Boredom: The Threshold of Great Deeds – Fr. Ephrem Reese O.P.
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
4.8 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
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Summary
Fr. Ephrem Reese argues that boredom can be read both as a modern opening onto time and wonder and, more importantly, as a spiritual problem that must be disciplined by the virtues.
This lecture was given on November 7th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.
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About the Speaker:
Fr. Ephrem Reese was born in Harrisburg, PA, and has family in Philadelphia, New Jersey and California. He received a BA from St John’s College in Annapolis, MD in 2010, and was confirmed in the Catholic Church at that year’s Easter Vigil. He lived for a year in DC, a few blocks from the Dominican House of Studies, and attended the nearby parish, St Anthony of Padua. While in DC, he was an intern for Pax Christi USA, promoting Just War teaching. “Dominican life has finally given me a picture of what it means for my own soul to be saved. This is a joy worth preaching: loving Jesus Christ, united with the Brethren in one heart and mind.”
Keywords: Acedia, Boredom, Charity, Curiosity, Heidegger, Hope, Magnanimity, Prudence, Romans 12, Walter Benjamin
Transcript
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| 1:02.8 | Okay, I have a sort of three-part plan for this boredom discussion. |
| 1:08.4 | First, I want to start with a sort of strange praise of boredom, using the help of some |
| 1:13.6 | weird German philosophers. That's not maybe the normal thing that the Timistic Institute wants you to be doing. |
| 1:18.6 | Don't necessarily be doing that much in your life, but it's a special concept, boredom, so we'll give it a special treatment. |
| 1:29.7 | Two, after having given us sort of a praise of boredom, I'll talk about some of the dangers |
| 1:35.8 | of boredom, some of the vices that we might associate with boredom. |
| 1:39.2 | And if you're paying close attention and you're an advanced theology or philosophy person, |
| 1:47.0 | you might notice that these four vices are kind of coordinated with the four powers of the soul, |
| 1:54.0 | the intellect, the will, the irascible, and the concupiscible passion. |
| 2:00.0 | And I won't use those words again. |
... |
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