Category Archives: Reversion

Getting stuck in the past

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There is an excellent article today from Spirit Daily on repentance and not dwelling on the past once you’ve gotten past it.

(Via Spirit Daily.)

Try reading it, you’ll find it useful if you’re a frequent user of Confession and still dwell on your past sins.

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 Second Step: Coming to Believe

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The Second Step of 12 Step recovery movements is:

“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

“Came to believe” implies a process in which you once didn’t believe, but eventually adopted a belief.

This is known as conversion. “Recovery” is a distinct form of conversion, as you undergo a process in which you gradually change from the person that you were to a person that you are now by virtue of altering how you react to things and seeking other means of fulfilling and satisfying the needs of your soul. This Step is the beginning of a conversion process.

Very rarely can anyone become sober by themselves. Many people can stop drinking on their own, but do not replace alcohol as a coping mechanism with anything else. Although not drinking, their sobriety isn’t necessarily a healthy or “sane” one. For a restoration of sanity, or at least fairly normal behavior, we must resort to a “Power greater than ourselves.” This means God, but to avoid the appearance of forcing a particular concept of God upon anyone, a benignly sounding “Higher Power” of your own conception is named.

Therefore, this Step is about adopting a new frame of mind in which you admit to the fact that you need special help to become sober and sane. Just as the result of the First Step was an admission of personal weakness, now you recognize that something else has to come in and fill the void left by your corrupted will.

From the Gospel according to Mark: Mark 9:23-24: “Jesus said to him,’‘If you can!‘ Everything is possible to one who has faith.’

Then the boy’s father cried out, ‘I do believe, help my unbelief!‘”

(Via USCCB.)

Ask the Lord to help your unbelief, if you feel that your Faith isn’t strong enough to carry you forward.

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!!)

Return to me with your whole heart

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Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The First Reading from today’s Mass is from the Prophecy of Joel:

Joel 2:12-18: “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.

Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, ‘Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?”

Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.”

(Via USCCB.)

Lent is a time of repentance and of preparation for the Lord’s suffering, death and resurrection. These are the things that we are expected to believe in as Catholic Christians and apply to our own lives. We accept all suffering that comes into our lives a sign our willingness to “be like Christ” who suffered for us. We should die to the world and reject its transitory and false teachings and values. And if we do these things, we will at the end of the world be resurrected and live forever with God in Heaven.

Lent foreshadows this and is the time we spend in contemplative reflection, examining our consciences and ridding ourselves of faults and defects that separate us from God. It is one of my favorite times of the year as it was probably the first season of the Church’s liturgical year that I started to closely identify Church spirituality with the 12 Steps of AA. A number of AA’s Steps deal with “examination of conscience” and ridding oneself of “character defects.” Lent is a great time to apply this mix of Catholic spirituality and 12 Step practice.

So, starting today, “rend your hearts”, and “fast” from worldly attractions and “mourn and weep” over past separation from God that these attractions have caused. God is “gracious and merciful” and will take “pity on His people”, which is us, His adopted children.

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 Prodigal Catholic

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There is a new blog you all might like to add to your reading list. Helen D, a member of Catholics in Recovery , is a revert to the Church and started The Prodigal Catholic recently.

It’s a great blog, full of love for the Church and her spirituality. Check it 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!!)

Be transformed by the renewal of your mind

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The Second Reading for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time is one of my favorites. The part italicized used to be in the header of this blog, and was the first Bible verse I memorized.

Romans 12:1-2: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect. “

(Via USCCB.)

I think that this is a verse that should be particularly inspiring and thus important to anyone in recovery. For in recovery we are transforming ourselves, we are coming out of addictive behavior and need to renew. In our drinking and drugging days we reacted to things by succumbing to our addictive crutch. It helped us to a point. But now that we are free of our addiction we need to retrain ourselves to react to things differently. We teach ourselves how to discover and follow God’s will.

We also do not, and should not, do things in conformity to the ways of the world. The world is addictive, it wants us to be hooked into its morals and its ways of doing things. It wants us to be drunk on its sensory addictions. To subscribe to its ways means we turn ourselves away from God. The world’s ways are not His. We are Christian, perhaps Catholic, and our ways should never be in conformity to the world’s. All those who think that the various traditional Christian denominations and the Catholic Church should “modernize” and become more “relevant” to the world’s ways have it backward. The world does not transform Christianity, Christianity is to transform the world.

And so it is with us. We seek, by the renewal of our minds through following Jesus Christ, to do things that are good and pleasing to God, realizing as Jeremiah did in today’s First Reading that it is not an easy path. It is one prone to hardship.

But it is something to be done if we are to be considered His followers and His adopted children.

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!!)

New wineskins

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An excerpt from today’s Gospel of Luke is a parable I like, as it symbolizes our changes in a way almost designed to catch an alcoholic’s attention:

Luke 5:36-39;
And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
(And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.'”

The parallels are clear as relevant to the focus of this blog : the old cloak and old wineskins are our old selves in our practicing alcoholic lives. The new patch and new wine is our new way of living, through our Catholic Faith and spirituality along with whatever recovery program we work.

The new cloak and new wineskin are our new selves, having received the new patch and new wine in our recovery and conversion/reversion to the Church.

The new message will not fit in with the old self. The new self must change to accommodate the new message. You have to be humble, get ourself out of the way, and become teachable. You’re not going to learn anything by clinging to old ways with their old failures.

I’ve written about this before , although the earlier post used the Gospel according to Mark. Check that out, too.

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!!)

Division

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You are embarking upon a new way of life. You are sober and have left the bars or solitary drinking behind you, and are also living (or learning to live) a Catholic life.

Some people aren’t going to like that.

A lot of people have this New Age-ish 1960’s or 1970’s touchy-feely view of Jesus as just this swell long-haired freaky hippie dude who just wants people to get along and be nice.

Not quite.

From the Gospel of the Mass on the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C):

Luke 12:49-53

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Like I said, not quite the peace-and-love flower handing out “Can’t we all just get along”, acoustic guitar strumming, (OK, Paulcoholic, we get the idea.) guy of pop culture derivation.

Jesus was a radical who knew that commitment to His teachings and living them out would be a sacrifice. Not everyone would go along with your conversion or reversion to the Catholic Christian life. Any convert or revert will attest to the fact that acceptance of Catholic Christian living will be met with less-than-enthusiastic embracing by other members of their family, friends and acquaintances.

Some people will reject you for your new way of life. As is heard quite often in the meeting rooms of 12-Step groups, sometimes people may need to be left behind if they are a hindrance or obstacle to your survival.

Even if they accept your sobriety, they may draw the line at your Catholicism. So you may feel compelled to quit you new-found Catholic Faith and instead pick a less radical way. Just keep to 12-Step meetings or a less demanding Christian denomination.

OK, fine, do that. But the risk to your soul is not worth the gamble of picking the easier, softer way of 12-Step meetings or a different denomination. Only the Catholic Church contains the fullness of the Gospel and Apostolic teachings from Sacred Scripture. Pick pretty much any post in the “Church” label in the sidebar and there will be something written about that.

Do not expect the easy path. It will be difficult and you will lose people. But consider the probability that the people who oppose your new way of living are looking out for their own self-interest. They may resent your change simply because it reminds them they may have to, as well. Or you commitment to a radical new way of living is incomprehensible to them.

Be that as it may, pray for them, and if needed, let them go.

For an explanation as to why you’re reading this on a post date of “Thursday” instead of the expected “Sunday”, read this 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!!)

Liberty to the Captives

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The basic idea behind “Sober Catholic” is that you can use the religion and spirituality of Catholic Christianity to preserve and maintain your sobriety. Catholicism may not be your only tool, but should be the primary one.

The Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible contains many of the Hebrew prophecies concerning the Messiah (the anointed One of God), whom Christians regard as Jesus Christ.

The following excerpt from the First Reading of today’s Mass (which celebrated the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua) is from Isaiah :

Isaiah 61:1-2 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn…

This is Jesus. He had come, and is still present among us in the form of the Eucharist, and still guides us through His Church. Following Jesus and participating in the sacramental life of the Church (living out your baptismal promises and receiving Holy Communion and going to Confession) liberates you from the false and empty promises and lies of alcohol and the other seductions that the world pollutes you with. You were once a captive of alcohol. It seduced you into thinking that it was your best and only friend and only through drinking could you discover your true self.

After a fashion you discovered that this wasn’t the case. In the end you hit bottom and ended up sitting in front of a computer reading about how Catholicism can keep you sober. But like everything else about the Catholic Church, it merely points the way to Jesus. Committing to Him, as you’ve presumably have done (or are thinking of doing) liberates you from the need to subscribe to the world’s values and the world’s solutions. Jesus is “The Way, the Truth and the Life” and is the only true counter-cultural force that endures. By “counter-cultural” I mean that in being a Christian one operates in contradiction to the the preferred manner of the world. Your master reigns in Heaven, and is not subject to this world’s demands. And by following Him, neither are you.

Alcohol and its abuse is an aberration used by people who have an unfortunate misperception of the world. Feeling rejected or at odds with it, they turn to alcohol and suddenly feel accepted. Alcohol makes you feel as though you finally “fit in”. It’s a lie, of course. In the end you are nearly destroyed by the lie.

Follow Jesus. You were once captive, and now you are free. Study the Gospels and get radical about living. Study the Catholic Church’s teachings, and be lifted up. They are not designed to chain you by listing a series of “do’s and don’ts”. Taken with the proper perspective, they liberate you from the limitations of being merely human.

Faith endures. Truth liberates.

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!!)

Catholic Converts and VERT

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If you scroll down the sidebar and look at the “Bloggy Communities…” section you’ll notice that I’ve joined another community of Catholic blogs. Catholic Converts is a group of blogs created by, well… converts to the Catholic Faith.

They offer a great community to others who have “crossed the Tiber” and have “come home to Rome”, not to mention they have a great list of resources linked on the blog. I’m not a convert, just a person who strayed and came back (a revert) so that qualifies me as a “Friend of Catholic Converts”.

Check it out if you are a reader of Sober Catholic who may be dissatisfied with the depth (or lack of) spirituality you find in the rooms of your 12 Step Group or “non-denominational” Church and are considering conversion to the Catholic Church.

Catholic Converts serve as a great companion to VERT, another group of blogs run by converts and reverts to the Faith. I’ve mentioned VERT before, with the occasional homework assignments that Owen prompts his family of bloggers to write on a specific topic.

Happy surfing!

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!!)

"Remember me…"

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Luke 23:42-43

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.”

The person asking Jesus to remember him in Luke’s Passion Narrative from Palm Sunday is the so-called “Good Thief”, the criminal hanging on the cross next to Jesus, and being crucified for some crime he did commit. He believed in Jesus (how he arrived at his faith is never explained, but immaterial) and asked that Jesus remember him in the afterlife. Legend holds that his name was Dismas.

The word Luke used in his Gospel “anamnesis” for “memory” does not merely mean to recall something. It means to remember it so intimately that it becomes present to you, rergardless of the passage of time. Dismas was aking Jesus not to remember him fondly, after all, both were dying. He was asking Him to be saved, to bring him, Dismas the Thief, into Jesus’ heavenly kingdom.

The Church usually uses Dismas as an example of the mercy of God, and how it triumphs over the judgment of God. This relates to the recovering alcoholic is a great way. Dismas was a thief, and apparently lived his whole life as a thief. Yet despite that, he still asked Jesus to save him and Jesus did. Right there on the Cross, Jesus told Dismas that essentially he was going to Heaven after he died. Jesus granted a plenary indulgence to someone right then and there.

While you shouldn’t wait until you’re dying to convert or revert to the Faith, or to ask Jesus to save you (why gamble on eternity?) it does serve as a useful reminder that no matter how bad you have been in your alcoholism or addiction, you ask Jesus with faith for forgiveness and redemption, and He will give it to you. As a Catholic, you can get this in sacramental confession. No matter how bad your sins are, no matter how long you committed them, no matter how long its been since your last confession, they’ll be wiped clean off your soul and you will be new again. There is no sin so great that He cannot forgive. In fact, believing that your sins are so great that He cannot forgive them is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Your evil (or cumulative sinful acts) cannot be greater than God’s mercy.

Ask Jesus to “Remember you.” And then proceed to live out your new life. Go to confession.

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!!)