Category Archives: Destiny

Do not fret because of the wicked

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The excerpt for today is from the Office of the Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours for Tuesday of Holy Week and is Psalm 37:1-4:

Do not fret because of the wicked;
do not envy those who do evil:
for they wither quickly like grass
and fade like the green of the fields.

If you trust in the Lord and do good,
then you will live in the land and be secure.
If you find your delight in the Lord,
he will grant your heart’s desire.

Source: Divine Office.org

This, then, is envy and resentment. You stopped drinking and using and have received some of the promises and benefits from sobriety, but you haven’t gotten the hang of it entirely. And your ol’ drinkin’ buddies are still havin’ a grand time out there, celebrating and carousing, and maybe teasing you for being a quitter.  

Or, you’ve been clean and sober for a nice long time, and once in a while you just watch people enjoying the gentle conviviality of a few glasses of wine during a dinner or a beer while watching a game on TV. Or, have a crisis, binge all weekend, emerge all right and not touch the stuff for a year because they didn’t have to and don’t “need” it. 

While not implying that your ol’ drinkin’ buddies are wicked (it could be used as a metaphor) the idea that someone, somewhere, out there, is having a good time doing something that could kill you if you returned to doing it does burn. I mean, even I, at times, just wish that I could, you know, have just one little…

But no.

Those who continue drinking and using go on to their own reward, which could be nothing harmful at all if they employ moderation; or they could wind up in the rooms of AA next to you. I can see it now: you’re in some church basement awaiting the start of your Thursday Night 8PM Home Group and someone sits down right next to you; but you’re so engrossed in reading a post from SoberCatholic.com that you don’t notice it’s Norm/Norma with whom you used to go around town barhoppin’. They nudge you in the shoulder and you turn and see them pointing to my post on your phone and they say “Hey, Ron/Rhonda! I read that earlier today! Funny meeting you here!” A pause and then they say “Hey,” again pointing to the SoberCatholic.com page on your screen, “Do you have this? That guy wrote it.” And they pull out and well-worn copy of “The Sober Catholic Way.” You reply, “Yeah, I got that! It changed my life! I bought a boxful off of Amazon and put them in my parish’s reading room and Adoration Chapel!” And so you renew acquaintances.

Or, your reading on that same phone the obituaries and a familiar name shows up on your doomscrolling. “Died suddenly.” You know what that means. 

On the other hand, if you trust in the Lord and do good,
then you will live a decent life and be secure.
If you find your delight in the Lord,
he will grant your heart’s desire (continued sobriety.)

Please by my book! Link in the image (or click on this):
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Thank you!

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 Lord is my light and my salvation

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The Responsorial Psalm for the Mass of the Monday of Holy Week is from Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

whom should I fear?

The LORD is my life’s refuge;
 of whom should I be afraid?

When evildoers come at me
 to devour my flesh,

My foes and my enemies

themselves stumble and fall.



Though an army encamp against me,

my heart will not fear;


Though war be waged upon me,

even then will I trust. 



I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD

in the land of the living.


Wait for the LORD with courage;

be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.


Source:  USCCB

It may take a prolonged period of “spiritual progress” to reach the level of serenity and sustained courage the psalm reflects. But it is possible. In these times of global warfare, rising prices at home as well as growing political corruption (and indifference to it by the deluded,) we need to focus on the promises offered by this psalm. Read and reread it; perhaps mark it in your Catholic Bible and refer to it often “in these troubling times.”

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!!)

If you are a Simon of Cyrene…

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The Second Reading from the Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours for the Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent is from a homily by Saint Gregory Nazianzen, bishop:

If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up your cross and follow Christ. If you are crucified beside him like one of the thieves, now, like the good thief, acknowledge your God. For your sake, and because of your sin, Christ himself was regarded as a sinner; for his sake, therefore, you must cease to sin. Worship him who was hung on the cross because of you, even if you are hanging there yourself.

Courtesy: Divine Office.org

We are all Simon of Cyrene. We all are called to take up our Cross and follow Christ (Matt 16:24) Or, help Him carry His. (Colossians 1:24)

We have been crucified because of the sins of our addictions and through the process of recovery. This passage from St. Gregory Nazianzen is a call for us to acknowledge who is the source of our recovery and the new life in Christ we now have. And then what? We show Him gratitude: we worship Him and pay Him homage. Our sins don’t excuse us.

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!!)

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your  will

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The refrain from the Responsorial Psalm for the Mass on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is adapted from Psalm 40:8-9

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.

Courtesy: USCCB

If you are reading this blog, then I am assuming you have some degree of sobriety behind you. What have you done with it? If you are doing your best to lead a normal life, being a responsible family person (husband, father, wife, mother, sibling) or citizen (gainfully employed and such like) then that is great! But you can do more. if you are specifically reading this blog because you are Catholic, then perhaps you are seeking “what to do” about your Catholcism. It’s OK to “just be responsible.” Most people aren’t. But you can do so much more. God may be calling you to be a Christ-bearer to others, just like Mary!

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Here I am, Lord; I come to do your  will. Pray to the Holy Spirit for discernment in how to do that. If you need help, there’s my book, Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics. 

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.

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!!)

Lenten Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows: Day 5

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Day 5 (Sunday – Passion Sunday**)

The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus

The Crucifixion of the old self was wrought through pain and suffering; you tried to cling to the old crutches of alcohol or drugs to get you through life’s difficulties, but you know they are to be spurned. The new methodsare  of facing life directly instead of running away, taking personal responsibility instead of avoiding it, relying on God instead of your own mighty self-will; these are hard and the learning curve seems endless. But, the old self has died and a new one will soon be arising. 

What have you done with your new life? How does it compare to the old?

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**According to the pre-1970 Roman Calendar. Otherwise, it is the Fifth Sunday of Lent.

O thou Mother! fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with thine accord:
Make me feel as thou hast felt;
Make my soul to glow and meltWith the love of Christ my Lord.

(Stabat Mater)

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!!)

I will open your graves

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The excerpt from the First Reading for the Fifth Sunday of Lent is taken from Ezekiel 37:12  (I bet you thought I was gonna do the Gospel ‘cos it was on the rising of Lazarus. Gotcha!)

Thus says the Lord GOD: 
O my people, I will open your graves 
and have you rise from them, 
and bring you back to the land of Israel.

Courtesy: USCCB

“Graves” is a synonym for “being dead in your addction.” Your true self was dead; the person you were supposed to be was dead. God, however, by whatever means He used to bring you back from the dead and into your new life of sobriety, opened that grave and bid you to rise up from out of it. And furthermore, if you are a sober Catholic who returned to the Church/or converted because of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit within you was to seek out the Church, then you have been brought back to the ‘land of Israel,’ that is, the Mystical Body of Christ as the new Israel (the old one having rejected Christ as the Messiah.)

Now that you are dwelling in the Land of Israel, that is, the Catholic Church, make use of milk and honey of the sacraments: especially the Eucharist and Confession. And bring others to that Land.

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!!)

Many are the troubles of the just

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This excerpt from the Responsorial Psalm for the Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent is from Psalm 34:19-20;

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him.

Courtesy:  USCCB

Alcohol and addiction have broken you down; you are at your bottom: that place where you know that if you continue to drink it will kill you, but you know that if you stop drinking, the difficulty in coping without your crutch may only make you wish for death.

In looking at those options, you decide to choose the latter as that has some hope in it; hope for some kind of life.

At this time in your life, you were crushed in spirit; despairing of ever having a life that is respectable in some way. Perhaps not the one you dreamed of growing up, but a life that you’re not embarrassed about. 

Crushed in spirit, He reached down to you and saved your from the path you were on. You started a new life, perhaps with the aid of a recovery program, perhaps through a devotion to Matt Talbot or “just” using the Church and Her sacraments. Has life been all hummngbirds and marigolds? No, for many are the troubles of the just person, but out of them all the LORD delivers them. Just like He delivered you from the clutches of your addiction, He will deliver you from your troubles. Have faith (and patience) and make use of redemptive suffering: offer up your troubles and the pain they are causing you to the Lord for the redemption of not just yoiurself, but of others, too. 

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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!!)

For you my soul is thirsting

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The excerpt from the First Psalmody from the Morning Prayer for the Liturgy of the Hours for the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary is from Psalm 63:2;

O God, you are my God, for you I long;
for you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.

Courtesy: Divine Office,org:

THIS is the prayer we should have used when were were still enslaved by alcohol, when we desired nothing more that “just one more.” We should take our Catholic Bibles and mark the page this psalm is on, and whenever we “feel the urge” to “test the waters” again, Psalm 63:2 should set our soul aright and remind us of what should rightfully fill that “hole in the soul,” previously filled by the drink and the drug. 

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!!)

Come out, prisoners!

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The excerpt from the Reading for the Mass for Wednesday of the Fourth week of Lent is from Isaiah 49:9 and 15

Saying to the prisoners: Come out!

Courtesy😐 USCCB

This is God’s call to you still imprisoned by alcohol and drugs. 

Later on in the Reading, from Isaiah 49:15 God ensures you:

Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.

Come on out, recover your truer self, the person you were meant to be. Or, if you still feel the pull, recall “what it was like.” Your worst day in recovery is better than the best day you had drunk.

SoberCatholic offers three tools to help:

The Sober Catholic Way  helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety. Drawn from nearly two decades of blogging at SoberCatholic.com, “The Sober Catholic Way” shows the importance of the sacraments, the Bible, the Catechism and other books. It continues on with the various ways one can “live” out Catholicism by nurturing devotions to the Sacred Heart, Blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints. All of these contribute to sobriety as well as one’s spiritual progression!

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Discover the importance of the Real Presence, the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, St. Joseph, St. Therese (the “Little Flower”) and Matt Talbot. You’ll get ideas on how to apply the Beatitudes, the Divine Mercy Message, as well as learning about the Apparitions of Our Lady at Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima and how they can guide one’s life.

“The Sober Catholic Way” is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. This book does not guarantee anything, but doing these things have helped the author keep his sobriety intact since May 22, 2002. Will he ever drink again? Quite unlikely, but the tools to help recover from a relapse are in every chapter! The love and mercy of God is everlasting and endless!

Available here:  The Sober Catholic Way

Next up: and this is especially good for Lent, is “The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics,” which is a book that is rooted in an ancient Catholic devotion. It is intended to assist Catholics and other Christians find deeper meaning in their struggles with alcoholism, by connecting the oftentimes hard road of sobriety with Jesus’ suffering road to His Crucifixion. The reader sees that their old alcoholic ‘self’ is being led to the Cross and the joy of eventual resurrection of a new sober self can follow. Whether they are still drinking and struggling, or have been sober for many years and still have difficulties coping with sobriety, this book should help readers maintain that sobriety.

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Available through links found here: “The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics”

Lastly is: “The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts,” which helps people to reflect on their recovery and relationships with others, and ultimately with Jesus Himself. Whether people are still struggling with their addictions, or have been clean and sober for a few weeks, months, or years, the reflections will lead them to meditate on the spiritual growth they have achieved so far.

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The book takes a time-honored prayer and brings it into a useful format for people to pause and reflect on their recovery, their relationships with others, and ultimately with Jesus Himself. Whether people are still struggling with their addictions, or have been clean and sober for a few weeks or months, or many years, the reflections for each Mystery of the Rosary will help them meditate on the spiritual growth they have achieved so far. Over the years, their thoughts on each meditation may change, depending on “where they’re at” in their recovery journey.

Available through links found here: “The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts”

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 past shall not be remembered

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The Reading from the Mass for the Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent comes from Isaiah 65:17-21; although I only excerpted this part:

The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Courtesy:  USCCB

This chapter of Isaiah deals with God’s judgement and salvation for His people. I love this particular line because of the obvious: our sins and the stupid, embarrassing things we’ve all done are wiped clean; we will not be tormented by any memory of them. Makes you consider that the suffering we endure until our (hopeful) entrance into Heaven is worth the while. (If that’s not enough encouragement, then consider that many spiritual writers think that our sins follow us into Hell; there we will be perpetually tormented by what we’ve done.)

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!!)