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THOUGHTS MATTER
As we sit in silent prayer, we allow our thoughts to come and
go. We retain no thought, reject no thought, react emotionally
to no thought. We learn slowly over time to free ourselves from
the control of our thoughts. And outside of the time of prayer,
we learn how to choose the thoughts that fill our mind so that
we can respond to St. Paul’s admonition to fill our minds with
the true, the noble, the good. Thoughts Matter as Mary Margaret
Funk reminds us in her book of that name.
The Desert Fathers and Mothers of the third and fourth
centuries soon enough came to this realisation. They had fled
into the desert seeking God, had divested themselves of all of
their possessions and of the comforts of life, but in the
starkness of the desert and in the midst of silence, they
realised that they had brought everything with them in their
thoughts. They recognised that if they were to make the
spiritual journey they had to free themselves from the control
of their thoughts.
The psychologist, like the spiritual guide, will remind you of
the interplay between thoughts and emotions and how these lead
to behaviour. Evil thoughts lead to evil behaviour, good
thoughts to good behaviour. Be aware of what is in your mind.
“Fill your mind with all that is true, all that is noble…”
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