Thoughts Matter

…dash these temptations against Christ. (Prologue 22-34)


Many of the desert monastics believed that the heart of the spiritual life lies in the understanding of thoughts and how to deal with them. Abba Anthony speaks of his trials in seeking encounters with God. Whenever he tried to pray, thoughts of wealth, honor, status, comfort kept creeping in. He decided he needed to train himself to notice his thoughts and then to redirect those thoughts by “dashing them against Christ.”
The desert monastics concluded that the heart of the spiritual life is the understanding of both thoughts and feelings and the wisdom of knowing how to let these thoughts and feelings lead us to Christ.
The practice of lectio divina, Scripture reading, helps us to wrestle with these thoughts and feelings and redirect them to Christ.


Sr. Veronica OSB