Psalm 51 Meditations

One of my favorite Psalms is the 51st, “The Miserere”. The first 2 verses explain it: Psalm 51:1-2: “For the leader. A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after his affair with Bathsheba.” (Via USCCB) Nathan the Prophet confronted King David with his adultery, and the Psalm is David’s repentence. I …

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Approaching the Throne of Grace

The Second Reading for the Mass of the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time speaks to us of Jesus as our helper in our weakness: Hebrews 4:14-16:“Brothers and sisters:Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,Jesus, the Son of God,let us hold fast to our confession.For we do not have a …

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Suffering Servant

The First Reading for the Mass of the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time is one that serves as a foreshadow or prophecy of Jesus as the Messiah, and of His suffering mission: Isaiah 53:10-11:“The LORD was pleasedto crush him in infirmity. If he gives his life as an offering for sin,he shall see his descendants …

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The Spirit of Wisdom Came to Me

There is a nice excerpt from the First Reading for Mass for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Wisdom 7:7: “I prayed, and prudence was given me;I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” (Via USCCB.) As alcoholics and addicts we are familiar with seeking wisdom and prudence. It’s there in the short …

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Catholic Recovery Chat

I am just trying to get to word out that this blog’s sister site Catholic Recovery has a chat room. This is a post that serves as a “primer” on using it: Catholic Recovery Chat I am trying to promote it for 2 reasons: One) To help build the social network’s community. We have all …

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Our Lady of Victory

On October 7th the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Here is a post written a few years ago on its background (it also has a great litany prayer for your use): Our Lady of the Rosary The old name for this feast day is Our Lady of Victory. We can …

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Armor of God

We are engaged in a battle when we are addicts and alcoholics. For all the talk of the medical, genetic or environmental causes of alcoholism and addiction, we cannot ignore the spiritual side of the affliction. I think even the founders of AA said that alcoholism is a spiritual problem. In acknowledging the spiritual side …

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Sin and concupiscence

I have added two new labels: “sin” and “concupiscence” to identify the subjects of posts. I shall be discussing these off and on over the next few weeks or months and their relationship with addiction and alcoholism. One reason I haven’t blogged much recently (there are many) is that I’ve been studying the Catechism and …

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