"While we can’t pray ourselves out of mental health struggles, it is essential that we hold onto our prayer and cling to the sacraments when we are going through a mental health challenge. Holiness and wholeness have their own domains, but they beautifully complement each other, since they both ultimately come from God."
This is part of a reflection shared by Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, in his weekly column for the Southern Nebraska Register in this month of May, which is mental health awareness month. "We are not alone. You are not alone!" the bishop assures as the title of the column.
The column, in fact, marks the one-year anniversary since Bishop Conley released a pastoral letter on the theme of mental health, called A Future With Hope.
The bishop openly shares about his own mental health in the letter, as well as offering a pastoral perspective and a selection of resources, both for individuals and for priests.
While Bishop Conley emphasizes the need for spiritual tools -- the sacraments and Liturgy of the Hours, for example -- he also highlights the need to focus on things like good sleep and drinking enough water. He even points out how much having a dog has helped him!
See his interview on pets!
Here's some of what he says in the pastoral letter:
Seek healing through balance. Mental health issues can be created or exacerbated (as they were for me) if we don’t care for all the dimensions of our life — body, mind, and soul. Making time for sleep, healthy eating, exercise, and recreation is important not just for mood stabilization but for fostering an overall sense of well-being and joy. When we are struggling, these are foundational building blocks we can put in place or improve upon.
He also offers a helpful clarification about a Catholic mindset and mental health.
One might rightly ask, if we don’t speak of a Catholic physics or a Catholic biology, why do we need a Catholic understanding of mental health? The answer is because any notion of mental health is laden with beliefs about the human person, about true human anthropology. After all, if mental health refers to “a person’s cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being,” we must know what well-being means and what well-being looks like. But notions of human flourishing depend on one’s beliefs about the human person’s origins, purpose, and destiny. And so, a Catholic view of mental health is necessary because it defines well-being according to reason and revelation.
Find more (and the resource list) at both the letter and this week's column with the links above.
