The Evening Prayer for today (Monday, First Week of Lent) has one of my favorite passages from Scripture and the first one I ever attempted to memorize. To me, it is at the heart of being a person in recovery: Romans 12:2 “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of …
In the Gospel reading for the Mass for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday we read of Jesus calling a tax collector (Levi, also known as Matthew) to become one of His disciples. Luke 5:27-32 Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything …
In the Gospel for today’s Mass for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Jesus exhorts us to come and follow Him. However, there’s a catch. The road isn’t easy. Luke 9:22-25 Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and …
Since this blog is about “Conversion, Prayer, Fasting, Repentance, and Penance,” amongst other things, Lent is a natural time to blog a lot since those ‘abouts’ correspond to the season. I have often in previous Lents blogged daily, or at least a few times a week, taking inspiration from the daily Mass readings or the …
An atheist leads me towards belief in God during a tumultuous time in my life through his use of vivid storytelling within a deeply imaginative universe. It begs the question of, “How can a non-believer help someone to believe?” Saints and spiritual writers often say that God can bring good out of evil. Evil is …
Continue reading ‘Through Nothing to the Infinite: How an Atheist Lead me to God’ »
Today marks the 16th Bloggaversary of Sober Catholic. In honor of that, I’ve edited and cleaned up a messy note I wrote who-knows-when on “The Sober Catholic Way.” It is a summary of everything I’ve been doing since I became sober on May 22, 2002. Some I do better than others. This was originally a …
Continue reading ‘16th Bloggaversary of Sober Catholic: How I stayed sober for almost 21 years’ »
I’ve always loved this passage from the Second Reading of the Divine Office for the Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr: From a sermon by Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop: Now at last, Paul rejoices with Stephen, with Stephen he delights in the glory of Christ, with Stephen he exalts, with Stephen he reigns. Stephen went …
Continue reading ‘St. Stephen and St. Paul: united in Heaven’ »
September 15th is the the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. It honors the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which are: First Sorrow: The Prophecy of Simeon Our Lady and St. Joseph took the child Jesus as was customary under Mosaic Law after her 40 days of purification were over. They were to …
Today, September 14th, marks the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (sometimes called the “Triumph of the Cross.”) It marks the day in 326 when St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, discovered the True Cross in Palestine. It also celebrates the dedication of Constantine’s two churches, that of the Anastasis and that of Golgotha …
I am going through some ‘stuff’ right now; some personal issues as well as the usual anxieties about world and national events. The latter are bothersome, but I’ve gotten to realize that there’s not much I can do about them apart from prayer. The personal stuff is very worrying and those worries intrude on my …
Continue reading ‘Four things to help you get through difficult times’ »