Category Archives: Meanderings

Calix Society of Tampa needs help

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I received an email from Bryan P. of the Calix Society of Tampa Bay. Bryan tells me that he founded the chapter about one year ago and membership is struggling to grow. If you live in the Tampa, Florida area and are interested in joining, contact info is available in the chapter’s website: Calix Society of Tampa. If you are a Calix Society member elsewhere, and can offer tips or suggestions on promoting a chapter, email Bryan.

If any readers of this blog also have their own blogs (AHEM: you know who you are!), and would like to promote Bryan’s efforts, go ahead and link away!

Bryan’s website contains a wealth of information on Calix. There are also Calix links in this blog’s sidebar. I shall add Bryan’s site in a bit.

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 general apology of sorts

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I feel the need to offer an apology for the lack of posting recently. My wife just told me that I apologize for “not blogging” too much. That’s possible. But perhaps my conscience is bothering me. Or maybe I’m just a melancholic moody alcoholic in recovery and those moods get the best of me. But, I have been very guilty over the past year or so of promising daily posting and coming up with various plans to get myself to do just that. I have not followed through by virtue of the fact that I have never posted daily apart from novenas or a special series on things.

A part of me says that I shouldn’t feel lousy about myself as I have been through a series of major life-changing events this past year, every one of which is usually at or near the top of lists that state: “Doing any one of these things runs the risks of relapse.” (Relocation, job-changing and marriage, all in one year!) But still, I was raised with the notion that if you say you’re going to do something, follow through and do it. The fact that I didn’t relapse and was never seriously tempted to do so is a testimony to my Faith and sobriety. Not a testimony to me, but to the tools at my disposal.

Nevertheless, my intentions have exceeded my ability to deliver. I suppose my eyeballs got too big at blogging possibilities and my grasp reached for too much and I should have toned down expectations and just delivered what I could when I was able.

At any rate, please take this apology as a sincere attempt to work through stuff and get back on a track of sorts. The situation announced in my “blog update-personal news” post is holding true. The office is getting organized.

Blogging, as I always state, will continue. Stopping is never an option.

Thanks for your patience.

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!!)

FYI: blog update-personal news

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This is just an FYI posting that may hopefully explain the frequency of blog postings from here on out.

There is going to be a shift in my priorities when I get behind the keyboard of my Mac and bang out words. Blogging is going to be secondary to my attempt to resurrect a fiction writing career.

I have always loved writing. Ever since I was a little human I enjoyed it and have wanted to write fiction for a living. I have never been successful and probably own the world’s largest collection of excuses for not succeeding (with misplaced priorities probably first on the list with alcoholism a very close second) but that is no excuse for giving up or not continuing to try.

I have exhumed from some boxes all the literary trash of 3 decades of attempts and shall start to piece together some semblance of organization and will proceed from there with whatever story nuggets that suggest themselves as viable ideas. I actually have a clue as to what I shall start with, a novel I started after I sobered up in 2002. (Don’t ask about the plot.) Even then I thought that writing was one of the things I was going to “recover” in my sobriety. But I still want to review the whole melange of detritus.

What does this mean for my three blogs? Nothing as I doubt that anyone would actually notice anything different in posting frequency. Sober Catholic will still average 15-20 posts a month like it already does, Trudging Paulcoholic’s Road will hopefully get to 15-20 posts a month and The Four Last Things will continue to be sporadic. The only difference is that I will no longer promise stuff like I occasionally do about getting to posting on a daily basis. I will probably blog on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, which are my days off, and Sunday mornings (I now go to the Saturday Vigil Mass.) I will focus on fiction on a daily basis, either actual writing or research.

Rest assured, all three blogs will continue, as will the Catholics in Recovery social network. Blogging has actually been quite responsible for whetting my appetite for writing. Life is settling out for me from a happily tumultuous year (relocation, new job and then another one when I quit that one, a new wife that I’m keeping) and I’m thinking that I should get serious about some central dream that I’ve held for as long as I can remember.

Perhaps I’m “seasoned” enough and have “lived enough” so that fiction writing is possible. I don’t know. At any rate, that’s where I am now and plan on doing.

Continue to read the blogs, they’ll still continue on. Join Catholics in Recovery, we can use you there if you’re not already a member!

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!!)

Catholicism at and beyond the grave

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I have another blog entitled: The Four Last Things. Its focus is on the “four last things” that are not avoidable by anyone: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.

I established it in January 2008 because I have an interest in death and dying. Various posts on the blog explain about that. Anyway, I am posting this to announce that this is November, a month devoted to the dead (saints in Heaven and the Suffering Souls in Purgatory), and as a result that is a “big deal” at The Four Last Things.

If you are interested in things beyond what you normally expect at a Catholic blog, even a niche one like mine, you may want to periodically check in at my “death blog.”

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!!)

Young man, I tell you, arise

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The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass (Wednesday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time) has been special for me these past few years.

Luke 7:11-17: “Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.

As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her,‘Do not weep.’

He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you, arise!’

The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, ‘A great prophet has arisen in our midst,’ and ‘God has visited his people.’

This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region. “

(Via USCCB.)

I was not the only son of my mother, but I was her youngest and I had lived with her for her last 10 years on Earth. For her last 18 months I was her caregiver of sorts.

I discovered sobriety just in time to be useful to her in her final years. The thought of my still being addicted to the bottle at any time during her last couple of years scares me to this day, I am very grateful to God that He pulled me away from the bottle in plenty of time for Mom to see me sober and responsible enough to care for her. This is why I have a special connection to this Gospel passage. I was dead, but with God’s graces through AA and then the Catholic Church I arose from the death of alcoholism and I became sober and a strong Catholic.

Today I was reflecting on her death and the hellish period that followed for me. I remember walking around the streets of my hometown on the day she died muttering and mumbling to myself about how alone I was. This was in between tears. I was convinced that I was alone and that I would forever be alone. I do not believe that I had ever felt this way, this mind-numbing, marrow-curdling feelings of aloneness and abandonment.

I wanted to die. I wasn’t suicidal, but I had prayed to God that He would take me as I was convinced that my mission on Earth was over. I was born late in Mom’s life (just after her 47th birthday) and things seemed geared for me to be useful to Mom at various points in her life, especially after Dad died in 1995 and as I stated above, just before her own death in 2005. I hadn’t amounted to much of anything through 2005, at least by most people’s standards.

I am glad that God didn’t agree with me. I am glad because I have discovered relative security and deep love in my life. My faith in God’s Divine Providence and reliance on His Catholic Church pulled me through and gave me a new meaning in a life that I wouldn’t have scripted, but am happy with nonetheless. I am still puzzled by many things, but life isn’t really a problem to be solved, but a mystery to unravel.

I had arisen, like the young man of Nain.

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!!)

Crossing the Goal

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Note: cross-posted from Trudging Paulcoholic’s Road .

I just watched the encore broadcast of “Crossing the Goal”, a new EWTN program on Christian living and spirituality for men (Although probably women can benefit from it, especially if they have a man in their lives that they love and care about).

I make mention of it here as a recovered alcoholic I found many aspects of my life not fully developed and ripe for improvement, not the least of which was how to live as a man. In my spiritual progression out from alcoholism, I discovered that to be fully recovered (or on the path to being that) I had to rediscover what it means to be a man, not by today’s sexually overcharged, confused or ambiguous standards, but how to live as a virtuous and sober Catholic Christian man. It was the only way I felt that I could keep the drink at bay. There have been various aids along the way, one of which is the book entitled Spiritual Workout of a Former Saint (Via Our Sunday Visitor.) by former NFL All-Pro and New Orleans Saints coach Danny Abramowicz. Coach Abramowicz is a co-host of the show, and one reason why I tuned into it.

Today’s episode was on “Courage” and I won’t do the program justice by going into what they discussed, but it set the tone for the series as a weekly guide on how to find your true calling in life and live up to your potential. It also seems to serve as an antidote to the idea that religion and spirituality is the territory of women (how many men are there at Mass as opposed to women, at least in Western countries? Same for parish organizations? Not complaining nor judging female involvement in the Church, but it does seem that men have ceded activity in the Church to women. For the Church to be healthy, men need to take a greater, cooperative role.)

The website of the show is Crossing the Goal , and it contains the show’s airdates. It is repeated several times during the week. I highly recommend that you watch. (I don’t have cable nor satellite TV, I was able to watch it on my Mac using QuickTime.)

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!!)

Super Commenter Award!

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Yours truly, Paulcoholic, has received a blogging award! I am trying to be humble as this has never happened before, which isn’t too shocking as seeing that Sober Catholic is a niche blog that doesn’t fit too well into many of the categories that the big annual blogging awards have. And in the things that I’m told I’m good at, like writing, I’m easily outdone by the usual winners, so it’s all good.

Awards are all politics, anyway. LOL LOL LOL!!!

Anyway, the award is this:

super_commentator.jpg

Adrienne over at Adrienne’s Catholic Corner bestowed this award upon me, for which I am truly grateful.

I now have to award this to other bloggers. It was supposed to be 7, but Adrienne amended the rules. Praise her!

So, this goes to the other Catholic recovery (or related) bloggers known to me, plus 2 special ones. They now have to pass it on to other bloggers. “Paulcoholic’s Codicil to Adrienne’s Amendment of the Super-Commenter Award Rules” states that you needn’t pass it along right away. No time limit, this isn’t a seasonal award.

In no particular order:

Ken J over at We Are Not Saints…YET! is also a valued member of Catholics in Recovery .

Scott at Sober Nuggets , where he provides: ..simply a space for recovering alcoholics and addicts to share the joys, struggles and realities of a sober life. .

Fallen Sparrow over at, well, Fallen Sparrow . He just discovered me last week, and I was as pleased as he was to discover another Catholic blogger that writes about alcoholism and recovery.

Penitent Jeff over at Conversion for Life | A Catholic Journey. While not a blog focusing on recovery, he does write about issues and topics that are of great relevance to anyone in sobriety, or for that matter, anyone who wishes to grow in their Catholic Faith.

Jackie over at catholicmomof10revisited . She is a good read. Prolific, too! (And I’m not referring to her 10 kids!!!)

Terry of Abbey-Roads and Abbey-Roads2 . Not a recovery blogger, but a fine Catholic blogger. Were it not for my marital vocation, his might have been an interesting path to consider. (Monastic life, committed celibacy and art and writing.) He links to me, and admired my series on St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility .

Now, for the special ones. Awards can be bribery, at least I say they can. For these two, it’s to get them to blog more:

Beniamino Il Cacciatore Umile better known to me and 4marks friends as “Colorado Ben” or, the “Mountain Monk”. If his blog gets to be as spiritual and profound as his posts in the 4marks fora were (especially in “The Cave”), then he’d be a grand member in the Catholic blogosphere. C’mon, dude, blog!!! Oh, yeah, he blogs at: Leidolfr, the Lead Wolf .

And last, and most definitely not least, this award goes to Rose, my lovely wife.

She blogs at God’s Merciful Love, a blog about the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. It also showcases her photography, namely artistic impressions of Catholic themes. God’s Merciful Love is a companion site to God’s Merciful Love social network . (Rose is contemplating a name change for her blog.) The social network is a site we established to help get Catholics together to discuss the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. We promise “Faith-filled Fellowship & Fun!”

This was fun. My first intentionally silly post.

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!!)

Seven Deadly Sins

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Penitent Jeff over at Conversion for Life | A Catholic Journey has started writing a series of posts on the Seven Deadly Sins.

Check him out.

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 many ways of God's healing gifts

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The following is a link to an article on being open to the varied and diverse ways that God can heal you. Please read and consider how or if it can be relevant to your life.

Spirit Daily – Daily spiritual news from around the world: “GOD IS A GOD OF SURPRISE AND HAS SUCH IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU HEAL INSIDE AND LOVE”

(Via Spirit Daily.)

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!!)

Catholics in Recovery update

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Sober Catholic’s companion (sort of) website, Catholics in Recovery has been relatively busy lately.

It has grown slightly, up to 21 members (look out Facebook!!!!) and forum activity has picked up with some new members posting about their experiences and situations.

It has finally started to become what I was hoping it would be, a place for ex-drunks and addicts to get together and share in a Catholic environment.

If you are a regular or semi-regular (or just plain new) reader of Sober Catholic, please check out Catholics in Recovery . We could use you.

We’re harmless.

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!!)