Understating Over-Stimulation
Do you ever struggle to focus or pray? Do you wonder why? I certainly do. Maybe countless hours, days, even years of watching screens are part of the problem. I switch the channel or swipe to whatever interests me most. Flashing headlines and screaming people get my attention. Whatever is fastest, loudest, or most-action-packed convinces me of the “one thing” I need now. To say that our culture is over-stimulated is quite an understatement.
Learning to slow down, simplify, and focus is more difficult now than it ever has been in human history. Yet, these are preconditions for prayer, especially deep prayer. Simple and slow is not ideal just for prayer, but maturity reveals it as leading us to the best things in life. Where is our culture heading if slowing down, focusing, and prayer becomes less and less possible?
Jesus told Martha, the busy sister, that Mary chose the one thing necessary. The one thing is prayer, contemplating Jesus and sitting at his feet. When I honestly looked at myself, I realized that I couldn’t focus and pray well — the one thing I most wanted. Willing to try everything that would help me pray, I found that calling upon the Holy Spirit, silence, Adoration, the Eucharist, and advice from spiritual mentors and books have all been instruments the Lord uses to lead me closer to Him. Great literature, however, has been one of the most surprising aids to my interior life.
Slowing Down for a Story
Please don’t judge me, but I I could stay awake at night for a movie but was fast asleep for prayer or spiritual reading. I have truly been missing out! Great literature, novels, became stepping stones for me. They were different because I could stay with these much longer. Unlike a textbook, these novels resembled the stories I loved on screens, but they were even better! When I watch TV or the internet, my attention can be split with other diversions. With a book, I like holding a text and giving nothing else my attention. I appreciate the hours of focusing on one line, one story at a time.
My prayer life hasn’t rapidly become profound and deeply focused. But, staying committed to a single, simple story that is sometimes slow, is building within me the skills to sit down and look at Jesus. Devouring one book after another also loosens the grip that screens have had over me. I formerly longed for a good movie or show as the only way for me to relax. That’s no longer the case. I now prefer things that are slower, deeper, better for me…true leisure (the topic for another article!).
Seeing Humanity Differently
A wise friend once encouraged me to keep “twaddle” away from my children…books easily found in the library about banal stuff. Barbie gets a puppy. Spidey goes to the store, and his truck gets stuck. The list goes on and on. These stories can be very interesting, momentarily holding our children’s attention. But, that’s where they stop. They may get our children to read, but that’s it. Where are they taking them? Let’s not just avoid immoral content in books, let’s avoid the neutral fillers and reach for something better.
Reading classic literature, and some excellent newly written novels, has shown me that great books take you further than just a good story. First, you learn about the best and worst in humanity, in a unique light. Huckleberry Finn looks like a river journey, but it’s far more! It was a critique of a culture that couldn’t recognize it’s folly, it’s sin. That’s how all great stories affect the individual reader – they become a mirror to see yourself differently. And they offer deep insight into people, cultures and most especially God.
It’s fascinating how great books reveal an almost hidden world about reality and ourselves. What character most closely describes me and my weaknesses or strengths? Why does that one character bother me more than others? What most inspires me? As my husband recently said in the middle of reading a Michael D. O’Brien novel, “Reading this book makes me want to stop and pray.”
Experiencing the “One Thing”
Great literature not only increases our desire to be a better person, but it gives us skills to be present. Being focused and slowing down helps us cherish life more…the people around us, the gifts we’ve received and all the best things in life, especially the “one thing that will not be taken from us.” This is why we have a literature book club at the Institute of Catholic Humanism. We hope to meet you there!
Register for the Literature Club
