Mindfulness

The mindfulness phenomenon is spreading in schools, hospitals, companies, convents and parishes. Faced with the spread of mindfulness in the Christian world, Fr Iacopo Iadarola (OCD) asked whether it is possibleto integrate this meditative practice of Buddhist origin into Christian spirituality. In the face of enthusiastic and sometimes superficial publications about mindfulness, this study, which makes use of a rich bibliographyfrom countries where mindfulness has already been widespread for decades, is, at least in Italy, the only surveythat highlights the problems of an uncritical acceptance. This is done without falling into a deaf apologetic,but anchoring itself to the Magisterium and making use of observations of psychologists, sociologistsand those same exponents of Buddhism who warn against the deleterious spiritual consumerism into whichmindfulness seems to be slipping (abroad they are beginning to speak of McMindfulness!). A substantial contributionin the afterword by Father Antonio Gentili, an exponent of reference and maximum openness in thedialogue between Christianity and the East, supports the author\’s work of discernment in the search for a delicatebalance between unconditional rejection and blindness.