02/09/2024
At my church, the third Sunday of each month has been set aside for general Catechism. On these Sundays, our priests teach to help parishioners understand why certain practices are followed in the Catholic Church and to deepen our faith in the choices we have made —first as Christians, and then as Catholics.
On one of these teaching Sundays, the priest corrected us on the response we gave after the Gospel reading. After the priest says, "This is the Gospel of the Lord," the congregation should respond with, "Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ." However, we had been saying, "Praise be to You, Lord Jesus Christ," which is incorrect. Although it might seem like a small detail, the priest explained that including the word 'be' was wrong.
However, the priests who taught us this have since been transferred, and I am not proud to say that 95% of the congregation has reverted to saying, "Praise be to You, Lord Jesus Christ."
When my children ask why the congregation has returned to the incorrect response, I simply explain, "It’s the power of habit over us. The habit is even stronger because the 5% of us who consistently say the correct response do not dare to ask the new priest to re-announce the correct response, knowing that repetition aids learning."
In Atomic Habits, James Clear discusses the cardinal rule for behaviour change: "What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided."
I completely agree with him. In one of the parishes I attended, parishioners now stay until the end of Mass instead of walking out early because, on one occasion, the priest called out those leaving during Mass as rude and disrespectful. Since then, no one has dared to walk out boldly.
Unfortunately, James Clear’s words are only evident in rare cases. What we often see are bad behaviours being immediately rewarded, while good behaviours are delayed, causing us to repeat the wrong actions that ultimately harm our world.
If just 5% of my church insisted on that correction immediately, we would be done with the mistaken response.
Building good habits is difficult when bad habits have been the norm, but it’s possible.
Perhaps some bad habits have been the reason for our underperformance at work and business. We have another chance this month to improve those scorecards.
You can learn how to do it by grabbing a copy of Atomic Habits or by waiting for my next post.
If you are in Abuja and want a copy, you can order from Jewels Bookshop via WhatsApp at 08141331517.
Shalom.