Postive Thinking - can it be Catholic?

[deekod1967]

I was wondering if positive thinking is Catholic - if I check all negative thoughts and try to replace them with thoughts such as “Jesus loves me” “visualise myself in heaven with Him” etc. - so as to repress the tempter - is this in line with Church tradition?

NB: my motivation here is not to control my own destiny, but to choose to use my free will to deny diabolical thoughts so at become closer to Christ.

Many thanks,

Derek

 

[JRKH]

I was wondering if positive thinking is Catholic - if I check all negative thoughts and try to replace them with thoughts such as “Jesus loves me” “visualise myself in heaven with Him” etc. - so as to repress the tempter - is this in line with Church tradition?

NB: my motivation here is not to control my own destiny, but to choose to use my free will to deny diabolical thoughts so at become closer to Christ.

Many thanks,

Derek

In a word - Absolutely!!
Why would you think otherwise.

Peace
James

 

[MarieVeronica]

Hi deekod… here is the BEST positive thought I can think of… it goes like this…

“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning… is now… and ever shall be… world without end. Amen”.

God bless.

 

[Jeanette_L]

Philipians 4:7 & 8

[7]And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
[8] Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

 

[reen12]

quote: deekod1967

I was wondering if positive thinking is Catholic -

We still use the word “gospel.” I wish this would change. How more fruitful evangelization would be, if we said:

“I have good news.”

… “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’”

At that time He cured many of their diseases and
sufferings …He also granted sight to many who were blind.

And He said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. [John 7: 20-22]

Jesus Himself provides the reason for positive thinking.
He is the Reason. He conquered both death and sin.

News just doesn’t get better - or more positive - than that.
Hope this helps.

reen12

 

[Orionthehunter]

I was wondering if positive thinking is Catholic - if I check all negative thoughts and try to replace them with thoughts such as “Jesus loves me” “visualise myself in heaven with Him” etc. - so as to repress the tempter - is this in line with Church tradition?

NB: my motivation here is not to control my own destiny, but to choose to use my free will to deny diabolical thoughts so at become closer to Christ.

Many thanks,

Derek

In a word - Absolutely!!
Why would you think otherwise.

Peace
James

Not always. Sometimes we are called to experience sadness, despair, hurt, pain etc. so that we can fully join ourselves to the Cross. If we keep hiding sadness, pain, etc., we can’t experience what is called for in this website.

scripturecatholic.com/suffering.html

The following is a quote from Boenhoffer’s book “Cost of Discipleship”:

"Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ… It is a joy and token of His grace. … Christ transfigures for His own [the early Christian martyrs] the hour of their moral agony by granting them the unspeakable assurance of His presence. In the hour of the cruelest torture they bear for His sake, they are made partakers in the perfect joy and bliss of fellowship with Him. To bear the cross proves to be the only way of triumphing over suffering. …

Jesus prays to His Father that the cup may pass from Him, and His Father hears His prayer; for the cup of suffering will indeed pass from Him—but only by His drinking it"

If you always substitute “positive thinking”, you are not drinking the cup given to you.

 

[reen12]

quote: Orionthehunter

If you always substitute “positive thinking”, you are not drinking the cup given to you.

The Good Thief might say, reflecting on your observation:

“Torn with grief, to disagree. I am in agony now,
but I know that my Redeemer lives.”

reen12

 

[Jeanette_L]

Not always. Sometimes we are called to experience sadness, despair, hurt, pain etc. so that we can fully join ourselves to the Cross. If we keep hiding sadness, pain, etc., we can’t experience what is called for in this website.

scripturecatholic.com/suffering.html

The following is a quote from Boenhoffer’s book “Cost of Discipleship”:

"Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ… It is a joy and token of His grace. … Christ transfigures for His own [the early Christian martyrs] the hour of their moral agony by granting them the unspeakable assurance of His presence. In the hour of the cruelest torture they bear for His sake, they are made partakers in the perfect joy and bliss of fellowship with Him. To bear the cross proves to be the only way of triumphing over suffering. …

Jesus prays to His Father that the cup may pass from Him, and His Father hears His prayer; for the cup of suffering will indeed pass from Him—but only by His drinking it"

If you always substitute “positive thinking”, you are not drinking the cup given to you.

I agree that if we are always living in denial of the trials we are enduring, this is not healthy- emotionally or spiritually. But we do well if when we are suffering hardships and trials - drinking that bitter cup - to keep our eyes on Christ and our minds tuned in to what all this is about - there will be joy on the other side.

Positive doesn’t have to be happy happy happy - but positive can be understanding the reality of a * collective good* for our suffering and and a joyful end for every dark hour when given to God.

 

[InLight247]

We should always think positively.
With God, nothing is impossible.

 

[Dorothy]

Positive thinking in the view of doing such thinking with the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ is definitely good!

Self-help books which promote positive thinking that is not in line with Gospel values, and merely expresses the individual’s thinking for their own gain is not good, in my opinion.

 

[deekod1967]

Self-help books which promote positive thinking that is not in line with Gospel values, and merely expresses the individual’s thinking for their own gain is not good, in my opinion.

Thanks everyone - Dorothy has hit the nail on the head - positive thinking books promote self reliance rather than reliance on God so I dont read them anymore. But I was wondering if there is a Catholic version of positive thinking - and as others have said above - all Christian thought is positive - even when we suffer we are glad as we offer our sufferings up for the conversion of sinners. I’m beginning to think positive thinking books really are secular man’s version of the Beatitudes put into worldy/new age terms so that modern society can accept them.

God bless

Derek

 

[Dorothy]

Thanks everyone - Dorothy has hit the nail on the head - positive thinking books promote self reliance rather than reliance on God so I dont read them anymore. But I was wondering if there is a Catholic version of positive thinking - and as others have said above - all Christian thought is positive - even when we suffer we are glad as we offer our sufferings up for the conversion of sinners. I’m beginning to think positive thinking books really are secular man’s version of the Beatitudes put into worldy/new age terms so that modern society can accept them.>>

Derek…in your last sentence I believe you have hit the nail on the head!

 

[Orionthehunter]

Thanks everyone - Dorothy has hit the nail on the head - positive thinking books promote self reliance rather than reliance on God so I dont read them anymore. But I was wondering if there is a Catholic version of positive thinking - and as others have said above - all Christian thought is positive - even when we suffer we are glad as we offer our sufferings up for the conversion of sinners. I’m beginning to think positive thinking books really are secular man’s version of the Beatitudes put into worldy/new age terms so that modern society can accept them.

God bless

Derek

Actually, they are more insiduous than that. Positive thinking books end up saying that our negative thoughts, feelings are a consequence of our own failings with regard to reason and will. We need to “change” and all will be better. After periods of toleration of new age thinking in the 60’s-70’s and into the 80’s, the Church has begun to come down on them hard. Whether it be the Linn Brothers (Jesuit, his brother wife) ministry or toleration of the “Norman Vincent Peale/Robert Schuller” theology of relativism, they have begun to admonish and even condemn components.

My pastor even has advised against reading Max Lacado. Not because of the theological difference but because he tends to minimize our trials and urge us to “overcome them.”

Now, I don’t condemn them all in all circumstances. A salesperson who needs to understand successful sales techniques can read one to incorporate into his sales tool box in a way that isn’t contrary to Catholic Teaching. There is a difference in changing our demeanor w/o changing our fundamentals. But one has to read such books w/ proper formation and discernment.

 

[Mark_Robert]

I don’t know about positive thinking but you can have faith and confidence in God’s providential care. That is why prayer is so important in the spiritual life. Asking God for help in times of need shows reliance upon God’s grace for life’s trying circumstances. To me, positive thinking tends to be more a faith in one’s own resources in overcoming problems or fulfilling goals. The goal of the spiritual life is not self-reliance but reliance upon God.
Personally, I don’t practice positive thinking maybe because I’m a realist at heart. I realize that I may very well fail at something but I try anyway.

 

[reen12]

quote: Jeanette L

Positive doesn’t have to be happy happy happy - but positive can be understanding the reality of a collective good for our suffering and and a joyful end for every dark hour when given to God

quote: Jeanette L

Positive doesn’t have to be happy happy happy -

Precisely. Thank you for your articulation of this reality.

reen12

 

[reen12]

quote: deekod1967

I’m beginning to think positive thinking books really are secular man’s version of the Beatitudes put into worldy/new age terms so that modern society can accept them.

Oh - well done, Derek! I hadn’t thought of this in that context.

Do you think that this is part of modern man’s “religion?”

Given this some thought over the years.
Secular humanism seems to have it’s ‘saints’ it’s ‘holy days’ it’s grave ‘sins’, it’s calendar’s of ‘holy days,’ it’s ‘heritics,’ its own basis for considering some things ‘blasphemy,’ it’s own ‘priesthood’ [scientists.] And is not the Secular Humanist
Manifesto [numbers one and two] a Nicene creed of sorts?

But I’ve been trying to figure out how they get to ‘all is well’
with the world.

Thank you for your contribution to my increased understanding. :tiphat:

reen12

 

[Maritsa]

The Good Thief acknowledged his sufferings and praised God, looking to a brighter future. He did not tell himself that he wasn’t on the cross, that he was already in heaven, that he wasn’t suffering, that he only needed to visualize himself without pain. He accepted his suffering and then looked to a better time.

“I am in agony now,
but I know that my Redeemer lives.”

That’s a very different message than the trendy self-help books are pushing. The Good Thief had sweet sorrow. The positive thinking books want you to pretend that there is no sorrow.

 

[reen12]

quote: Maritsa

The positive thinking books want you to pretend that there is no sorrow.

I agree wholeheartedly with your observations, Maritsa.
What seems to be up and running is the attitude of “be all that you can be.”
“Self-fulfillment.” “Realizing the '‘True Self.’”

These attitudes may constitute an escape route - for not having to sacrifice anything for anyone else’s good.
Suffering is painful to be in the presence of, much less to be the one who is suffering.

Can’t have that - in this type of ‘positive’ thinking.

And in our day, I note much talk about self. To refer to Jesus saying:
“Take up your cross and follow Me,” seems almost a gaucherie -
in the midst of happy talk. "It’s all about me!!]

I have often wondered whether the emphasis placed on the "meal’ that the Last Supper surely was, obscures the reality of the Mass as a renewal of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary?

And the odd thing is, I’ll bet not one person in a hundred could give the Latin roots of the word “sacrifice.”

Sacrifice = “to make sacred.”

Time spent caring for an ill child in the middle of the night is to make that time sacred. I see many references to the “good old days.” There is only one reality that is missing, from the “good old days,” as far as I can determine.
The sense of the sacred has been lost.

The word “sacral” lends us the word “sacriledge” =
To misuse something held sacred.

And what more sacred to God than the human person? He died for each.

Once the sense of the sacred is lost in life, deleterious realities spring up in the entire culture.

“It’s all about me,” becomes the mantra of a culture.
.

reen12 :coffeeread:

 

[Orionthehunter]

The Good Thief acknowledged his sufferings and praised God, looking to a brighter future. He did not tell himself that he wasn’t on the cross, that he was already in heaven, that he wasn’t suffering, that he only needed to visualize himself without pain. He accepted his suffering and then looked to a better time.

“I am in agony now,
but I know that my Redeemer lives.”

That’s a very different message than the trendy self-help books are pushing. The Good Thief had sweet sorrow. The positive thinking books want you to pretend that there is no sorrow.

quote: Maritsa

I agree wholeheartedly with your observations, Maritsa.
What seems to be up and running is the attitude of “be all that you can be.”
“Self-fulfillment.” “Realizing the '‘True Self.’”

These attitudes may constitute an escape route - for not having to sacrifice anything for anyone else’s good.
Suffering is painful to be in the presence of, much less to be the one who is suffering.

Can’t have that - in this type of ‘positive’ thinking.

And in our day, I note much talk about self. To refer to Jesus saying:
“Take up your cross and follow Me,” seems almost a gaucherie -
in the midst of happy talk. "It’s all about me!!]

I have often wondered whether the emphasis placed on the "meal’ that the Last Supper surely was, obscures the reality of the Mass as a renewal of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary?

And the odd thing is, I’ll bet not one person in a hundred could give the Latin roots of the word “sacrifice.”

Sacrifice = “to make sacred.”

Time spent caring for an ill child in the middle of the night is to make that time sacred. I see many references to the “good old days.” There is only one reality that is missing, from the “good old days,” as far as I can determine.
The sense of the sacred has been lost.

The word “sacral” lends us the word “sacriledge” =
To misuse something held sacred.

And what more sacred to God than the human person? He died for each.

Once the sense of the sacred is lost in life, deleterious realities spring up in the entire culture.

“It’s all about me,” becomes the mantra of a culture.
.

reen12 :coffeeread:

I couldn’t agree more with both of you. Is there anyone who still holds to the ideas promulgated in positive thinking genre books are contrary to our idea of living a good Catholic life? We are not talking about day to day positive thinking but the message in these books.

 

[reen12]

quote: Orionthehunter

I couldn’t agree more with both of you

I’m glad, Orionthehunter. When I read your one post,
I knew that, in essence, we were saying the same thing,
coming from differing angles.

In the first hours of a crushing loss, the human mind,
in a sense, “shuts down.” Such loss is similar to a blow to the
solar plexus. The person doubles over in pain, and is not
thinking of anything positive in the first hours and days.

It is in this context that “I know that my Reedemer lives”
is a bolster to the mind and the heart and the soul.

I have been most perplexed, over the last decades,
that the reality of uniting our suffering, with that of Christ’s,
enables one to participate in the redemption of others - does not
seem much stressed.

In fact, such suffering might be allowed by God - so that
the person becomes fitted to stand by those who are
in great loss or in great pain.

Where do Catholics go, now, when a heavy cross
becomes their reality, or the reality of one whom they love?
The crucified Christ is not much spoken of, except in Lent.
Sayings such as “We are a resurrection people,”
are not of great help, in a given instance, I think.

Yes. We will be risen, in Christ. But what of the years or
even decades, when suffering is so very present?

I particulary appreciated Maritsa saying:

quote: Maritsa

The Good Thief acknowledged his sufferings and praised God,
looking to a brighter future. He did not tell himself that he wasn’t on the cross, that he was already in heaven, that he wasn’t suffering, that he only needed to visualize himself without pain. He accepted his suffering and then looked to a better time.

That is a most clear explication of the reality, I think.
I thank you both for your thoughts, and am in the hope
that these thoughts are also of assistance to deekod1967,
the OP.

reen12