Vivat Agnus Dei

Psychological therapy often faces stigma, to the point are some people are skeptical about its value or concerned it contradicts their faith. However, therapy is a powerful tool for addressing mental and emotional struggles, offering healing that goes beyond just the mind. While secular therapies, such as Freud's psychoanalysis, Adlerian therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy, can provide practical solutions, they often do not fully align with the Christian understanding of the human person. Catholic anthropology, which views humanity as a unified being of body, soul, and spirit in relationship with God, provides a more complete framework for healing. Secular therapies may help with emotional pain, but they typically overlook the spiritual and redemptive dimensions of human life. True healing, from a Catholic perspective, involves recognizing both our current struggles and our ultimate destination in communion with God. As Scripture teaches, authentic freedom is intertwined with...

  Psychological and Moral Implications of Chronic Pursuit of Instant Gratification on Self-Control and Ethical Decision-Making in Adolescents “In a society that, for various reasons, fosters doubt and cynicism, fear and helplessness, immaturity and childishness, some young people tend to stay at the level of primary gratification.”[1] It is well known that chronic pursuit of instant, primary gratification (CPIG for short) is a constant between our phones, social media accounts, and spending habits. What exactly is instant gratification? This immediate desire for gratification is characterized by a shallow focus on oneself, not through (often at the expense of) thoughtful introspection, reflective prayer, or long-term foresight and benefit, but an attempt at satisfying the fickle and fleeting physiological/primary desires born of perceived need, often inspired by a negative emotional state.[2] It leads individuals to neglect deeper or more arduous pursuits such as willing the good o...

Often we find ourselves thinking about time. When we are older, we concern ourselves with how little time there ever was. When we are young, we lament the amount that lies ahead. Rarely do we consider the gift and mystery it is. The angels have no opportunity for repentance, however, we have been given the opportunity to accept salvation in time and through the cross of Christ, who thence redeems time. It is precisely this redemption that of time that shows us "The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9). God is the Lord of time, in time He created all things. If we wait for an answer from God on a given question, we know that we will be given an answer when we need it. Our ignorance of His long-term will is for our good. We will know scarcely more than we do now but never less than is needed. His grace is sufficient for us and in all thing...

You have likely heard about new year's resolutions or lent fast, and with these terms, you have probably also heard talk of difficulties and (ironically) a lack of resolve. After all, we know not what a struggle is until we have tried to improve our habits, impeding the bad ones and giving life to the better ones (to supplant bad ones), which never ceases to challenge our willpower. Indeed, throughout the whole of our lives, we have been growing, if we act like heaven is a real possibility, we are thus motivated to be with our Eternal Spouse. Even where proximate ends are concerned, we will not be truly happy until we renounce all but God. Thus, we seek to make use of and often require extrinsic forces to ourselves to make growth in ways we direly need possible.  Vygotsky’s concept of the scaffold is significant in understanding what it takes to grow i.e. the generosity of others. This “scaffold” refers to any assistive force that allows one to move to the next psychological and kn...

Now let us consider virtue more directly. Virtue perhaps is what most modernists would consider the opposite of fun. However, this is only true when nihilism is one's worldview. In a nihilistic worldview, our lives lose meaning to ourselves, and this causes countless problems on the purely moral level alone, let alone the psychological level. Our motives are based on survival instincts; however, their definition can be widened to include the things which human life now consists of such as having a job, fixing and one's car. Nihilism, though, removes these things in a pseudo-pursuit of stoicism, but rather removes from us the means we once had to joy. Virtue is the broadest acquisition of meaning, and therefore, is the foremost objective path toward not only arbitrary joy but authentic human flourishing. Virtue, as it is meant above, is the “disposition of the soul, in so far as, to wit, the powers of the soul are in some way ordered to one another, and to that which is outside....

Continuing our investigation of how to approach the truest happiness, we must investigate an alternative approach to happiness than we did in Part 1. The beauty and goodness of what is truly true is its harmony which subsists independence of retinue. When we are seeking the highest good of the person, we must realize that where there is truth found it will have corollaries that reverberate and resonate with other truths, forming a single consistent narrative. Hence academic, peer-reviewed psychological research, generally affirms or complements the magisterium of the Catholic Church teaching, especially regarding sexuality (which again is the simplest, most accessible, and relevant case to use as a principal subject of study).  In terms of sexuality, the Church recommends chastity which means “the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality… becomes personal … when it is integrated into the relat...

In our society, sexuality has come to be used more as a drug than a means of reproduction and a principal sign of marital love. Virtue is commonly seen as frivolous, especially among atheists. This corrupt perspective can and has influenced popular “science” by hastily, imposing false narratives and interpretations on empirical data. When we seek our good, especially when not utilizing magisterium, scripture, etc., these sources hope to assure us that disciplining our desires is pointless and leads us away from happiness. Our Creator knows our good, wills our good, and wills us to know our good, revealing the moral order to us. From the beginning, man's problems stem from trying to redefine happiness and how it is obtained, leading him into sin. Rather, growth in virtue allows us to live with joy, not just struggle to attain momentary happiness. In the next few posts, we will see how our culture recommends proximate means to the end of happiness, psychology, like Christian moral th...

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle”. At first glance, this verse seems to only demonstrate the improbability that any who are wealthy can get into heaven but it seems there are a few other considerations that can be made. One would be how Jesus defines rich and another would be what that definition, when realized, does to us. If we are to truly participate in now and later enter into the kingdom, we can only do this with regard to our being alone (not physically per se) with God. If we cling to something other than God then we lose Him, for if “we cannot serve God and mammon”. Thus detachment is necessary for entrance into heaven. Detachment, the antithesis of Attachment, is necessary for entrance into heaven (cf. Acts of the Apostles 4:32, cf. Matthew 6:24, cf. Matthew 19:24, cf. Luke 16:13, cf. John 2:15-16, cf. Sirach 14:9). The beatitude which correlates to detachment is “poverty of spirit”.[1] Practically, poverty of spirit moves one to be frugal in diff...