Dr. Jeff Mirus on Practicing the Presence of God During These Times

"Full disclosure: Staying at home is easy for me. My office is at home. I don't have in-person meetings. I'm a relative loner, and don't socialize a great deal outside my own family. I don't depend on a club, or a gym, or even a bar for my relaxation. I will confess that my desire for a good supply of liquor has risen, but only very slightly and mostly in the form of joking with my wife. Anyway, such indulgence is foreign to Lent.

"If I were younger and still had children at home who would normally be at school, the adjustment would be very different. In some ways, that can be good for families, but it will naturally have its own stresses when there is so little variation of activities and companions. Most people will get cabin fever a great deal faster than I will. Moreover, in cases in which parents must still go out to work while children cannot go to school, this obviously creates other problems.

"Apart from the question of 'what to do with the kids' (which is more legitimate in Catholic circles than in most), you would think that the experience of living under a stay-at-home order, although possibly a bit boring, would be a good deal more relaxing. There are, of course, a great many households with children, so those of us who are unburdened by heavy home responsibilities ought not to complain. But even my own pathetically easy experience suggests to me that things are not more relaxing. . . .

"The most nagging problem, I think, is that the future does not seem quite so clear. For many, even if they are not contemplating sickness or death, it is not clear that they will be earning their living the same way in 2021 as they did in February of 2020. For most of us most of the time, that assumption is a staple of a relatively relaxed life, a life largely free of serious occupational worry, and in consequence free of serious financial distress. Until now, I have been discussing the strains and stresses of the sudden shift to working from home. But the strains and stresses of not working anywhere are far greater. Most people may not be contemplating an earlier transition to life on high; but they are certainly contemplating the possibility of high-stress changes to their normal patterns here below. . . . 

"It is amazing how important habit and routine are to the art of being human. We habitually rely on predictability in our lives. We often tend to be happier when we are conscious of relying on Providence only in certain specific matters, rather than for just about everything at once. Even if we have gradually grown more adept at practicing the presence of God, we still tend - at least in healthy and wealthy societies - to take the bulk of our daily routines and goals and provisions for granted. More often than not, the multiplication of uncertainties in our habitual awareness is the great enemy of human peace."

In a recent commentary, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus, President of CatholicCulture.org, reflected on the importance of learning habitually to practice the presence of God during these stressful times. 

To access his complete post, please visit: 

Catholic Culture: Rejoice always (or) Adjusting to the order to stay at home (31 MAR 20)