First, please notice how I conclude my post.
For some people, knitting gives them something to do with their hands. There are people who can carry on a conversation while knitting, watch a movie, attend to a child, meditate, pray, even plan dinner.
There are other people who have focusing problems. Such persons should not try to knit or do anything else when praying, having a conversation, watching a movie or attending to a child, because they don’t have the neuropsychological tools necessary to separate motor activity from cognitive activity. Either they knit or they pray, but they can’t do both.
Back in the good old days, people did not understand how the central nervous system works. They couldn’t tell the difference between cognitive activity, which is prayer and motor activity, which is knitting.
In adoration, there is no motor planning or psychomotor activity as there is at mass. Therefore, unless a person has poor neurosensory discrimination, he can do something like knit and adore the Blessed Sacrament at the same time.
If you look at my red response. A person who’s cognitive functions are distracted by his motor functions, should not knit when trying to pray.
We’re acting as if this has never been done before, which is not the case. For this reason, I said that the answer to this question is best left to those whose area of expertise is ascetical and mystical theology. Why? Because theologians who specialize in ascetical and mystical theology are a) experts in prayer, b) knowledgeable of the Church’s spiritual tradition, c) knowledgeable of spiritual theology and moral theology, and d) knowledgeable of human physiology and neuro-anatomy. All of this is involved in to get a doctorate in Ascetical and Mystical Theology.
It really concerns me when one tries to give responses to questions that require a certain area of expertise and either a) does not acknowledge that one does not have the expertise or b) presumes that there is no need for it. Not every question about the faith has a one size fits all answer. We must be very careful not to try to create one size fits all answers, because it can make people feel very guilty or do very irresponsible things, depending on the answer.
It’s also important to remember that God’s ego is not as fragile as our own. God delights in his creation. He is not offended by that which is neutral
St. John Vianney gave this advice and it was very good for St. John Vianney. We must also remember that St. John Vianney was dyslexic and did not know it. In those days, no one knew about dyslexia. We know it today from his writings and from what others wrote about him. For John, doing anything other than sitting quietly in the presence of God would make prayer impossible. It was his dyslexia that almost stopped his ordination. Because of it, he was sent to Ars. They thought he was not very bright. In fact, he just has a neuropsychological defecit that had nothing to do with intelligence, but did interfere with cognitive processes, unless one knew how to get around it.
It’s like the person who is born deaf or blind. To this this is the natural state of affairs. To St. John Vianney, the inability to stay focus when walking and chewing gum was a natural state of affair. He never thought that this was atypical. He probably would have suggested against walking and chewing gum. I’m using this as an example. They didn’t have chewing gum during his time, that I know of.
Another example the we find in the history of the Spiritual Masters is St. Teresa of Avila eating apples during prayer. She always had the need to munch on something. When she was not doing so, she cold not concentrate. Long after her death, we find out that she had serious stomach problems that led to stomach cancer, which killed her. At the time, they knew nothing of such things. Imagine of her confessors and spiritual directors had told her that eating an apple during prayer was wrong. The woman may have been more sick than she was and dead much earlier.
In her mind and that of those around her, she was engaging in a very neutral act that did not distract her from prayer. No one commented on the apple until later years when her spirituality was studied by scholars. Actually, it was missed until the late 1950s when a Carmelite scholar found a small note that Teresa passed on to a sister requesting that an apple be brought to her at chapel during her hour of adoration. Teresa’s companions mentioned her munching fruit all the time, but no one mentioned adoration until this note was found.
Please be careful when giving advice that involves spiritual and moral matters and if one is not an expert, add a disclaimer. It can be as dangerous as dispensing medical advice via the internet.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
I for one have a bad case of ringing in my ears and I LOVE to be at Adoration alone so I read aloud my prayers because if not the ringing bothers me so much my mind starts to wonder - I can easily see myself knitting to help keep my mind on my prayers and away from the ringing. If you are bothered by someone knitting/crocheting while you are at Adoration tell them - I’m sure they will be happy to stop – if not then shut up - at that point it is up to the Lord to tell them.
