Blog redesign

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Paul

In case any reader visits this blog today and perhaps the next few days, you might see a few changes as I am experimenting with changing the layout and template. Blogger introduced a new set of templates and customization tools and FINALLY this blog will get 2 sidebars! As a result of this I shall be reorganizing things that currently exist on the blog, and then since having 2 sidebars will permit me to add new stuff without clogging up the works, I may add stuff I’ve been wanting to. Info in next paragraph, for readers who have a blog on Blogger and who might want to take advantage of this.

Blogger in Draft: The Blogger Template Designer

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!!)

Divine Mercy

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Paul

Off and on during the past year or so I had been considering beginning another blogging venture writing about Divine Mercy at work in my life and in the world about me. I would post personal observations and excerpts from St. Faustina’s Diary with meditations in addition to examples of Divine Mercy in the Bible. I was also going to write about the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.

I am not going to do that as I am afraid that I will be spreading myself too thin. Also, much of what I would be writing can be applied to this blog, as recovery from addictions is most definitely an example of Divine Mercy, as well as my personal response to its workings in my soul. And so I will be doing that, writing about Divine Mercy, especially during Lent as the Feast of Divine Mercy is the Sunday after Easter.

If you do not know what I am talking about or why I capitalize “Divine Mercy”, please check out the links under the sidebar header under… “Divine Mercy”.

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!!)

How often do you pray and go to Church? Part 5 (Conclusion)

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Paul

In the previous four posts of this series I wrote about the things in the Catholic Faith that a Catholic can use to live a life that could be free of alcohol and drugs.

“Catholic” means universal. A catholic life derived from the Catholic Faith would mean using all of the resources of the Faith in guiding and ordering a life. This would include using it in your struggle to stay clean and sober. It would mean that Catholic Christianity molds and guides your thoughts and actions, and what strengthens you to get through each day. Everything that I mentioned in the previous 4 posts can help guide or order your day. Just as alcohol and drugs were used “back in the day” to get through things and how the addiction was the source and summit of life, so too can Catholicism be the new priority in life. And a free and liberated life, at that.

Here is a sample day (obviously a rough sketch of a possible Catholic life. But the notion is there. Some variant is possible for everyone):

You awaken. Instead of staring at the ceiling or wall resentful at having survived the night, or trying to remember what happened the last time you saw the day, you are pretty well refreshed from a good sleep. You thank the Lord for a good night, and seek His guidance for the day.

“Lord, not my will, but Yours be done.”

(Your morning routine is set, whatever it is concerning breakfast and morning beverage.) But now it is time to devote to God. You pray a Morning Offering and a few other set prayers, then reach for the Bible and start your daily lectio divina. This spiritual meditative exercise fortifies you, as the Word of God jump starts your mind. As like your first few daily shots of alcohol set a fire to you after your first waking moments back then, now it is Scripture that gives you a focus.

This meditation completed, your get your Divine Office and pray the first section, the “Office of Readings.”

You get ready for the day, and take your Breviary with you (either the book or your cell if it is on your mobile 🙂 ) You head for Daily Mass en route to work. Prior to Mass, while sitting in Church, you read the Morning Prayer section of the Breviary. Usually there may be a connection to the Daily Mass readings.

Mass begins… you listen intently to the prayers and responses and the Readings, and you do not recite things, you pray them. You understand the Mass. Jesus is here.

Off to work, the Lord still within you as you had received Communion. Your commute is long enough so that you have enough time to pray the Rosary while driving (or sitting in public transit.) You prefer this to the raucous noise of morning radio. You don’t want the world to intrude, just yet. You let your mind go over the Mysteries of the day for the Rosary, and you think about their meaning. You get to work. You go about your morning.

Lunchtime. Time for Daytime Prayer. You turn to the prayers for mid-day and read them in the Breviary. Perhaps you also read the Breviary during a morning break, or maybe just a selection from a pocket New Testament. Nevertheless, you now punctuate your workday with Scripture and prayer, rather than swigs from a concealed bottle containing vodka (vodka because it is “odorless and leaves no taste on your breath.” Yeah, right.) Prayer and the Word of God gives you the strength and courage to make it through work.

Time to leave, you go home. Dinner, and now Evening Prayer from the Breviary. The evening is ahead of you. Drinking is not on the agenda, the thought hasn’t even crossed your mind.

Anyway, as you prepare for bed, you review the day, as you will be doing an examination of conscience with the Breviary’s “Night Prayer.” You review and recall any sins of commission and omission.

Night Prayer said, you go to sleep.

“Into Your hands, Father, I commend my spirit.”

The point of this series and its Conclusion is to underscore that as much as one drank in the past, there is a prayerful and Scriptural counterpoint to that life. Catholic beliefs and religious practices, from Mass attendance to prayer to devotions such as the Rosary, can provide a consummate life that envelopes you. Your mind will be re-programmed to not require a drink to cope. While a 12 Step or some other recovery program can provide some tools to help you cope, these sometimes run the danger of preventing you from seeking the fullness of the Faith that Jesus established in Earth. They may be the “easier, softer way,” but as Jesus said the road to Heaven passes through the narrow gate. Things that distract you, that deflect your eyes from the prize, should be discarded or put into their proper place. Heaven is your goal on the “Road of Happy Destiny.” Scriptural passages studies and learned, examples from the lives of the Saints can give you the boost and support needed to counter the dark ways of the world, or at least assist you in maintaining a healthy balance and perspective.

Adding the study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (“CCC”), and there is an excellent resource to “validate” your choices. I never even mentioned the CCC in this series, but it is the best companion to the Bible out there. Full of objective truth gleaned from Scripture and the writings of the Popes and Saints, the CCC helps “fortify” you in ways few things can, next to the Bible.

They can give you the tools needed for you to you react differently to things, whereas in the past you relied on alcohol, and now perhaps on meeting dependency and slogans, Scriptural passages and the CCC can be the “ammunition” to fire back at the stuff life throws at you.

Lessons learned from studying Truth.

This is freedom, this is liberation. Instead of being a slave to alcohol and drugs, you are your own person. True freedom isn’t in doing whatever you want, with little thought to the consequences to yourself or to others. True freedom lies in being the best person that you can be, the person God intended you to be. Your true self. That is what you should Recover.

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!!)

How often do you pray and go to Church? Part 4

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Paul

In Pa rt 3 of this series I discussed the Breviary and the Rosary. Now… the Bible!

The Bible is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word made human. The Bible is Jesus and Jesus is the Bible. The Old Testament pointed the way to Jesus, the New Testament revealed Him. To not study the Bible is to not study Jesus. St. Jerome, the Early Church Father who translated the Bible into Latin from the original Greek and Hebrew stated that “Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ.”

In the first 4 centuries of Christianity, the Bishops of the Western and Eastern branches of the Catholic Church put the Bible together. The Bible is a Catholic document.

There is a way to read the Bible that is enriching and if successful (meaning you are patient, persistent and persevering) will bring you much closer to God that most other forms of prayer. I have not been able to master it yet despite trying a few times. This method of reading the Bible is called “Lectio Divina.” It is a slow, prayerful, meditative reading of Sacred Scripture in which the Bible itself pulls you along, and thus you “hear” the Word of God speak to you, as in a whisper to your soul.

This is a classic online explanation/how-to of lectio divina:

Introduction to Lectio Divina

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!!)

How often do you pray and go to Church? Part 3

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Paul

Continuing on from Part 2 on living a Catholic life through prayer and the Mass:

Beneath the Mass in importance is the “Liturgy of the Hours”, also known as the “Divine Office” or “Breviary.”

Depending upon the version used, it is said either 2-3 times a day for non-religious (people who aren’t priests, nuns, monks, etc) or up to seven times for the latter. It sanctifies (makes holy) the day through prayer. It consists mainly of Psalms and Canticles from the Bible, as well as short excerpts from Old and New Testament readings.

In saying the Divine Office you establish a prayerful rhythm to the day, always keeping in mind a spiritual and holy connection to God and also with all others who pray this. This helps you maintain a sense of perspective and balance during the day, keeping you from completely getting inundated with worldly nonsense.

So, how often did you drink back in the day? Morning, noon, and night? A few shots in the morning to fortify you? Maybe a few more throughout to keep you going? A few more to get you to sleep? The Divine Office has prayers for when you rise, another set to mark the beginning of the day, more for mid-morning, mid-day, the afternoon, nightfall and bedtime. Sounds like an old drinking schedule?

The printed form of the Office comes in 2 versions, a one volume book and four volume set. A one volume version titled “Christian Prayer” costs around $29-39 USD. This abbreviated version is intended for non-religious. (There is another one volume version titled “Benedictine Daily Prayer.” Costs somewhat more.) The “official” four volume set (for religious) costs about $129-149 USD. It is titled “The Liturgy of the Hours.” If either cost is prohibitive there are always online versions:

Universalis: “This is the link that is at the top of this blog, above the posts.”

Divine Office – Liturgy of the Hours – Breviary : “free audio MP3 and podcasts.”

Roman Breviary: “online and also in mobile format.”

Liturgy of the Hours Apostolate: “PDF and mobile formats.”

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!!)

How often do you pray and go to Church? Part 2

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Paul

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 of this post. Today I hope to conclude this topic.

I concluded yesterday’s post with this question: “Now I ask the question, or rather reframe the question in the title, ‘How do you live the life of the Church?’

The life of the Church is marked by prayer and the liturgy. The Sacraments are Her lifeblood. How often do you explore and partake of them?”

The liturgy permeates the year. The Church has her own calendar, with its own seasons. These are independent of the physical seasons, perhaps symbolizing the eternal nature of the Church and how it sits astride creation. The Heavens and the Earth will pass away, but never the Church.

The Mass is the highest form of prayer on Earth. Nothing surpasses it. Jesus established it during the Last Supper. In fact the Mass is the presentation again of the Last Supper and the continuation of Christ’s suffering and death on Calvary. Note that this is NOT a re-sacrifice, but a continuation – across space and time. If you are at a Catholic Mass, you are as if you are at the Last Supper or at the foot of the Cross.

Most Catholic parishes offer Mass daily, or at least a number of times during the week. If due to work obligations one is unable to attend, Mass is online. But you can attend a Catholic Mass more that just once a week on Sundays. If you participate in 12 Step meetings, how often do you go to them? Well, then you can attend a Mass perhaps as often. If it is boring to you, or you get nothing out of it, what do you know about the Mass apart from what I said earlier? Pray the Mass, dwell on its meaning. Worth a lot more than a 12 Step meeting.

Online Masses:

EWTN Television Schedules

Via EWTN.

CatholicTV Schedule

Via CatholicTV.

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!!)

How often do you pray and go to Church? Part 1

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Paul

Quite often in the 12 Step meetings that I attended years ago some newcomer would ask the question as to how many meetings they should attend. Some old timer would ask:

“Well, how often did you drink?”

The newcomer responded, “Every day.”

The oldster replied, “Then go to meetings every day. If you drank every day, then you can go to meetings every day.”

The idea is that as often as you flooded your mind with alcoholic and addictive thoughts, you can now flood your mind with 12 Step principles and meeting discussions and fellowship. As much time as you gave your drinking, you can give to your recovery.

OK, if you read this blog often enough and perhaps are even a member of Catholic Recovery, you somehow arrived at the notion that your Catholic Faith may have some hand in keeping you sober and clean. But can it provide the all the tools necessary to keep you sober?

For the intentions of this post, and follow-ups, I won’t touch upon the nature of the Church Jesus founded, nor any theology or other “high concepts.” Just the bare bones basics of the possibility that your life is not what it could be. There’s something missing. Sure, you attend your regular AA meetings, you talk to your sponsor, (or maybe are one yourself). You go to Sunday Mass and are generally “Catholic”. But there’s a hole and an emptiness. You feel that your life as you’re living it is something less than it can be.

So, like the title of this post suggests, “How often do you pray and go to Church?” It isn’t as easy a question as you might think. This is particularly true if your Catholic education stopped when you received the Sacrament of Reconciliation or graduated from high school. Basically, teenage years. Your concept of God probably stopped developing at that point. You figure that putting your hour of Church in once a week (or so), praying to Jesus or maybe Mary when you’re in a jam, is enough. But now you’re sensing that isn’t quite true.

Now I ask the question, or rather reframe the question in the title, “How do you live the life of the Church?”

The life of the Church is marked by prayer and the liturgy. The Sacraments are Her lifeblood. How often do you explore and partake of them?

I will continue this in Part 2.

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!!)