GOSPEL MATTERS: Religious practice and happiness

Dr Christine Wood, Director of Evangelisation & Catechesis

According to Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey of the Institute for Family Studies, a major 2024 research study shows, “Young conservative women are three times as likely to report being very satisfied with life compared to young liberal women.”

They continue: “These two factors, church and marriage, account for about half the ideological gap among young women in a multivariate analysis of life satisfaction that included controls for factors like race, education, and income.”

“Liberal young women are less likely to be integrated into core American institutions—marriage and religion—that lend meaning, direction, and a sense of solidarity to women’s lives,” they write.

Similar trends exist in Australian data (2020-21) with a strong, positive link between family values and happiness, especially when those values are reinforced by religious or community engagement (Australian Institute of Family Studies).

There is something inherently beneficial about religious practice, especially when it comes to mental health, emotional resilience, social support, and overall well-being.

The reason for this is that religious communities provide a reliable structure for personal flourishing. Since we are social beings, we flourish if we recognise and foster interdependent relationships with each other, and particularly with God.

Attending Sunday Mass at our local Catholic parishes provides the opportunity for us to hear the proclamation of the Gospel, to experience being called by God out of a lonely, isolated existence into a community of believers united in divine love and with a shared purpose. The sense of belonging to a community is invaluable for human happiness.

Religious participation is associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety. Practices like prayer, meditation, or confession help individuals process stress, loss, and uncertainty in psychologically healthy ways.

If we continue to practice our Catholic faith, participating in the celebration of the Eucharist (and even weekday Masses), frequenting the sacrament of Penance, and being open to God’s work in our lives, we will see positive changes. Our perspectives will alter as we become more Christ-centred. Our sinfulness will diminish as we experience the holiness of God and recognise our sin as harmful to ourselves and others.

We must not be deceived by secular voices spouting the ideology that religion only causes division and oppression. True religion binds us to God who loves us and blesses us with every spiritual good.

God has been working throughout human history to draw a people to himself. This people has an identity: those who are called out of sinful isolation and into a communion of love and life with God and the saints.

So why go to Sunday Mass? Because it’s good for us and we all want to be happy.