Finding peace in a stressed-out world

In today's busy and anxious world, the constant need for high performance leaves us in a state of permanent fight or flight. FATHER WENCESLAO VIAL, Associate Professor of Theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, shares how faith can help nourish lasting mental health. (This article first appeared in the 2 August 2026 issue of Catholic News Singapore.)

08/03/2026

How many of us struggle to keep up with the constant demand for productivity and success? How many of us, in times of stress, resort to scrolling on our phones for hours, unable to sit alone with our thoughts?

"A society built on the avoidance of suffering is not a healthy society. It is a society on anaesthesia."

Referring to the dystopian world in English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, where a drug called Soma suppresses all negative emotions, Fr Vial drew parallels with the world today.

We live with unprecedented stress, he said, and we cope with it by using emotional regulators whenever we encounter silence or discomfort.

Having lost sight of true peace, we seek suppression, which does not heal but instead accumulates negative emotions, Fr Vial said.

To find true peace, we must become people who can face reality, including suffering, with enough inner stability to withstand it without being destroyed.

The source of peace

To do this, we must find the source of peace, said Fr Vial.

Humans are driven by the need for meaning, and our faith goes beyond clinical tools to find meaning in God.

Drawing from Saint Augustine's City of God, he emphasised how peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the "tranquillity of order", where our hearts are in harmony with ourselves and others.

The opposite, anxiety, is a sign of disorder, where we feel hopeless and lack trust in our future.

Peace, said Fr Vial, is "not a passive state, but the fruit of an active orientation towards God."

Prayer

To find meaning and peace in God, prayer is needed, said Fr Vial.

He emphasised that prayer is not a Christian version of secular mindfulness, a technique that offers symptom relief, but rather, the cultivation of a relationship with Christ.

Through prayer, we find stability in knowing that we are loved unconditionally, and that our ultimate future is secure in God's hands, he said.

Prayer does not eradicate suffering, but it enables us to find meaning in it.

"When meaning is present, suffering becomes bearable," said Fr Vial. "When it is absent, even comfort becomes intolerable."

Meaning in God is thus the missing link that enables us to face anything in life.

Value and worth

Fr Vial then drew on Pope Leo XIV's Magnifica humanitas, expressing concern that "when efficiency becomes the ultimate measure of value, human beings are tempted to see themselves as a project to be optimised" (MH, 112).

"While we are advised to do, do, and do, it is necessary also to be who you are, to be human," he said.

When we know we are loved simply for existing, not for what we produce, we are freed from meaningless expectations of efficiency and success, said Fr Vial. We can aim for a relationship with God, and for true meaning.

As workers, students, and leaders, it is our duty to help others see their worth not as cogs in society's machine, but as individual souls possessing inherent value, he added.

To find peace in our stressed-out world, we must turn to Christ, who told us: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."