Peace not as the world giveth.
The advantage of being a loner, if you will, is that one's apartment can be a cloister wherein prayer and meditation can be conducted, and habit forming.
If one can avoid the many distractions online, i.e., useless banter about this or that, there are many very edifying websites one can visit and engage in a measure of spiritual reading and formation.
The preceding sentence is in no way intended to trumpet the merit of this blog. Though, the following tidbit might help one avoid unnecessary and unsettling distractions.
Patti Armstrong, writing about Catholic apologist and former new-agey type Sarah Brinkman, captures information that may be useful during these turbulent times made more turbulent by a tiny beast.
It would be very easy, if one is not a practicing Catholic, an ardently orthodox Catholic, to veer off-course and seek comfort in some non-Christian eastern method such as mindfulness. A better descriptor for said Buddhist practice would be mindlessness. Sarah Brinkman provides the analysis.
Brinkman:
(A) meta-analysis of 18,000 mindfulness studies conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in 2014 found only 47 that were considered methodologically sound — that’s only .0026%. And of those 47 found to be acceptable, the research found only “moderate evidence” of decreased anxiety, depression and pain and “low evidence” of improved mental health-related quality of life. This research led to more alarming findings about the negative effects of mindfulness, which then led me to put this information into a book in order to provide a more complete picture of this practice than what people are getting from proponents.
Catholics have the Rosary, Lectio Divina, the Daily Office (Liturgy of the Hours) and other reliable spiritual disciplines that don't leave people stranded in their pleasant fictions.
- https://www.rosarycenter.org/homepage-2/rosary/how-to-pray-the-rosary/
- https://www.archtoronto.org/lectio
- http://prayer.covert.org/
Brinkman:
Why are the Catholic alternatives superior?
If one is living in the present moment in the presence of God, there is no need for a Buddhist practice like mindfulness. These Christian practices far surpass these merely human-based methods and actually draw us into the presence of God, where we can find authentic peace and healing.
Instead of a momentary escape from anxiety, the Christian alternative offers a real solution to anxiety and a permanent transformation. One practice is a quick fix; the other is a long-term opportunity for exponential personal growth toward the ultimate goal of our existence here on Earth — union with God.
By the time we reach this summit of union with him here on Earth, we will have been completely transformed into a totally new creation — not just an improvement of the old. When we are united with our Creator, we will finally become who we were meant to be from the beginning of time. This is a grace that surpasses all understanding.John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
And, lastly, Brinkman recommends:
If a Catholic wants to practice being mindful of the present moment, my book recommends that they begin to employ The Practice of the Presence of God, which was introduced in the 16th century by a humble Carmelite brother named Brother Lawrence. It not only teaches a person to stay grounded in the present, but to do so in order to live in continual awareness of the presence of God within.
We’re taught to live in the present moment at all times in order to respond to the will of God as it plays out in each and every moment of our lives.
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