Category Archives: Death

Gracious and merciful is he

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An excerpt from the First Reading from the Book of Joel (2:12-14) for Ash Wednesday:

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.

Courtesy USCCB

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent; that liturgical season when Christians shed their character defects, attempt to turn away from sin and grow closer to Jesus. We make advances in our spiritual progress; while not technically a period when we engage in ‘self-help’, nevertheless, in amending our lives and turning away from sin, we try to become better people with the hope that when Lent ends, we retain the good we have become.

Since Lent is the time when we approach the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, and He underwent all of tht in a propitiatory offering for our sins, we may tend to think of God as an angry god seeking to mete out punshment.

But as we see from the Old Testament Book of Joel, we are reminded that when we turn to God with our heart, truly sorrowful for our sins, He does not respond with punitive justice. He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger (likely due to He knows we are weak and frail,) rich in kindness and will relent in His punishments. All we need to do is truly come to terms with our sins, see them in light of the eternity that awaits us, and cast off the behavior that separates us from Him. And when we do that, He will open His arms wide to embrace us.

Become a better person this Lent. Look at your sins in the light of eternity.  

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Meditations on the Nicene Creed

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The year 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, where the Nicene Creed was composed and approved by the bishops of the Latin and Greek Rites of the Catholic Church. 

Pope Leo XIV recently traveled during November 27-30th to Iznik, Turkey (modern day Nicea) to honor this anniversary. The thought occurred to me to try come up with some thoughtful meditations for Sober Catholics. We say this Creed often (usually at Mass) and with anything said repeatedly, we might lose the meaning or impact of the words.

Here it goes (the Creed is in bold  typeface, my meditations are in italics.)

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

I think we overlook the  impact or significance of this first stanza; we are literally declaring belief that there is one God Who created everything and there is nothing in existence that was made without His making it. And when we read the opening lines of the Gospel of John, we realize that God the Father did all that through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is mind-boggling. A simple statement of faith and belief, and yet enormous in its meaning. Just dwell on that for a few moments. How does this place things in context? I would think that our petty Earthly concerns, like battles over politics and economics (and the ideological and partisan fighting over them) can best be seen in a different light.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.

I think we often become too familiar with Jesus; again, for the reasons I mentioned above regarding anything said repeatedly often loses its impact. If this stanza is read “with fresh eyes,” that is, if you try to read it as if for the first time, you become reconnected to Whom (and What) Jesus is. He isn’t just some nice person who lived long ago with nice teachings. He wasn’t just born in time like everyone else. He is eternal, without beginning or end, and once again, we are reminded that it was He through Whom all of Creation came into being. Quite an awesome (in the original sense of the word) thought. 

For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

And now we come to His mission on Earth; that this Person Who existed from all Eternity and through Whom all creation was made, became one of us. And not in the manner you’d naturally think: that of an already grown adult, perhaps mighty in appearance and stature. No, He decided that it was fitting and necessary to become this through a woman; just like every other human who ever lived. Just think a bout that for a few more minutes. God Eternal became just like one of us (excepting that He couldn’t sin.) How’s that for identification? He. the Lord of the Universe, decided that it was right and proper to join in our humanity as an infant. His self-identication screams ‘humility,’ quite unlike contemporary 21st  Century identity politics. 

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

And here we come to the core reason for His mission on Earth: that of suffering and dying for us to redeem us for our sins. I often think it is unfair for Pontius Pilate to be constantly recalled for his role in Jesus’ death; after all, it was the Jews who demanded His crucifixion and the Romans who executed Him (not ignoring at all that all this was done on account of our sins.) Pilate was merely the political coward who failed to honor his original conviction that Jesus was innocent and just caved in to public pressure (political expediency.) Perhaps he is commemorated in the Creed to be that constant reminder to political leaders (and regular folk) that their actions have repercussions long after death.

He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

The great promise for all who believe in Him who is our brother. He will return one day and set all things right. Justice will reign forever. Things are bad today? Fear not, have faith and persevere to the end and you will receive your just reward: an everlasting life of peace and love with the Trinity and the saints.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

It is often said that the Holy Spirit is the forgotten member of the Trinity; that the Father and the Son get almost all of the attention and devotion, except perhaps when we are nearing Pentecost and are reminded of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the Church. This entire stanza focuses our attention on the Third Person of the Trinity and reminds us just who and what the Spirit is. Each section is worthy of  some focus during meditation. Do we really ever dwell much on the Holy Spirit as the “Lord, the giver of life?” As sober Catholics we should pay special care to this aspect of the Spirit. We had “lost or life” to our drug of choice and only regained it through an action of  the Holy Spirit: something happened which redirected our lives away from the drug or drink; someone reached out to us and got past our defenses….. This stanza reminds us that we really need to include the Holy Spirit in our spiritual life, along with the Father and the Son.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.

Now comes the Really Important Stuff that you are committing to. Just like people forget the significance of the final petitions of the Our Father (“…forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…” ) and what that all implies, with the final stanza of the Nicene Creed we are attesting our assent to certain things we declare and agree to be True. And we may not realize that God will hold us to it when the time comes for us to stand before Him in Judgment. Do you really believe in the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church,” and that unity, holiness, universality, and apostolic Church is the Catholic Church; that all others are schismatic or heretic? Do you assent to the efficacy of the sacraments in the role they play for salvation? 

Amen.

I hope that when you recite the Nicene Creed, it come alive to you and you see it like you’ve not seen it before. 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Indulgenced Cemetery Visits Devotion for November 1-8

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This is an annual post on a fruitful pious devotion for November:

Catholic Culture has an excellent article regarding a very beneficial pious activity that can aid in your own spiritual progression. It also is a good reminder of where we’ll end up someday. (A grave. Morbid, true, but you wouldn’t be here unless you’re more aware than most people that you will die someday.)

Praying for the Dead and Gaining Indulgences During November is something I blog about here annually. It is about the act of visiting a cemetery during the first 8 days of November.

To summarize from the “Catholic Culture” site: “Indulgenced Acts for the Poor Souls: A partial indulgence can be obtained by devoutly visiting a cemetery and praying for the departed, even if the prayer is only mental. One can gain a plenary indulgence visiting a cemetery each day between November 1 and November 8. These indulgences are applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory.

A plenary indulgence, again applicable only the Souls in Purgatory, is also granted when the faithful piously visit a church or a public oratory on November 2. In visiting the church or oratory, it is required, that one Our Father and the Creed be recited. A partial indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, can be obtained when the Eternal Rest  is prayed. This is a good prayer to recite especially during the month of November:  ‘Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.'”

The article explains the differences between plenary and partial indulgences.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Ensuring salvation “…at the hour of our death.”

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Have you ever thought about the hour of your death? Not just about your death in general, or how long you might live. But exactly when you’ll die?

This is the last chance for Satan to snatch you from the Lord. Unless you’ve prepared yourself by way of the Sacraments, prayer and a lifetime of “spiritual progress,” your final minutes on Earth will be The Enemy’s last chance to get you for Itself for all Eternity.

Worried? There’s a prayer for that!

It’s Mom to the rescue! Doesn’t Mom make everything better? Well, same thing for when you’re about to face the end of your mortal existence.

The venerable and ancient prayer of the Church to the Blessed Mother, said by millions of Catholics daily in the Rosary is the succor for such a worry.

“Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.”

See those last six words? “…at the hour of our death.”

Mary will watch over you. But not just you, when you say the “Hail Mary” on the Rosary or just by itself in moments of need, you are offering it up for other people as well. It does not say “pray for me, a sinner,  at the hour of my death,” but rather,  “pray for us sinners,” so you’re not just praying for yourself, but for other people, too, now, and at the hour of their death. And when you think of it that way, all of these people are also praying for Our Lady’s intercession at the hour of your death, too. It’s a community thing of the Church Militant (those members of the Mystical Body of Christ still alive on Earth.)

Now, here’s where I wander over into left field a little (or, score a “wonder goal” or have a “moment of magic,” which are the soccer/futbol equivalents of baseball’s “out of left field” idiom, I’m told.)

I have been dwelling on the Hail Mary recently, especially that petition to pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death and its connection to the persistent teaching of numerous saints, especially St. Maximilian Kolbe, St, Louis DeMontfort, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and St. Leonard of Port-Maurice, that those who are devoted, or consecrated, to the Blessed Virgin Mary are never “lost,” that is, “damned.” Their salvation is ensured (but not necessarily guaranteed. You still have to maintain sincerity of faith and steer clear of mortal sins. But that all should be easier with Mary’s help.)

This is NOT the Catholic version of the deeply heretical and unbiblical “Once Saved, Always Saved” idea that a few non-Catholics hold. (Don’t these people read St. Paul?) But is infers that as Our Lady is also our Mother, and as she loves us more than we can ever know, if we give ourselves to her, she will protect us at the hour of our death from the attacks of Hell.

Let’s take an example of one of these devotional promises. There’s a practice known as The Three Hail Marys. You are recommended to pray three Hail Mary’s every morning upon rising and again upon retiring to bed; at the end of the prayers you ask Mary to “preserve me from mortal sin this day (or night.”) You do this every day and when you die, you will not go to Hell (Purgatory, however, maybe!) 

This may be easier to comprehend and accept when you really understand the importance of the collective prayer of the Church Militant when praying the Rosary or a Hail Mary. The sheer number of prayers ascending to Heaven asking Our Lady to intervene for us during our final moments here in Time is huge. Just think about it: there are hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of Hail Marys are said every day. There’re 53 said in the Rosary alone, plus numerous other times in other prayers. Multiply those by however many are reciting their prayers… Now multiply that for every day until the final day for you on Earth. That’s potentially hundreds of billions of petitions, if not trillions over the course of  a life, for Our Lady to protect you from Hell’s final furious assault on your soul. 

Therefore, it stands to reason that this is not pious silliness, but a reasonable conviction of the faithful and a reliable promise by Our Mother. If you sincerely pray the Rosary every day, or recite the Three Hail Marys, or some other Marian devotion related to all this, then you will not be damned. And one thing bears mentioning: it doesn’t mean that you can do this and then intentionally go off and commit serious sins, and often, thinking that we’re going to be saved just because we’re saying three Hail Mary’s or a daily Rosary. We all lead sinful lives, but the difference is the willful intent to sin versus the willful intent to not sin, and to reinforce that desire through repentance and frequenting the sacraments. Presumption of God’s mercy and exploiting Our Lady’s priviliges will quickly land you in the hot place. 

There is another method to ensure our salvation. I won’t go into it here as I’ve covered it already (quite well, if I say so myself 😉) in this post on Marian Consecration and the Guarantee of Eternal life. PLEASE READ THAT, TOO! It goes well with this post. Here’s another post on the subject, written wayback in the early days of SoberCatholic: “Now and at the Hour of Our Death”

 A RECOMMENDATION FOR YOU: The I Miss Christendom YouTube Channel lists 5 Things Catholics Can Do To Ensure Salvation. These are:

  • The Three Hail Marys (post on that here.)
  • The Brown Scapular (I don’t think I’ve written anything on that, but a post on sacramentals is being drafted.)
  • The Daily Rosary (I’ve written numerous posts on the Rosary, as well as a book on the Rosary.)
  • The Nine First Fridays  (My post on that is here.)
  • The Five First Saturdays (I wrote on that here.)

Note: This was previously published on Paul Sofranko Space. It’s been edited and significantly expanded for SoberCatholic.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

A novel on St. Dismas

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I have a devotion to St. Dismas, the “Good Thief” who snatched Heaven in his dying moments. He repented and as was recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke in Ch 23 verses 42-43:

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

 I have written about him a few times due to a promise I made to him to make him better known.

I was watching various YouTube videos when I chanced upon this one:

It’s a video from EWTN’s program “Vaticano” in which writer Tony Gratacós was interviewed for a novel he wrote on St. Dismas. from the show notes:

Who was the Good Thief beside Jesus at Calvary? In this powerful interview, bestselling author Tony Gratacós reflects on Saint Dismas—the first saint, promised paradise by Christ Himself. From spiritual darkness to redemption, Dismas took a leap of faith in the final moments of his life. Through storytelling and Scripture, this episode explores how even in suffering, grace breaks through. A moving Lenten reflection on mercy, hope, and the mystery of salvation.

The self-published novel, “A Thief’s Song” is available through Amazon. Click on the image (or if that doesn’t work, go here: “A Thief’s Song” on Amazon.6172Up1+e9L. SL1499 .

I have not read it, so this is not a review or endorsement. I may buy it when my disposable income permits it.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Indulgenced Cemetery Visit Devotion for November 1-8

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This is an annual post on a fruitful pious devotion for November:

Catholic Culture has an excellent article regarding a very beneficial pious activity that can aid in your own spiritual progression. It also is a good reminder of where we’ll end up someday. (A grave. Morbid, true, but you wouldn’t be here unless you’re more aware than most people that you will die someday.)

Praying for the Dead and Gaining Indulgences During November is something I blog about here annually. It is about the act of visiting a cemetery during the first 8 days of November.

To summarize from the “Catholic Culture” site: “Indulgenced Acts for the Poor Souls: A partial indulgence can be obtained by devoutly visiting a cemetery and praying for the departed, even if the prayer is only mental. One can gain a plenary indulgence visiting a cemetery each day between November 1 and November 8. These indulgences are applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory.

A plenary indulgence, again applicable only the Souls in Purgatory, is also granted when the faithful piously visit a church or a public oratory on November 2. In visiting the church or oratory, it is required, that one Our Father and the Creed be recited. A partial indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, can be obtained when the Eternal Rest  is prayed. This is a good prayer to recite especially during the month of November:  ‘Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.'”

The article explains the differences between plenary and partial indulgences.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

St. Jude Thaddeus: the Forgotten

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OK, so in my previous post I had written a prayer based on a traditional one that claimed St. Jude was confused with the traitor Judas due to the similarity in names. I didn’t have the prayer handy but was certain that’s how it read. I was wrong. It read that he was forgotten by many. Oh, well. I’m keeping it because I do think people got them confused. I wrote a new one based on this corrected context:

I think that this is further evidence that St. Jude is a leading advocate and intercessor for us. In the throes of our addiction, we were often shunned by family and friends and others. Perhaps rightfully so, given our behavior. Nevertheless, this contributed to our dehumanization. Numbering among the lost, the lonely, being hopeless and desparing of ever having a normal and complete life, we entered the realm of the forgotten. Matt Talbot experienced this; he had no money to buy beer at his favorite Dublin pub and his friends turned him away. This caused him to turn his life around, to ‘take the pledge.’ 

The emotions experienced when you feel this way, that you are a non-person, may be the bottom oft-spoken of. That “jumping off place,” where you know that if you continue to drink you will die, but if you stop drinking, you may onky wish for death. And so a glimmer of hope begins to glow…

You’ve been there. Take for a moment and think back to those dark times when you were caught in the grips of loneliness and despair. 

I wish I had developed a devotion to St. Jude long before this week. There have been countless times where I had felt so alone, llost and forgotten. Granted, we can always turn to Jesus and Mary (and I did,) but to have a specific saint,an apostle no less, who is the advocate of the despairing and alone. (Dear Paulcoholic: May I remind you of your devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows? No one’s feeling of sorrow and hurt was as great as Our Blessed Mother’s as she contemplated her Son’s eventual Passion and death. Not to mention what she went through as she actually experienced it. Dear Conscience: OK, yeah, I know  all that. But what I love about Catholic devotional spirituality is that it is designed for everyone in whatever state they’re in, “where they’re at,” so to speak. Reaching out to the Blessed Mother may be difficult for some. But there’s this other guy, see…. Dear Paulcoholic: Point taken. Carry on.)

By the way, if you like the image I added to this post, it, and others like it are (or soon will be) available at my Shop Sober Catholic storefront over on Sober Catholic Pixels site. There are a few products there already, more will be added tonight through this weekend. I would love it if you’d patronize it. I can use the funds. If you’d like to donate through PayPal, the link is here: PayPal Paul Sofranko. This is the third in an ongoing series of solicitaions to help my wife and I get through some financial stresses. Between a  combination of underemployment, health issues, sales of one book not being very good, and other factors, we are in a tight money crunch. I have been praying to St. Jude very intensely this week for the alleviation of these issues. If PayPal isn’t your thing, you can also mail a check, payable to: Paul Sofranko; and send it to: P.O. Box 358; North Boston, NY 14110.

Another way to help is by purchasing my books and online products. You can purchase for yourself or multiple copies for others that might be interested. My new book, “The Sober Catholic Way” comes as an ebook for Amazon Kindle, or as a paperback from Amazon. If you prefer Barnes and Noble, then here is the link for a paperback; and if you have a B&N Nook, here is the Nook purchase link. 

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It is also now available at numerous other ebook retailers like Apple Books and Smashwords. You might also try this Universal Book Link: click and then select the logo of your fave online bookshop.

Click on this page to discover where you can buy The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts. 

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It’s available through Amazon, B&N and Apple, as well as Smashwords and other retailers. 

The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics is also available; that page tells you all the places you can buy it!

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Are you creative-minded? Know people who are? Then Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better! (This is the book I referred to above as not selling very well.)

 

“Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics” is a call to arms, or rather, a call to pens, paintbrushes, and video cameras, for creative Catholics to take up St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe’s call to infiltrate pop culture and help alleviate the ills that pervade contemporary society. St. Maximilian saw back in the 1920s how the use of cinema, radio, and mass-market books was corrupting society. He thought that those same tools could be used as a countercultural force to overcome this corruption. 

Furthermore, it explains through the example of three critical apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima how she herself suggested strategies and alternatives to the dehumanizing and increasingly pagan contemporary culture we have today.

“Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics” concludes by showing how the Catholic Faith can be used to provide a road map out of our current morass and a blueprint to build a more just and fair society constructed according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and other elements of traditional Catholic Social Teachings.

Get it for your Amazon Kindle through this link!

Prefer the paperback? Get it through this link!

Thank you for reading this far, as well as for whatever assistance you can provide. It is greatly appreciated and I will add you to my prayers. St. Jude may also appreciate your cooperating with him in this…

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The end of an era in compassion and healing

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I received an email this morning from Marty Tousley who ran the wonderful Grief Healing Discussion Groups. Due to lack of funding and donations, as well as the increasing difficulty in running it (Marty is 81! I’m feeling the pain of running a couple of blogs and the associated social media promotions and I’m only 61!) she announced that on January 1, 2025 the discussion groups will fold.  

I am saddened by the news that these forums will be going away in three month. That place helped me survive the death of my Mom in late 2005 (was it that long ago?) From shortly after her death through all of 2006 and pretty well into 2007, those discussion groups were my online home; the place was an oasis in the churning turmoil of the psychological abuse directed at me by my family and the hole in my soul wrought by my Mom’s death. 

Although I largely stopped visiting the goups after I had achieved my ‘new normal,’ somehow I thought the place would ‘always be here’ in the event I’d need it again.

I do regret not making it a more permanent online home for me. Nevertheless, I shall cherish the memories of the people I met there. Although we’ve parted ways since the deaths of those that brought us together to discuss our pain and sorrow, everyone that touched my heart from ’05-’07 and helped to heal my soul are still in my daily prayers (even if I forgot some names, God knows who theyy were.) I hope to meet and be reunited with all of them in Heaven, even those that briefly were in the community but whose emotions and pain burned brightly in their posts. And of course, I’d love to meet those dear, departed loved ones whose loss brought them here. (I also hope this for the Syracuse (NY) Hospice and Hope for Bereaved, places where I went for face-to-face grief healing and counselling.)

Thank you Marty, and all those whose wisdom and knowledge and compassion helped and healed so many people. The Grief Healing Discussion Groups will be missed.

NOTE: Marty posted quite a lot of resources for grief healing on the site; I will pore through all of them and add many to the resources pages of Sober Catholic.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

The Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Holy Souls

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For today’s Immaculate Heart Saturday post, I will continue along the theme from yesterday’s post on the Sacred Heart and Holy Souls.

“I am the Mother of all the souls in purgatory, and I am Mother of Mercy to these my children who are in the greatest need ​of my assistance, since in their torments they cannot help themselves.”

– Our Lady to St. Bridget

By studying her words we can discern her Immaculate Heart at work in her queenly patronage of the Suffering Souls in Purgatory. Therefore, we can also use the devotion to the Immaculate Heart in service to relieve the Holy Souls of their suffering. We can apply the Five First Saturdays Devotion to relieve them. Although that devotion intends to make reparation for offenses committed against Our Lady, it may be possible, at least in November, to offer up the reparations for those Holy Souls who, during their life, may have offended Our Lady. 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Tha Sacred Heart and the Holy Souls in Purgatory

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Since November is dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory, I am commending this Sacred Heart Friday post to them. Since, as you must know by now, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is partly about our making reparations for the sins of others, what better population to make reparations for than the Holy Souls in Purgatory? 

First of all, they will know about your efforts to aid them. It has been written many times in various books about them that their Guardian Angels inform them as to whom in Time is praying for them. Secondly, they will be grateful for your efforts and will return the favor when they are finally liberated and enter Heaven. Thirdly, in my opinion, combining the Sacred Heart devotion with a devotion to the Holy Souls renders the fruits of each more efficacious.

There is an old prayer from the Raccolta that goes like this:

Prayer to the Sacred Heart 

O MOST Sacred Heart of Jesus, pour down thy blessings abundantly upon thy Church, upon the Supreme Pontiff, and upon all the clergy; give perseverance to the just, convert sinners, enlighten unbelievers, bless our parents, friends, and benefactors, help the dying, free the souls in Purgatory, and extend over all hearts the sweet empire of thy love. Amen.

So, offer your prayers and sacrifices this month for the Holy Souls. The benefits of having grateful friends in high places can be very rewarding. 

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)