Acedia, for Aquinas, signifies a man renouncing the claim implicit in his human dignity. Sadness overwhelms him when he is confronted with the divine goodness immanent in himself. There is that restlessness that makes leisure impossible. Then too leisure is only possible when a man is at one with himself, when he acquiesces in his own being, whereas the essence of Acedia is the refusal to acquiesce in one's own being. Idleness and the incapacity for leisure correspond withn one another.
Leisure is the contrary of both.
This restlessness and despair are the twin children of acedia. Finally, idleness so far from being synonymous with leisure, is an inner disposition rendering leisure impossible. Leisure is not the ilnevitable result of spare time, a holiday, a week-end or a vacation. Leisure is a form of that silence which is the prerequisite of the apprehension of reality. . Leisure implies a certain serenity flowing from our recognition of the mysterious nature of the universe and the courage to be content to let things take their course. . .