Is it bad for serious things to become trivialized?

[fakename]

For instance, I noticed that the longer one does anything good or bad, it becomes almost like a game.

That is, you start to take pleasure in doing the thing as it becomes more and more natural and before you know it, it becomes a subject of entertainment.

Now it seems good that something good should be also amusing and yet, it seems bad that a good thing should be done for amusement. Is this just being puritanical?

Perhaps, after all learning about God is serious and yet it can be entertaining. But can it or anything moral be entertaining in the sense that it becomes a passtime -can praying become a mere diversion like cooking or writing?

 

[vames]

Good question.
It can become a pastime, only that some aren’t aware of it or don’t want to notice it: for example, people who notice that praying the rosary obviously calms them or people who choose to spend an hour praying because they have nothing better to do in a certain circumstance or because thay find it more pleasant than, say, watching TV or cleaning the room. And there are people who invest a lot of creativity in praying and feel very fulfilled by praying “their way”, exactly like people who love cooking as a hobby. Not to mention the “game” of talking with their best friend (there’s a thread here where the author asks if he can talk with Jesus at the Eucharistic Adoration about Transformers, Spider-Man and his thesis work). The only healthy rule, I guess, is to become aware of this psychological aspect of prayer, since we can’t really detach ourselves from it, but we can control it, so as to avoid a situation when prayer degenerates to a mere method of entertaining ourselves.

As for the question about a puritanical approach, here’s something instructive and enjoyable from a theologian who was very dear to our Pope:
fdlc.org/Liturgy_Resources/Guardini/Chapter5.htm

 

[St_Francis]

I think that we get pleasure out of things… but maybe different kinds of pleasure out of different things: the pleasure I get from praying or attending Mass is different from the pleasure I get from reading a really good book which is different from the pleasure I get from sailing which isndifferent from…

Swim? and I don’t even think that talking to God about superheroes has to be a problem, esp if one is young and/or uses the story to consider moral points.

The thing is that doing bad things for the wrong reason tends to pull us into a downward spiral, while doing thins for good reasons tends to pull us upwards. We just have to keep an eye on our direction…

 

[fakename]

I think that we get pleasure out of things… but maybe different kinds of pleasure out of different things: the pleasure I get from praying or attending Mass is different from the pleasure I get from reading a really good book which is different from the pleasure I get from sailing which isndifferent from…

Swim? and I don’t even think that talking to God about superheroes has to be a problem, esp if one is young and/or uses the story to consider moral points.

The thing is that doing bad things for the wrong reason tends to pull us into a downward spiral, while doing thins for good reasons tends to pull us upwards. We just have to keep an eye on our direction…

It’s true we get different pleasure out of different things, but wouldn’t it be better if we got maximum excitement out of all good things (everything being equal)?

Additionally, there are also some habits which are impossible to gain w/o investing levity or more than necessary pleasure into it. For instance, if one was going to fight (even orally) one has to take the dangers/complications of fighting less-than-seriously in order to become good at it. I think this is especially true for the quality known as “mental toughness”. This latter is almost by definition, a non-chalance towards everything and which consequently makes one able to endure lacking it. Such a “coolness” is also what helps to produce boldness -another coveted quality (this explains why action heroes always have a catchphrase after blowing something/one up IMO).

 

[St_Francis]

It’s true we get different pleasure out of different things, but wouldn’t it be better if we got maximum excitement out of all good things (everything being equal)?

That would be really nice, bit there’s this little event known as the Fall…

Additionally, there are also some habits which are impossible to gain w/o investing levity or more than necessary pleasure into it. For instance, if one was going to fight (even orally) one has to take the dangers/complications of fighting less-than-seriously in order to become good at it. I think this is especially true for the quality known as “mental toughness”. This latter is almost by definition, a non-chalance towards everything and which consequently makes one able to endure lacking it. Such a “coolness” is also what helps to produce boldness -another coveted quality (this explains why action heroes always have a catchphrase after blowing something/one up IMO).

Are you saying that toughmindedness and boldness are in and of themselves bad?

I don’t think a nonchalance concerning the opinions of atheists (for example) about me as a religious person is a bad thing, and it soes not necessarily mean I end up being nonchalent about *everything. *I think a person can be toughminded about presenting Catholoc truths in a hostile environment while still maintaining love for his family, for instance, and concern over his wife’s opinions.