Denver, Colo., Nov 26, 2010 / 05:05 am
Fr. Charles Shelton –a Jesuit priest, psychologist, and the author of a new book on gratitude– says that the choice to live gratefully can help to improve virtually every aspect of a person's life.
The multi-talented priest, a professor of psychology at Denver's Regis University, recently published “The Gratitude Factor,” a book that examines the importance of giving thanks for one's work, leisure, relationships, and other everyday experiences of God's grace.
Fr. Shelton has made notable contributions to the field of “positive psychology,” a branch of the social science which studies the cultivation of virtue and well-being. “The Gratitude Factor” combines his work in the field with an emphatic focus on Christian spirituality, in the tradition of St. Ignatius Loyola.
Speaking to CNA on Nov. 20, he explained how the choice to live gratefully, even in the midst of difficulty, could profoundly change one's experience of the world. Gratitude, he said, gives depth to the experience of joy, and profound meaning to less desirable tasks– by “re-framing” both as important aspects of the life that one receives from God.