Catholic Prayer and Neuroplasticity
Creating Neuropathways to Virtue
Recently on my Create Soul Space blog, I wrote an article about the amazing ability of our minds to change and heal—a God-created gift called neuroplasticity. In that article I wrote:
Neuroplasticity
Neuro: referring to the nervous system
Plasticity: the ability to be malleable, flexible, and able to change; “the quality of being soft enough to be changed into a new shape” (Cambridge Dictionary)
Previous scientific thought was that after the developmental stages of childhood, the brain was fixed and couldn’t be changed or healed in its structure. Thankfully, continued advances in science have allowed mankind to understand more fully the mystery of God’s amazing creation—our human bodies. We now know that the brain can and does change, all throughout our lives—which is both good and bad news. When we experience prolonged and/or intense trauma, the structure of our brain physically alters. Yet so, too, when we actively and consciously engage in healing, we can change the neuropathways of our brain to form healthy, God-willed behaviors, perspectives, and attitudes.
It's the repetition of certain actions or thoughts that causes the restructuring of our minds. This means that—through prayer and a surrendering of our will to God’s will—we can create neuropathways of virtue.
Catholics are often criticized for repetition in prayer. Naysayers quote Jesus in the gospel of Matthew:
“And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.”
(Matt 6:7)
This argument is easily debunked. What is translated in English as “thoughtless repetition” (“vain repetition” in the King James Version, “empty phrases” in the Revised Standard Version) is the Greek word battalogeó (battalagesete), which means to chatter with long-winded and empty words.
Battalogeó:
chatter, long-winded, utter empty words, stammer, repeat; to blubber nonsensical repetitions
The key to understanding Matthew 6:7 is to appreciate Jesus’ intention. He warned us not to babble on and on with useless, empty prattling, as the pagans in His day often did in an attempt to appease their fickle deities. In this teaching, Jesus is reminding us that prayer must come from the heart, not the head or the tongue. If there’s no heart behind the prayer, but only words and useless phrases, how can prayer change the petitioner and draw them closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
Prayer should be an intimate conversation from heart to Heart, a true integration of our spirit with the Holy Spirit who should direct not only our devotions, but our every action and thought.
All we have to do is look at Sacred Scripture to realize Jesus isn’t condemning heart-lead, devoted prayers of repetition. In Psalm 136 we pray:
O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
for His steadfast love endures for ever.
O give thanks to the God of gods,
for His steadfast love endures for ever.O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for His steadfast love endures for ever;to Him who alone does great wonders,
for His steadfast love endures for ever;
These are merely just four verses out of 26, but you get the idea—there’s a bit of repetition there! But why?
There are many reasons we repeat certain prayers again and again, such as with the devotion of the Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet—and why we pray the same petitions at every Mass.
These prayers need to be memorized and repeated, in order to reach the depths of the heart.
Memory, understanding, and will …
Prayers need to be ingrained in our memory so we may eventually come to understand them not merely with our minds, but with our hearts. This leads our free will to yearn for the richness and graces of the Divine will.
Yet, as fallen human beings, we can’t let this devotion be a one-time thing. We have to repeat our vows of love again and again, to be the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8) in order to receive eternal life.
I love you …
Would you say I love you to your beloved just once during the course of your entire relationship, or would you repeat the words of devotion throughout your lives together?
The answer is obvious—yet this leads us onward, to the next question …
Will you say I love you to Jesus only once, or repeatedly throughout the course of your entire life, every day and frequently throughout your day?
A great example of etching prayers deep within our memory, understanding, and free will can be found in the blessed pattern of the Mass. The structure of the Mass helps solidify a unified prayer not only throughout the world—encompassing all peoples and cultures—but throughout all of Christian history. This is crucial because we’re not solitary people worshipping God, but a united body under one Head, Jesus Christ. Praying the same devotions at each Mass creates that unification, and also renews our vows to our belief in our Lord and submission to His will—something we need to do each and every day, whether at Mass or in private devotion.
Yet there’s another, more mystically scientific reason.
It’s true that our ancient Church Fathers and saints—those who inspirationally developed the structure of the Mass as well as devotionals such as the Rosary—knew nothing about neuroplasticity. Even so, the Holy Spirit—who is the true designer of the Mass and the sacramentals—was obviously well aware of this amazing ability of sanctification and regeneration.
After all, it was our Creator God who blessed the human mind with the gift of neuroplasticity.
The nature of repetitive prayer helps us create what I call “grooves of virtue” in our brain, physically restructuring our minds to be directed toward God. The more we pray, the more we desire prayer; and the more we desire prayer, the more Christ-like we become.
Praying actually reforms the mind, not just spiritually but biologically. What a wondrous creation God made when He designed our human bodies!
“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”
(Gen. 1:31)
I like your reflections and discovered you today after a search on the dangers of yoga. Your understanding of Catholic prayer, memorization, trandformation and the biological connections was very helpful...putting words on my own experience. Thank you. I subscribed today.
An interesting post and I have certainly experienced this internal change myself, so agree entirely that the brain can change. In fact, I know by my dreams when changes are happening. I'd like to say I emerge from these periods like a butterfly from its cocoon, but it's more like moving on to the next larval stage, to my mind!