Category Archives: Social Media

Distractions and anxiety

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I noticed the other day that I haven’t blogged in over a month. This isn’t an apology nor an explanation, but just commentary about ‘distractions and anxiety.’

Lots of things have been going on in both the Church and the secular world. The Church passed through Advent, Christmas and on through Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. Typically I would have blogged a bit on any one or a number of them. Not that I am a liturgical blogger, but one of the themes of this blog is that the liturgical year provides a rhythm and framework about which to live out the year. Not that I am always diligent in blogging during key seasons; I’ve been absent before during them and can promise you that it will happen again! Nevertheless, this goes beyond just focusing on the season and trying to live out the spirituality and forgetting or neglecting to bring insights to readers.

I’ve been distracted and downright freakishly anxious about the state of the world. USA Presidential election results were being disputed; and it doesn’t matter who would have won, either side was prepared to claim the other ‘cheated’ if their side lost. Carry this forward to the threat of political violence by the loser to protest the ‘stolen election.’ The threat of a civil war appears real. And I don’t really think it’s over.

So, in observing current events I decided to withdraw and not blog. Sad to say I didn’t withdraw from social media. I would have retained a greater deal of sanity if I had.

The civil war is for now a ‘cold’ one. No fighting or anything like that. But ruptures in online friendships as people ‘take sides’ and cannot tolerate an opposing point of view or conviction. I confess to having ‘unfriended’ people; primarily because they crossed a line of toxicity and illogic.

Oh, well. I’m back to blogging. I hope your Advent went well, that you got to Confession and Mass and grew spiritually and religiously. Perhaps you reread old Sober Catholic posts on the season to compensate for my not having written anything new.

Lent is almost upon us and I hope to use that to boost my blogging. Later, people!

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 Recovery subreddit

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I love Reddit. Reddit is the self-described “front page of the Internet” and is the result of a massive grouping of forums, called ‘subreddits’ or just plain ‘subs,’ that are created by the online community. You name it, there’s a sub for it. Some are obviously more popular than others; one thing I love about Reddit is the vast array of diverse subs, including some obscure niche interests.

There are quite a lot of Catholic subreddits on there. One of the newest is the Catholic Recovery subreddit. Yes, you heard that right, there is an entire sub devoted for us Catholics recovering from something! Here is their Group description:

“For Roman or Eastern Catholics struggling with mental health issues mild or severe, trauma, addiction of any kind, loss/grief, depression, spiritual malady, sin, scrupulosity, et cetera. We recognize the importance of spiritual redemption in recovery, the incredible framework of the Catholic faith in healing, and the miraculous power of the Eucharist as a “divine medicine” of God. Many of us sometimes cannot share with our parish these topics due to common societal stigma, so here we are.”

The minute I found out about it, I joined so fast Einstein might have had to revise his theory of relativity, had he known. I do not have anything to do with the running of the sub, I’m just a grateful and happy member.

Reddit has ‘social networking” functions. Although you cannot ‘friend’ anyone, you can ‘follow’ them. My Reddit account is Paulcoholic on Reddit.

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!!)

On humbly submitting to Church authority on private revelations

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In a recent post, Plenary Indulgence for Cemetery Visits in November Extended, I mentioned something at the end about coping in these uncertain times (please note the bold italics:

“Hang tight, pray the Rosary daily and stick close to the Church. And by that I mean the Mass and Sacraments, your Catholic Bible, the Catechism (The ‘Roman Catechism’ of the Council of Trent and/or the 1994 Catechism of Pope St. John Paul II) and if you’re going the route of private revelations, educate yourself and please only place your faith in the approved ones. And have the humility to submit to Church authority in determining what is approved; your personal opinion on the private revelation should always be subject to the Church’s authority.“

I administer an unofficial Militia of the Immaculata Group on Facebook (there’s an interesting story about how I came to be in charge of it. Maybe I’ll tell it someday.) Recently I had to deal with a member of the Group who repeatedly posted links to a false and fraudulent private apparition that has become popular this past decade. I finally had to “get tough” and remove her from the Group because she refused to accept the Church’s decision that this particular revelation is false.

I am really getting tired of ostensibly ‘orthodox’ Catholics who think they are more knowledgeable than the Bishops and more pious than other faithful and defy the decisions of the Bishops on such matters. You are exhibiting pride and and are unaware that you are doing Satan’s work in undermining the Church. Sounds drastic? Yes, it is.

If a private revelation has not been approved, I strongly suggest that you do not invest much faith and emotion into it, lest the Church condemn it and you face a crisis of fidelity. Too many dissent or go schismatic when their favorite revelation is condemned; they regard the Church is ‘wrong’ and spare no few words of vitriol in being critical of the Church and how Her error is evidence of Satan’s influence. In doing so they basically have established their own magisterium (like anyone who thinks the Church is ‘wrong’ on matters of faith and morals) and go off and do their own thing.

Bad idea.

Our Lord and Saviour willingly submitted to the legal and authentic religious authorities of His day, and they condemned Him to death. He knew they were wrong, but did He use that as an excuse to rebel against their authority? No, and given that Jesus is God, He was the authority over them, but did He use that? No. He submitted and opened not His mouth.

The three little shepherd children of Fatima obeyed the Portuguese Church authorities when they were ordered to keep silent about what they were seeing in the Cova da Iria. Even though they knew the Bishop and priests were wrong, they obeyed.

St. Pio of Pietrelcina obeyed the Church authorities when they ordered him to stop public celebration of the Mass. He knew they were in error in telling him this, but he obeyed.

The Divine Mercy Message was suppressed for several decades, until there was evidence that Her initial decision was based on flawed translations of St. Faustina’s writings. The curators of the Divine Mercy message knew that Rome was wrong, nevertheless they obeyed.

There are probably other examples throughout Church history when she was wrong about some ongoing thing, but later rescinded the ban or prohibition when the truth comes out. And that is key: if something is True, it will eventually become known and the Church will acknowledge this.

If you honestly believe that whatever private revelation that you support is true, then there is no reason to defy the Church if she initially declares it to be false. Although I know of no private revelation where the Church reversed her decision on its veracity, nevertheless, in all humility if the Bishop or Rome itself declares it to be false, then accept that. Offer the pain up, if needed.

In light of the examples given above, do you think that you can defy the Church when Jesus Himself did not defy the Jewish authorities? Or the Fatima children? Or St. Padre Pio? Who are you to say that you can reserve such a right to yourself?

Such people need to be prayed for. I just walk away when I encounter them in social media forums; there rarely seems to be any point in arguing the Church’s decision. Their mind is made up and that’s that and any attempt to change their minds is met with stubborn, pride-filled resistance.

So ends this rant. You’re welcome!

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!!)

Updated contact info

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I have updated the “About me” page in the tabs above to reflect new email addresses. I am in the process of ‘de-googling’ and have resurrected a few old and venerable Yahoo (yes, Yahoo) email addresses. One of these days I will get around to (at long last!) having my mail program send/receive with my domain name addresses.

I have also added my social network accounts in case you want to connect with me on any of them. I am currently re-evaluating my social media activity. I have been a member of several ‘alternative to Facebook and Twitter’ social networks, but because they are essentially ghost towns I am deleting my accounts there. I just need to think about how much I really need one or two of them. I will keep Facebook and Twitter, along with LinkedIn and Pinterest, and obviously In The Rooms.

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!!)

Sober Catholic YouTube Channel (UPDATE)

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Just a quick post to let you know that I’ve just spent the last hour or so managing this blog’s YouTube Channel. All that is on there are subscriptions and playlists; I have no original videos uploaded. The main thing I did was to delete all playlists and subscriptions relating to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage as well as after all these years make my subscriptions “public.” All this time I thought people could see what I subscribed to; but alas, apparently not. Oh, well. No one told me after prior posts on the channel which included references to the subscriptions. There’s a bunch of subscriptions to various addiction recovery resources including porn. The Camino videos and subscriptions were due to my obsession with the film The Way by Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen. I thought that the pilgrimage was a nice metaphor for recovery; however as I viewed the channel Camino videos seemed to dominate the appearance and so I thought a change was in order, even though it might not have mattered given my ignorance regarding privacy settings.

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!!)

Manifesto of Faith

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A few days ago on Facebook a good friend posted something about a “Manifesto of Faith” in reply to something I had posted. It sounded interesting and so I looked it up. To quote from the website:

“The “Manifesto of Faith” was published by Gerhard Cardinal Müller in February 2019. Cardinal Müller was the Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith from 2011-2017. He issued the document in response to requests from clerics and lay people who asked him to provide guidance for the Church in this time of confusion. The original document is provided below in 6 different languages. We encourage people to read and reflect upon Cardinal Müller’s words, especially his references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

I watched the video, it’s about 22 minutes long. It’s published on Vimeo and YouTube; I’ve also embedded it in the sidebar as well as at the bottom of this post so you can watch it from here. Or you could also watch it on the film’s website: Manifesto of Faith, and read more about it there as well as learn how you can help. It is excellent and quite a warning shot to those on the other side in the Spiritual Warfare that is escalating.

“Manifesto of Faith.” Clear truth in these times when everything seems malleable and relative.

When I shared the video on my Facebook profile, I suggested the following to cope with these times:

  • Read the Catechism. The 1997 one by Pope St. John Paul II; the 16th Century one by the Council of Trent. Either. Both!
  • Read a ***Catholic Bible***. Douay-Rheims, Jerusalem, Knox, Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition (and the RSV-Second Catholic Edition) are wonderful and solid.
  • Watch EWTN.
  • STAY CLOSE TO THE SACRAMENTS! Receive Holy Communion often, Confession *at least monthly*.
  • Read the Lives of the Saints.
  • GO TO MASS! Find a TLM (Traditional Latin Mass; reconnect with the Mass of the Ages, the one all Catholics for centuries worshipped in. Your favorite saints either worshipped in this or said it (if priests). Otherwise, try and find a New Mass that is offered with due reverence and solemnity. Is it obvious there is something sacred going on? Are they acting as if they are aware the Jesus is Truly Present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity? Or are they acting like the Eucharist is just a symbol? The difference is obvious. People would be acting much differently at Mass if they actually believed that Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords was there.
  • Don’t trust the news media. ANY of it. They all lie. Every single outlet. The sooner you realize that, the better.
  • Politicians are not saviors and messiahs.

The film:

https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js

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 Matt Talbot blog!

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There is a new blog up and running dedicated to Venerable Matt Talbot. It is run by the man in charge of his Facebook Page: Matt Talbot Facebook Page

He describes it as “This is a site about Venerable Matt Talbot.
It is a copy of a facebook site about Venerable Matt for everyone who don`t use facebook and want to know about life of Matt Talbot.”

The link to it is right there in the first sentence; kindly support the effort!

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 great and easy way to “get outside” yourself and help others

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Last December I posted about Hozana.

“It is an online gathering space for Catholics and other Christians to come together in prayer and mutual encouragement. It isn’t a social network on the order of a Facebook, MeWe or whatever else is out there, but you can follow others and communicate with them. Activity is centered around prayer communities which are ordered towards novenas and other liturgical seasons, as well as ongoing prayer necessities. There is also a “prayer intentions” feed where members can post prayer requests which remain available for 48 hours (you can always repost, if needed). Members click on a prayer intention which opens up in a little window. A virtual candle lights up underneath the intention and it changes color slowly from bottom to “flame.” Then you click “Amen” and if you wish, continue on to another intention that interests you. The person is notified that you prayed for them. The same for when you post an intention; you’ll get notified when people pray for you! It’s way cool.

It lacks the noise and obnoxiousness of other social media sites.”

In recent months my activity over there has slackened, but I am making a renewed effort to dedicate more time to it, especially as I had been invited to join expressly for the purpose of running a prayer group for alcoholics and addicts. And so I had created the Matt Talbot Prayer Group, and it has gotten much interest from people. There was a need! The fact that tomorrow, June 7th is the 94th anniversary of his death is what caused me to think about Hozana, and how much I liked it.

I am saddened that I drifted away as I really enjoyed reading the numerous prayer requests and praying for others, and exploring other prayer communities. As I had mentioned in an email to the wonderful lady who invited me, I think that Hozana is kind of like a preview of our intercessory work once we get to Heaven. One of the things we may be doing is receiving intercessory prayers as members of the Church Triumphant, the “great Cloud of Witnesses.” We won’t be just floating around up there, worshipping the Lord and interacting with one another; we will be interceding for those still in Time.

But really, I do find it useful. In reading all of the prayer requests I find that I am thinking about myself less, and worrying about others more. There are other people hurting; in pain over this or that, worrying over many things. You have the opportunity to “get outside” yourself and consider other people and their situations.

Getting involved with Hozana is a Work of Mercy.

“So, here is YOUR personal invitation to join Hozana and become a part of the Matt Talbot Prayer Group! Here’s the link for Hozana (in English, the site also has Spanish, French and Portuguese versions): Hozana. And here is the link for the prayer group: Matt Talbot Prayer Group. My profile: Me

From the description I wrote: “Welcome to the Matt Talbot Prayer Group! Join us in prayer and fellowship as we encourage one another in our sobriety and recovery from addictions!

Hebrews 3:13 “…exhort one another every day, while it is still called ‘today’…”

Romans 12:2 “And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.” (Both from the Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayers, linked articles, images, quotes from Scripture, the Catechism and the writings of Saints and others that can be useful in your recovery journey will be occasionally posted here. PLEASE make use of the comments section of the posts to reach out to one another!

Our patron is the Venerable Matt Talbot, an Irishman who lived from 1856-1925. A drunkard, he “took the pledge” to quit drinking after his friends one day refused to loan him money to buy liquor. This worked for a while, but it wasn’t until he decided to transfer his love for the drink onto Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary that his sobriety took hold. He was a daily Mass goer and had a profound prayer life. Matt exemplified the recovery values of acknowledging your weakness over addiction and the need for God to come in and restore your life and help you to amend and rebuild it, years before any modern recovery movements were founded.”

I do hope to see you there.

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!!)

Septuagesima Season: Lenten preparation

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Yesterday was Septuagesima Sunday according to the Liturgical calendar for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (The so-called “Tridentine Rite,” or “Latin Mass” people.)

Septuagesima is a distinct Liturgical season in the Church, observed everywhere within it prior to 1970. It is essentially a time of preparation for Lent. The Church considers Lent such an important season that we have 17 days to plan and prepare for how we will best make use of it. How will we try and get the most out of it, spiritually and personally?

Lent happens to be the period when I blog the most, given that this blog is about spiritual development and growing closer to God (mostly with regard to maintaining sobriety.) Last year I started attending a Latin Mass, and that has become the chief means by which I worship.”Tradition” is slowly creeping into this blog. 😉

So, what are your plans for Lent? Start thinking now! Perhaps Septuagesima is a time when you can “get out of the way” certain things that you’ll fast from. (For example, I have a few hours to myself this afternoon, I was planning on making headway through a binge-watching of an old science-fiction TV series, “Firefly,” as I am thinking of giving up DVD watching for Lent. I changed my mind and instead am blogging and doing some other online work.)

Septuagesima can be when you think about Lent, figure out those areas in your spiritual and religious life where you need improvement. In short, perhaps a “trial run” of your Lenten practices so that when Lent does start, time isn’t wasted.

I am considering fasting from social media and perhaps DVD watching. There’s too much noise and drama on social networks, and some people can be toxic. There is something to consider; the time spent on social media can be used to do other things I’ve neglected.

(Bear in mind, Sundays are not considered a part of Lent, so I may “catch up” then. Or perhaps not…)

Much to think about.

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!!)

Announcing the “Matt Talbot Prayer Group”

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A few weeks ago I was invited to join Hozana, an online prayer community. It is an online gathering space for Catholics and other Christians to come together in prayer and mutual encouragement. It isn’t a social network on the order of a Facebook, MeWe or whatever else is out there, but you can follow others and communicate with them. Activity is centered around prayer communities which are ordered towards novenas and other liturgical seasons, as well as ongoing prayer necessities. There is also a “prayer intentions” feed where members can post prayer requests which remain available for 48 hours (you can always repost, if needed). Members click on a prayer intention which opens up in a little window. A virtual candle lights up underneath the intention and it changes color slowly from bottom to “flame.” Then you click “Amen” and if you wish, continue on to another intention that interests you. The person is notified that you prayed for them. The same for when you post an intention; you’ll get notified when people pray for you! It way cool.

It lacks the noise and obnoxiousness of other social media sites. It’s quiet and I typically reserve one browser tab for Hozana. I pin the tab to one side and return every so often to see who else needs praying for, or visit one of the many communities that interest me. And speaking of which…

The invitation to join Hozana came from a nice lady who volunteers for it; she found this blog and thought I would find Hozana useful as there are many prayer requests involving alcoholism and addictions. Maybe I could start a prayer community for these people, and share stuff from this blog and whatever else that’s helpful? Boy, could I!!!!! And so I did!

So, here is YOUR personal invitation to join Hozana and become a part of the Matt Talbot Prayer Group! Here’s the link for Hozana (in English, the site also has Spanish, French and Portuguese versions): Hozana. And here is the link for the prayer group: Matt Talbot Prayer Group. My profile: Me

From the description I wrote: “Welcome to the Matt Talbot Prayer Group! Join us in prayer and fellowship as we encourage one another in our sobriety and recovery from addictions!

Hebrews 3:13 “…exhort one another every day, while it is still called ‘today’…”

Romans 12:2 “And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.” (Both from the Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayers, linked articles, images, quotes from Scripture, the Catechism and the writings of Saints and others that can be useful in your recovery journey will be occasionally posted here. PLEASE make use of the comments section of the posts to reach out to one another!

Our patron is the Venerable Matt Talbot, an Irishman who lived from 1856-1925. A drunkard, he “took the pledge” to quit drinking after his friends one day refused to loan him money to buy liquor. This worked for a while, but it wasn’t until he decided to transfer his love for the drink onto Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary that his sobriety took hold. He was a daily Mass goer and had a profound prayer life. Matt exemplified the recovery values of acknowledging your weakness over addiction and the need for God to come in and restore your life and help you to amend and rebuild it, years before any modern recovery movements were founded.”

I may recruit one or more people to assist in running it. One thing that distinguishes Hozana from other social sites or even traditional discussion forums is that only administrators and moderators can start discussion topics, members can only reply in the comments; so it would help if there are is more than one person running things to keep it active. I have ideas as to whom I may recruit. (I have to know you fairly well.)

A side note for those readers who have been with me for over a decade: I have tried for almost ten years to develop a sustainable online community for Catholics suffering from addictions. Only the first one was any good but it had to be terminated because the platform it was on abolished free communities. As I could not afford to host it with them, it was axed. No successors really had the activity and charm of that first one back in 2008-10. 🙁 This one is different as it isn’t my idea. It wasn’t my will to create it; the suggestion came from someone else, and hence it may be in greater conformity with God’s Will. We’ll see. But regardless, sign up! The link is there, the invitation is open, and the people who run Hozana are nice and friendly. (It is based in France.)

See you there!

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!!)