From a post last year saying Happy Birthday, Mom
Call your Mother. Say the Rosary.
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!!)
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!!)
A frequent saying or slogan in 12 Step meetings is that “Coincidence is God’s way of protecting His anonymity.” The following article explores that:
WHEN GOD ACCENTS SOMETHING FOR YOU, TAKE IT AS A MESSAGE IN THE TIDES OF LIFE
(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!!)
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!!)
The First Reading for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time is particularly relevant for anyone who does God’s will, but resisted it at first:
Jeremiah 20:7-9: “You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.
I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.”
(Via USCCB.)
Resist doing the Lord’s will and He will use a way to get you to do it. It may come with time, but if you are destined to fulfill whatever mission God placed you on Earth for, then so help Him, you will end up doing that.
He is too strong for you, you cannot outwit Him, He will triumph in time.
Resist, and it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it
And if that is not enough, you may suffer the pain of subsequently doing His will. The world dislikes that, it call you all sorts of things, does whatever it feels is necessary to stop you.
For inspiration, a musical interlude:
(Via Happy Catholic.)
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!!)
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:
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!!)
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!!)
In the Liturgy of the Hours reading for Daytime Prayer (Midday) there is a line from Sacred Scripture that stood out:
Psalm 25:7: “Remember no more the sins of my youth; remember me only in light of your love.“
(Via USCCB.)
Our alcoholic and addictive past is full of wreckage, mostly sinful. The weight of that past drags us down unless we clean it up by turning to God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation (aka “Confession” or “Penance”) is there for our use. It cleanses us of our sins and washes clean our past before God. It is a Sacrament of Love in that our Father in Heaven takes us back and welcomes us to Him because we repented of our sins and turned to Him for forgiveness.
In the “Big Book” of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, 2001) there is a line on page 83,
“We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.”
This is part of the 10th Step Promises, which detail a list of positive changes in attitude if one has persevered in working the first Nine Steps. I won’t go into all that now. But our regret of the past is rooted in the stain of sin on our souls, our wish to “not shut the door on it” is rooted in humility. If we do not remember our past, we will make the same mistakes again. Our remembering the past tempers any judgmental attitude towards others and helps us to use compassion in our dealings with people. Quite often they are as messed up as we are.
Psalm 51:3-5: “Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense.
Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me.
For I know my offense; my sin is always before me.”
(Via USCCB.)
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!!)
Today, August 28, is the Feast of St. Augustine. You can read all about him in this article from CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Augustine of Hippo .
Many times in 12 Step meetings or when listening to someone in recovery speak about their journey, they mention a “hole in the soul” that was filled by their addiction. Eventually they were no longer able to fill that hole with their addiction, at which point they hit bottom or otherwise reached their “jumping off place”, from which they slowly turned away from alcohol or drugs and towards a “higher power”. Hopefully that “higher power” is God and not some secular idol, but nevertheless they discover something better.
St. Augustine discovered something better after his life of debauchery and other various sins. A well-known quote of his is:
CHURCH FATHERS: Confessions, Book I (St. Augustine): “Thou movest us to delight in praising You; for You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.”
(Via New Advent.)
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 very nice lady walked up to my wife and I after Mass and told a story about her grandmother. The story itself isn’t important, except that she related something that her grandmother told her about going through trying times.
“See that man upon the Cross? Look at Him and THEN tell me your troubles.”
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!!)