Sr. Anna Wray argues that sorrow can either deform the soul as acedia or save it when rightly faced, and she offers a Thomistic account of how sorrow, friendship with God, and spiritual remedies shape the Christian life.

This lecture was given on November 6th, 2025, at Iowa State University.

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About the Speakers:

Sister Anna Wray is a native of Connecticut and a member of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia of Nashville, TN. Sister received her PhD in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, having written her dissertation on Aristotle’s account of the activity of contemplation. Sister is an assistant professor on the faculty of CUA's School of Philosophy in Washington, DC, where she regularly teaches courses in rhetoric, philosophy of religion, and philosophical psychology. She is also an adjunct professor for Aquinas College, where she teaches metaphysics and epistemology to her sisters in formation. Her research and conversational interests include imagination and attention in human agency and speech, the effects of technology on human agency, and form as function and unifying activity.

Keywords: Acedia, Contemplation, Friendship With God, Gratitude, Sorrow, Sabbath, Thomistic Psychology, Spiritual Remedies

Why So Sad? The Sorrows that Kill and the Sorrows that Save – Sr. Anna Wray, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute