Pulse
17 March 2025

We can say, without exaggeration, that one of the most worrying maladies that plague the inhabitants of the modern age is attention deficit. In many ways, this problem is so subtle that it often goes unnoticed – it escapes our attention (pun intended!).

So do its serious and sometimes deleterious consequences. Protracted attention deficiency has been associated with a variety of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. It can cause chronic feelings of inadequacy and failure, and a restive sense of being overwhelmed and burnout.

Studies have shown that attention deficit can be caused by many features that are associated only with modern life, and which were absent in previous times.

One of the culprits is digital and information overload: the ubiquity of digital devices such as smartphones and tablets, and the tsunami of information that flows endlessly from them.

A study by the Pew Research Centre shows that 85 percent of Americans own a smartphone, and feel that they are constantly connected to or using their devices. Similarly, recent research in Singapore shows that half of Singaporean youth between ages 15 and 21 have ‘problematic smartphone use’ that could lead to mental health issues.

Another culprit is the multitasking culture which many are forced to embrace because it has become so dominant in the modern work ethos. Multitasking does not only generate an illusion of productivity, it also greatly hinders our ability to focus, reflect and even think critically.

Attention is such a fundamental concept and practice in Christian spirituality that it is discussed in many of the writings of the early Church Fathers, medieval theologians and mystics.

In the great collection of the writings of the spiritual masters of the Christian east known as the Philokalia, the Greek word nepsis is often used to depict this disposition. Variously defined as wakefulness or watchfulness, nepsis, the texts in the Philokalia insist, is indispensable for spiritual sobriety and progress.

Modern spiritual writers have also emphasised the importance of attention in the Christian life. The Trappist monk and mystic, Thomas Merton, writes about the need for a quiet and attentive heart in Thoughts in Solitude. And the philosopher and mystic Simone Weil could say that ‘Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.’

The Church’s theologians frequently turn to a number of passages in the Bible to ground their reflection and practice of attention and contemplation. The main passage from the OT is Psalms 46:10: ‘Be still and know that I am God.’

In the NT, the favourite passage is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus commanded his disciples to ‘Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak’ (26:41).

But what exactly is the practice of attentiveness in the Christian spiritual tradition?

To be attentive in the Christian tradition is to be fully present in (and to) the world, and fully in touch with reality. But most significantly, it is to be fully aware of the presence of God in every situation and in every moment.

The great fifth century theologian, Augustine, explains it like this in his magisterial work, De Trinitate: ‘For the mind to know itself, it must attend to itself; for it to know God, it must attend to God.’ For Augustine, ‘mind’ in this context does not refer only to the intellect but to the whole person: his intellect, desires, will and actions.

Augustine sees attention as nothing less than an act of love and devotion on the part of the Christian. To be attentive, therefore, is not merely to pause once in a while to think about God. It is to be constantly aware of God’s presence and to put oneself at his disposal.

Attentiveness in Augustinian spirituality is akin to an active yearning for God. This is captured in a beautiful sentence in the Confessions, which intimately expresses Augustine’s own devotion: ‘I loved you, O my God, and caught your fragrance, and now I pant for you.’

All this means that attentiveness within the Christian spiritual tradition is never passive – it is neither an easy and lazy submission nor, even worse, a sluggish nod to spiritual matters. Christian attentiveness is active and purposeful – a conscious and disciplined focussing of the mind and heart on God, his beauty, his majesty, and his mystery.

This is what it means to wait upon the Lord (Isaiah 40:31). It is always an activity of lively faith and hope.

All the Christian writers who addressed the significance of attention in the Christian life emphasise the importance of prayer. Prayer, which is the believer’s most intimate communion with God, requires attention. Augustine writes, in one of his many letters, that ‘When you pray, then, be free from outward things as far as possible; but be intent on the inward things.’

This is echoed by Simone Weil who, in a notebook entry, writes: ‘Prayer consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable of towards God.’ It is from this regular practice of prayer that the soul cultivates the habit of being attentive to God throughout the day.

The Christian spiritual writers are always careful to remind their readers that attention is both a gift and a discipline. Although spiritual attentiveness is enabled by grace, the believer enhances this attentiveness by cooperating with divine grace through discipline and practice.

Attention, the spiritual masters of the Church tell us, is truly transformative. In heightening the believer’s awareness of God’s presence in his life, attention also deepens his relationship with God.

This transformation does not come about because the contemplative Christian encounters God in dramatic or sensational ways. Instead, it happens because by being attentive to God in his life, the Christian cultivates a profound and deep trust in him, which cannot be adequately described or explained by our words and concepts.

In his book, The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation, Merton describes this memorably thus:

The contemplative is not the man who has fiery visions of the cherubim carrying God on their imaginary chariot, but simply he who has risked his mind in the desert beyond language and beyond ideas where God is encountered in the nakedness of pure trust, that is to say, in the surrender of thought and speech.

For Simone Weil, the practice of attention should never be allowed to degenerate into navel-gazing. In fact, true attentiveness opens our eyes to see the joys and sorrows of the other, our neighbour whom we have been commanded to love. In Waiting for God, Weil writes: ‘The love of our neighbour in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him: “What are you going through?”’

In being mindful of the presence of God in his life, the Christian also becomes attentive to those around him, and to the mystery of the divine action in their lives.

Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor at Trinity Theological College (Singapore) and Theological and Research Advisor of the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.