Guarding the Gold of Your Attention
Photo by Tuva Mathilde Løland on Unsplash
Have you ever noticed where your thoughts drift during the most mundane moments of your day? When you’re brushing your teeth, standing in line, or waiting for a kettle to boil, what does your mind automatically reach for?
In a recent meditation, Fr. Gavan Jennings offers an insightful reflection on the virtue of focus, the subtle traps of modern distractions, and how our idle thoughts reveal where our true treasure lies.
You can listen to the full meditation below, or read on for a few key reflections to carry into your week.
🎧 Listen to the Meditation
The Gravity of the Heart: Pondus Meum, Amor Meus
Jesus gave us a simple spiritual truth in the Gospels: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also".
When the daily pressure eases off, like during the quiet stretches of summer, we often find ourselves with spare time. Those random, unscripted moments throughout the day act like a litmus test for the soul. Where your thoughts drift when you aren't forced to think about something specific reveals what your heart truly delights in.
St. Augustine has a famous line that says: "Pondus meum, amor meus" - My weight is my love.
Just as gravity constantly pulls a stone down a hillside, our love constantly pulls our minds toward our treasure.
Even during prayer, our thoughts might wander to breakfast, our schedule, or a million tiny errands, simply because that is where our attention gravitates.
Attention Means "Stretching Out"
Have you ever watched a baby stretch their little hands out toward a brightly colored toy?
The Latin root for attention comes from tendere, which literally means to stretch out. Our attention is simply the mind stretching out toward whatever brings us delight.
Attention (Tendere) ➔ What delights us ➔ Where our heart goes
It works both ways: we pay attention to what delights us, but over time, we come to delight in whatever we choose to give our attention to.
3. The Modern Attention Magnet
In today’s world, our smartphones serve as ultra-powerful "attention magnets". They are expertly engineered to pull in every stray scrap of our time and focus.
"A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."
We are reminded that our attention isn't cheap scrap metal; it is pure gold. When we fill every quiet gap in our day—even while brushing our teeth—with short videos, endless feeds, or trivial facts about the world, we squander that gold. We are left with an infinite supply of information, but a poverty of true focus for the things that actually matter.
Rediscovering the Virtue of Focus (Studiositas)
To protect our interior peace, traditional spiritual wisdom distinguishes between two traits:
Curiositas (Unhealthy Curiosity): The vice of scattering our attention on things that don't concern us or don't elevate us. Think of Lot's wife looking back at Sodom simply because she couldn't resist a peak.
Studiositas (Focus): The virtue that moderates our appetite for knowledge. It acts like a wise traffic controller in our mind, saying: "That might be interesting, but it isn't relevant or necessary for me right now."
Even good things can become subtle distractions. Martha was distracted by serving, not because hospitality is bad, but because her heart had briefly shifted away from simply being present to Jesus.
Bringing It Back to What Matters
Our highest capacity as human beings is to focus on the highest things: God and the people around us.
Like Our Lady, who gently "pondered all these things in her heart," we are invited to gather our scattered thoughts and anchor them on what is truly noble, beautiful, and lasting.
Next time you pick up your toothbrush—or reach for your phone—take a pause and ask yourself:
"What am I stretching out towards right now?"