Pandemic Panic Attacks

My friend was starting to have panic attacks due to worrying about the pandemic crisis.

She had been watching a steady stream of news, and one report after another painted a terribly bleak picture.

It didn't help things that food was getting harder and harder to find in the grocery stores, and going to the grocery store induced even more anxiety in her, since she was afraid she and her young children would get sick.

Her husband, meanwhile, was facing the prospect of losing his job, and while they had saved a little bit of money, it would not be enough to pay the bills for more than a month.

He was worried about going into even more debt, and eventually bankruptcy.

The Need for Detachment

These concerns are not only understandable, but also quite valid.

While there are good practices at a natural level that can help with such anxieties, like not watching the news in a non-stop loop, the fact is that these concerns are realistic and natural practices are not...

Catholic Mental Prayer, also called Catholic meditation, is a form of silent prayer that is the next level advanced from vocal prayer.

It is not Eastern Mysticism or any such thing. It is instead a lifting of the heart and mind to God.

All the saints practiced it. St. Alphonsus Liguori said: "every saint became a saint through Mental Prayer."

Do your Mental Prayer in a completely quiet room or church to block out distractions. Your mind may jump around everywhere to worries, tasks you need to do, or fears, but you simply train it back to your topic of meditation.

Here is how you do Mental Prayer:

• Prepare: Place yourself in God's presence and pray for the grace to meditate
• Begin the meditation
  • Reflect on particular subject, some truth of God or the Faith (more on this later)
  • Examine yourself in relation to this truth
    • Think of how you can improve in this aspect
  • Affections like sorrow for sin, hope in God, and love arise in your heart from...