5 Your Catholic Mindset and Resilience in Crisis

Coronavirus Crisis: Carpe Diem

Your Catholic Mind and Resilience in Crisis 

Episode 5:  April 3, 2020

Mindset.  

What is a mindset and how can I understand my mindset?  These are the questions we will be addressing in depth in this episode.  

And to help us, I’m inviting in Denethor II, Steward of Gondor, in his moment of crisis.  Here you go, you Lord of the Rings fans.  

In the Return of the King, the third volume of the Lord of the Rings series, Denethor is in an extremely difficult position    He is the leader of the kingdom of Gondor. And Gondor is one of the few kingdoms left standing against the evil Sauron his army of Mordor.  

·         Gondor in a strategic position to defend against Mordor.  But now the vast, powerful army of Mordor laying siege to the gates of Denethor’s castle and the situation looks very grim.

·         But let’s rewind just a bit.  Who is Denethor?  And what was his mindset?

Denethor is 

·         Hardheaded, traditional, old-fashioned

·         a grim political realist – pessimistic

·         lonely – his wife has long since died

·         Self-reliant -- Denethor relies on his own resources to resist the powerful evil ruler  Sauron.  .  

·         Denethor is a father of two sons.  

·         Beloved Elder son Boromir has died

o   This increasing his distance, bitterness and detachment

·         secretly uses a the seeing stone – the palantir -- to gather information,

·         Seeing stone or palantir is a ball of indestructible crystal, used for communication and to see events in other parts of the world, events from the past or future.  Some might describe it as a crystal ball.  

·         Denethor believed he that he could control the seeing stone

o   The seeing stone could only show him things that were true – real object or events, but 

o   The seeing stone is not a reliable guide to action – it’s unclear whether events shown are in the past or in the future, and it doesn’t show everything.  

o   Sauron biased what the seeing stone showed Denethor, selectively choosing real events and positioning the presentation to convey a lie.  

In the moment of crisis, the vast, evil horde of Mordor is arrayed outside the castle walls, and Denethor’s younger son Faramir is brought in on a stretcher – Faramir is pierced with arrows and looks like death.  

In the darkness of his hopelessness, Denethor says this to Gandalf:

 “I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool. For thy hope is but ignorance. Go then and labor in healing! Go forth and fight. Vanity. For a little while you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that rises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. Even now the wind of they hope cheats thee and wafts up the Anduin a fleet of black sails. The West has failed. It is time to depart for all you would not be slaves.”

Welcome to the podcast Coronavirus Crisis:  Carpe Diem where together we embrace the possibilities and opportunities for spiritual and psychological growth in this time of crisis, all grounded in a Catholic worldview. 

I’m clinical psychologist Peter Malinoski with Souls and Hearts at soulsandhearts.com.  Thank you for being here with me.  

This is episode 5:  Your Catholic Mind and Resilience in Crisis and it is Friday, April 3, 2020. We are one week away from Good Friday.  

Mindset is one of the four pillars of resilience in crisis for Catholics, and this episode builds on the last one, in which I introduced you to the four pillars of resilience.  These four pillars are critical for you being able to not just survive, but to thrive in times of crisis like this moment we find ourselves in now.  

Now we are going much more in depth on mindset.  

So what is mindset?  

Our mindset is the general position or attitude of our intellect.

Mindset captures how we habitually apply our thinking to the situations we face.  It’s the soil in which our cognitive processes grow.  Mindset is not our thinking per se – it’s the mental attitude from which our thinking flows.  

So here’s a simple example to clarify.  A person with a pessimistic and bitter mindset looks at a glass, sees it as half-empty and considers how he doesn’t really want water.  He wants iced tea.  With a twist of lemon.  He thinks about how he never gets what he wants.  A person with a providential mindset recognizes that four ounces of water is what he needs right now, and gives thanks to God for the gift of water.  

You can think of mindset as filter through which we perceive our situations, other people, and ourselves.  Our mindsets can range all over in terms of the accuracy of their perceptions and the quality of the thinking they produce.   Think about it.  You’ve seen this in others, when they totally misunderstand you in a situation.  And if you’re honest with yourself, you can probably remember times when your perceptions of situations have been really misguided by your mindset.   

And reminder of what we discussed in the last episode, our mindset greatly influences not only our thinking but also our behavior.  

It’s much easier to act well when we have a healthy mindset 

So now, back to Denethor.  Let’s discuss his mindset.  What was Denethor’s mindset?  Think about it for just a second.  Was it despair?  Well, he did move to mindset of despair but only at the very end.  Remember that mindsets can change and flux.  

Denethor was in trouble with his mindset long before the host of Mordor gathered at his doorstep, long before the battered body of his son Faramir was hauled back to him in the castle.  So what was the original problem with Denethor’s mindset?  It was this:

Denethor believed that he needed only to rely on himself.  

He was a man of great capacity, many talents and strong will.  

He pursued the good as he understood it to the limits of his strength.

But was self-reliant.  

He tried to carry out his mission alone and isolated.  And that mission was greater than any one man could face alone. 

None of us has the strength in our own will and in our own character to face our challenges without help.  

Relying on our own strength is a prescription for disaster.    

I empathize with Denethor – parts of me really want to be self reliant as well, want to be independent, not rely on anyone else.  That resonates with some of you as well.  So I get Denethor’s mindset, and the temptations he faced.  

There was...