the soul also becomes weary through sustained activity. Human beings need recreation. There is nothing virtuous about pretending we do not have bodies, limits, emotions, or a need for refreshment. But Aquinas insists that recreation must still be governed by reason. There is a proper time. A proper manner. A proper amount. That distinction is essential. My sensible appetite can tell me: I’m tired. This couch feels good. I don’t want to do this anymore. I’d rather watch another episode. But appetite cannot determine what I ought to do. Prudence makes that judgment. Sometimes reason says: Keep working. Sometimes reason says: You’ve done enough. Go to bed. And virtue means being free enough to obey either judgment. This connects Rest directly to the virtues we’ve already explored. Temperance prevents our passions from ruling us. Prudence allows reason to recognize the proper time and measure of our actions. Rest puts that order into practice by allowing us to cease from labor without becoming slaves to comfort. But Christian rest goes beyond recuperation. The German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper argued in Leisure: The Basis of Culture that leisure cannot simply be understood as the time we use to recover so that we can get back to work. If the only purpose of rest is to make us better workers, then work still dominates our entire existence. True leisure allows us to enjoy things that do not need to be useful. We contemplate beauty. We make music. We play. We feast. We sit with friends. We enjoy our children. We read. We pray. We worship. These things don’t need to increase our productivity to justify their existence. They are good because they participate in the goodness of God’s creation. This is why true leisure ultimately opens toward worship. We stop producing long enough to receive. And in receiving, we remember that the world is God’s gift before it is our project. ⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Restlessness — Inquietudo What it is Restlessness is the inability to enter into genuine leisure because we remain driven toward activity, productivity, control, distraction, or stimulation even when reason tells us that it is time to rest. Restlessness doesn’t necessarily look like hard work. The workaholic can be restless. But so can the person who spends his entire evening scrolling through his phone. One is producing. The other is consuming. Neither knows how to be still. We finish one thing and immediately reach for another. There always needs to be another task, another video, another notification, another podcast, another project, another problem to solve. Silence becomes uncomfortable. Stillness becomes uncomfortable. Doing nothing makes us anxious. St. Augustine famously begins his Confessions with the recognition that: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” That takes Restlessness much deeper than poor time management. Our hearts are looking for somewhere to rest. And when they do not rest in God, they begin searching everywhere else. Achievement. Money. Recognition. Entertainment. Pleasure. Information. Novelty. Even religious activity can become a form of restlessness. We can become so busy doing things for God that we no longer know how to simply be with God. What it looks like * Feeling guilty whenever you aren’t accomplishing something. * Checking your phone every time there is an empty moment. * Being unable to sit in silence. * Filling every free moment with entertainment or stimulation. * Constantly starting new projects. * Taking work with you into family time. * Being physically present at recreation while mentally remaining at work. * Feeling as though everything depends upon you. Restlessness tells us: I must keep going. Rest reminds us: God remains God when I stop. ⚠️ Vice of Excess: Delicacy What it is Delicacy is an excessive concern for one’s own comfort, repose, and perceived needs, by which sensible appetite rather than reason begins to determine when we rest and what inconvenience we are willing to endure. Our culture often disguises Delicacy beneath the language of self-care. Self-care itself is not evil. Sometimes you really do need sleep. Sometimes you need a vacation. Sometimes you need an evening away from work. Sometimes prudence tells you to say no. The problem begins when our own comfort becomes the standard by which we judge our obligations. “I need to protect my peace.” “I don’t have the bandwidth.” “I need to listen to my body.” “I need some me time.” Every one of those statements can be true. But they can also become ways of allowing our sensible appetite to make decisions that belong to reason. The delicate person gradually turns preferences into necessities. I need my routine. I need my sleep. I need my space. I need my food prepared this way. I need people to respect my boundaries. I need to decompress before I can deal with that. Eventually, life must arrange itself around our comfort before we are willing to give ourselves to it. That isn’t leisure. True leisure allows us to receive something outside ourselves. Delicacy continually directs our attention back toward ourselves. How do I feel? What do I need? Am I comfortable? Have I had enough time for myself? Rest receives. Delicacy consumes. What it looks like * Avoiding responsibilities because you “need a break.” * Treating discomfort as evidence that something is unhealthy. * Building increasingly elaborate conditions around sleep, food, recreation, or personal routines. * Resenting family obligations because they interrupt personal time. * Refusing reasonable sacrifices in order to preserve comfort. * Using “boundaries” to avoid ordinary demands of charity. * Calling indulgence “recovery.” * Allowing how you feel to determine whether you will fulfill your duties. Delicacy says: I need to be comfortable before I can give myself. Rest says: I will receive leisure when it is fitting and relinquish it when love requires me to act. 👤 My Life This distinction between leisure and work has become fundamental to the way I try to order my own life. I like to use the word Avodah for work. The Hebrew word can mean work, service, and worship. It’s more than just labor; Avodah encompasses a proper understanding of doing, all the acts we are called to do, the good works. Leisure is more about being. We are most like God when we recognize that creation is good and we rest like him on the 7th day. Work isn’t something we need to escape from. Work is good. God placed Adam in the garden to cultivate and care for it. But work is not the whole of human existence. Life requires a balance between Avodah and leisure. That balance is one of the reasons the Rule of St. Benedict has become so important to the way we order our family life. A good rule doesn’t exist to squeeze maximum productivity out of every hour. It gives everything its proper place. There is a time for prayer. A time for work. A time for study. A time for meals. A time for family. A time for celebration. A time for sleep. A time for leisure. We even named our homeschool St. Benedict Academy because I want that Benedictine balance to shape the way our children understand a life lived for God. The challenge for me is that I can easily fall toward Restlessness. There is always something else I could accomplish. There is always another problem to solve. And sometimes it takes more discipline for me to stop working than it does to keep working. But the opposite temptation is real too. Leisure can become focused entirely upon what I need. Then it isn’t really leisure anymore. A Rule helps protect against both. It tells me that when it is time for Avodah, I should work. And when it is time for leisure, I should actually be at leisure. Not half-working. Not scrolling. Not worrying about tomorrow. Not turning recreation into another project. Just receiving the people, the place, the feast, the conversation, the prayer, or the beauty God has placed before me. 🌎 The World Modern culture has a strange relationship with rest. On one side is the cult of productivity. Your value is measured by what you accomplish. Optimize your morning. Optimize your sleep. Optimize your diet. Optimize your schedule. Even recreation gets optimized. Rest becomes another tool for productivity. Get better sleep so you can perform better tomorrow. Take a vacation so you don’t burn out at work. Meditate so you can focus. Exercise so you’ll have more energy. Even leisure has to justify itself by making us more useful. On the other side is the cult of self-care. Protect your peace. Prioritize yourself. Avoid people who drain your energy. Do what feels restorative. You deserve this. These cults sometimes appear to be at war with each other. Both can make the same mistake. They put the self at the center. One asks how much I can produce. The other asks how comfortable I can become. Christian leisure gives us another possibility. Sunday is perhaps the clearest example. The Lord’s Day isn’t merely a day to recover enough energy to survive another week. And it isn’t a day dedicated to indulging ourselves. It is a day for worship, feast, family, friendship, contemplation, and celebration. We stop ordinary labor because there are goods greater than labor. We feast because creation is good. We gather because other people are gifts. We worship because God is God. That is leisure. And a culture that loses the ability to worship will eventually lose the ability to rest. ⛪ Example Saint: St. Aelred of Rievaulx Aelred was a 12th-century Cistercian monk and abbot whose spirituality placed extraordinary value on friendship, community, contemplation, and love. Why he fits: Aelred helps us see that some of the greatest goods in human life are not things we produce. They are things we receive and enjoy. Friendship is one of them. A friend isn’t valuable because he makes you more productive. Conversation doesn’t need an agenda. Time spent together doesn’t need a measurable outcome. Friendship can simply be enjoyed because the other person is good. And for Aelred, Christian friendship ultimately draws us into friendship with Christ. Story: Aelred was born around 1110 in northern England. As a young man, he served in the household of King David I of Scotland and could have pursued a successful life at court. Instead, he entered the Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx. He eventually became its abbot and carried enormous responsibility for a growing monastic community. His life was not one of comfort. Cistercian life demanded prayer, manual labor, fasting, obedience, and sacrifice. Yet within that disciplined life Aelred developed a profound understanding of friendship. His Spiritual Friendship describes friendship as a place where Christians can share their hearts, bear one another’s burdens, delight in one another, and grow together toward Christ. That is remarkably close to what true leisure gives us. Aelred did not need friendship to be productive. He could delight in another person because that person was worth loving. His disciplined life created room for contemplation, conversation, affection, community, and ultimately God. Legacy: Aelred reminds us that the opposite of a life dominated by work is not a life dominated by comfort. It is a life capable of delight. The person who truly rests can enjoy a meal without rushing. Listen to music without doing something else. Talk to a friend without checking the time. Play with his children without thinking about work. Sit before God without needing to accomplish anything. He can receive what is good simply because it is good. That is leisure. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today. 🙏 Act of Rest O my God, I believe that my life and all creation are gifts from You. I will work faithfully when it is time to work and willingly cease from labor when it is time to rest. I will not allow anxiety, ambition, productivity, or stimulation to keep my heart restless, nor will I make my own comfort and desires the measure of my duties. I will receive leisure as Your gift through prayer, contemplation, recreation, celebration, friendship, family, and worship. I will rest according to reason and return to my labor when love and duty require it. Above all, I will seek my rest in You, for my heart is restless until it rests in You. Amen. 🙏 Closing Prayer Lord, bless us with faith, hope, love, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice that we may live as you intended man to live, in all virtue and righteousness. Help us to flee from sin, and avoid all temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Protect us with a spiritual hedge in front of us, behind us, above us, below us, to our right, and to our left, within us, and all around us, and seal it with the precious blood of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to keep you in everything that we think, say, and do. Amen. Go out and fill the world with virtue, Deus Vult! Follow Us on Social Media and Popular Podcast Networks: Get full access to The Social Catholic at socialcatholic.substack.com/subscribe