The Mind-Body-Soul of the Domestic Church

July 1, 2025

Discipline and healthy habits in our families foster virtue, freedom and holiness

By Jared Zimmerer

July 1, 2025

A Christian family, the domestic church, reflects and participates in the universal Church. The spiritual, mental and physical health of the domestic church thus reflects the state of health of the mystical body of Christ. Yet too often, mental and physical well-being — if not also spiritual concerns — are undervalued in Catholic family life. Just as the human person is a unity of mind, body and soul, so too should the mystical body of believers attend to all dimensions of health.

In her wisdom, the Church offers opportunities throughout the year to cultivate healthy discipline — fasting, abstinence and other practices that train the will to pursue the good. Like building a muscle, the will is strengthened through repetition. And when the repetition of virtuous acts becomes a habit, we grow in virtue. The mind, like the body and soul, is also formed through repetition — the kind of media and entertainment we consume, the conversations we have, the thoughts we entertain. Discipline and intentional formation in all areas — mind, body, soul — nurtures authentic freedom.

St. Paul wrote, “I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:27). The early Church understood that embodiment and becoming like Christ are not separate paths but deeply interconnected. Unlike dualists, who view the body as a mere vessel for the soul — or even a hindrance to holiness — Catholics profess the resurrection of the body. We believe in the intimate unity of body and the soul. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the ‘form’ of the body” (365).

For families, it is essential to foster positive habits that engage the whole person. This might include praying the rosary or Divine Mercy chaplet; reading good books or watching uplifting films as a family; and engaging in physical activity, whether hiking, doing yard work, or volunteering at a soup kitchen. Together, such practices build a culture of virtue — and holiness — in our homes.

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JARED ZIMMERER is the content marketing director and Great Books adjunct professor for Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where he lives with his wife and six children. He is a member of St. Francis of Assisi Council 7099 in Grapevine, Texas.

Supper at Emmaus (oil on canvas) by Rembrandt (1606-1669) (Photo Josse / Bridgeman Images)

The Mind-Body-Soul of the Domestic Church

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