Despair

Agamemnon 

"He who learns must suffer

And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget

Falls drop by drop upon the heart,

And in our own despite, against our will,

Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."

In a speech in which he announced the death of Martin Luther King in April 1968, Robert Kenedy quoted the above passage from Aeschylus (Agamemnon), the version he offered:

"Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

One can spend lifetimes being dissatisfied but in despair[1] one is much closer to the Work. What within us despairs? For the most part we have not been properly prepared, so when despair comes we are not able to accept it, all the more so in premature despair. 

 

 

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[1] John Cassian referred to it as the “midday demon”, and it is spoken of in Psalm 91 as “the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”