Grace and Anxiety: Spiritual Growth in a Time of Turmoil | Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2020

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This talk was livestreamed from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as part of the Thomistic Institute's Quarantine Lecture series.

For more information on the Quarantine Lectures and to subscribe, visit us online: thomisticinstitute.org/quarantine-lectures.

Speaker bio: Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P.

Fr. Dominic Legge is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and an assistant professor in systematic theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He holds a JD from Yale Law School, a PhL from the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2007. He practiced law for several years as a trial attorney for the US Department of Justice before becoming a Dominican. He is the author of The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So the title of this talk tonight is grace and anxiety,
0:05.0	spiritual growth in a time of turmoil.
0:08.0	And we might start by asking what kind of anxiety are people feeling right now?
0:14.0	What kind of emotions are people feeling right now?
0:17.0	I think anxiety is one of the big ones,
0:19.0	at least among the people that I have spoken to. And in general, I think anxiety is one of the big ones, at least among the people that I have spoken to.
0:21.6	And in general, I think anxiety can seriously interfere with, or at least seem to interfere with,
0:28.6	your spiritual life.
0:29.6	That's because when you're preoccupied, and maybe you've had an experience like this,
0:33.6	when you're preoccupied, you find it hard to pray, in part because your mind is so,
0:41.2	well, preoccupied with the thing you're anxious about. It's like having a mind running like a wheel
0:48.8	or even wheels within wheels. You think something through. You start at the beginning, you work your way to the end,
0:55.0	and by the time you get to the end, you find you haven't resolved it at all and you're back at the beginning.
1:00.0	So when this kind of thing happens, you actually can't make much progress by thinking things through.
1:09.0	Because actually that's part of the problem. The problem is you're thinking things through. Because actually that's part of the problem.
1:11.6	The problem is you're thinking things through in a kind of obsessive way,
1:15.6	in a way that leaves you in the fog.
1:18.6	And that fog can be brought on by fear.
1:22.6	So in normal circumstances, in my opinion,
1:25.6	the best natural remedy for this is taking good counsel
1:30.3	and having patience.
1:32.3	So you may not be able to escape the fog, but you can at least wait until you calm down and your mind clears,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Thomistic Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Thomistic Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.