A different kind of peace

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An excerpt from the Gospel according to John, from today’s daily Mass:

John 14:27;

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

The only true peace is found in Jesus. The world abuses the notion of peace, calling it the absence of war or fulfillment of personal needs and wants or some other such falseness. But whatever the world’s definition of peace is, there is still a certain lack of it. There is never enough to satisfy if your definition of peace is centered upon the world and its values.

In our alcoholism, we found a type of peace after drinking sufficiently. We all know that feeling of seeming oneness with all creation or of a special insight into truth or the divine. We have all had that wispy certitude that we know what’s up. But after a fashion, that was never enough. The more we drank, the more we needed to drink as our search for peace was never satisfied. Just as in the world there is never enough satisfaction with what one has, therefore we seek to get more.

In Christ is the only true peace. His incarnation means He loves us enough to become like us, His dying for us on the cross meant He loves us to the point of ultimate sacrifice. This is a full, consummate love. And in Him is the summation of all our Hope. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and only in Him can we find our true selves because in Him we can detach from the world and its shallow meaningless values. The world serves only to distract. Jesus serves to bring us to the Father, in Heaven.

Know Jesus, know peace. No Jesus, no peace.

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!!)

When He was insulted, He returned no insult; when He suffered, He did not threaten

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A section of Scripture from last night’s Evening Prayer offers an excellent example on humble and sober living.

1 Peter 2 : 21-24;

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.

Many times in our drinking past we dove into our bottle after an insult, either real or imagined. When we suffered, either from something done to us by others or by a self-inflicted wound, we drank.

As sober alcoholics and users we cannot react that way. We have to adopt a more humble manner of living and thinking.

Jesus knew that there is only one judge, God. Rather than taking matters into His own hands and lashing back at His accusers and dying anyway, He meekly accepted their attacks and fulfilled His mission on Earth.

This is not to say that we should be doormats in sobriety and allow injustices to be perpetrated against us.

In the chapter entitled “Acceptance was the Answer” in AA’s “Big Book” (aka Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th edition, 2001; Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York), the author declares on page 420:

Perhaps the best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations. The higher my expectations … the lower is my serenity. I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. But them my “rights” try to move in, and they too can force my serenity level down. I have to discard my “rights,” as well as my expectations, by asking myself, “How important is it, really? How important is it compared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety?…

So by asking the question: “How important is it, really? How important is it compared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety?” we can perhaps justify certain situations when we have to defend our “rights”, bearing in mind the cost. The Serenity Prayer can offer guidance:

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

–Reinhold Niebuhr

Anyway, some stuff to think about as we go about our day.

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!!)

I lay bare my distress

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A reading from tonight’s Evening Prayer reminded me of God’s availability during times of suffering:

Psalm 142: 2-4;

With full voice I cry to the LORD; with full voice I beseech the LORD.
Before God I pour out my complaint, lay bare my distress.
My spirit is faint within me, but you know my path.

No matter the trouble you are having, God is always near to hear your plaintive scream for help. No matter the seeming insignificance or overwhelming deluge of the problem, unload and vent to God, “lay bare” your “distress” . You may feel weak and strung out, but God knows the path that you’re on and how your current troubles will ultimately lead to your salvation. For that is essentially the meaning of all suffering, as Jesus suffered for our sins, we must accept any that comes our way. Not in any masochistic need, just a humble awareness that as Christians we too must take up our cross and follow Jesus.

Suffering is also an effect of the Original Sin that Jesus died for. So to reject suffering is to reject the true nature of the world and to ultimately resent God if you cannot reconcile the world today with the essential existence of suffering. This may be rather difficult to contemplate and accept while going through trials, so all the more reason to turn immediately to God and with your “full voice”, “cry out” and “beseech the Lord”. Pray. Pray hard.

The Lord knows your path. He knows what special mission you are on, the unique and special purpose that He called you into being for. He will see you through 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!!)

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

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The Gospel from today’s Mass for Friday of the 4th Week of Easter is a very hopeful and encouraging passage for people seeking a way out of alcoholism and addiction.

John 14:1-6;

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

There are many paths to sobriety. Twelve Step movements and the newer alternative paths out of alcoholism and addiction help people cope with sobriety and being clean. Many people stop there, feeling that merely not drinking and drugging is enough. This is fine, particularly if your life as an drinker or user was for a very long time. (My drinking career was 10 years, not long by most standards.) Others feel that merely being clean and sober isn’t enough.

And so they go beyond sobriety movements and seek out a deeper spirituality. Many return to the religion of their youth in the hopes of returning to a path they were derailed off of. Others don’t bother and try new things.

I returned to the religion of my youth, Catholicism. To me, even during my fallen away days, it seemed that it was the real Christianity, that all others were well-meaning but inferior in some way. No disrespect intended, it was just my gut feeling.

Back to the Gospel reading from today. Jesus is the only true way to the Father, no one can get to Him except through Jesus. There may be other paths to salvation, but none, not one, has the guarantee of God Himself that if you follow His Son, you will be saved. This is the one sure reason to justify being a Christian, we alone have the roadmap to salvation written by God. And we Catholics have the Church He established to carry out and safeguard His teachings until He returns again to judge us all.

Twelve Step and alternative paths of recovery do the job they intend to do, with varying degrees of success. But they only cover a part of the problem. While they do a good job of keeping people clean and sober when the work, the tendency of people to just stay sober or follow an easy spiritual path because it is, well, easy, happens too often.

Jesus is the only sure path to salvation. He also came to heal the sick and the broken. His Church has the tools necessary for healing, just as Jesus Himself healed. These are the sacraments that He instituted, such as Holy Communion and Confession. Through prayer and meditation and the participation in these sacraments, we can be healed of our addictions to the point where they simply are not an option to use when things are difficult. In fact, a central point of Christianity, and in particular Catholicism, is that we must accept difficulties (i.e. suffering) as essential in being disciples of Christ. Catholic Christianity heals us, body and soul, in a manner far more complete and essential that mere sobriety programs. They may be useful tools in addition to Catholicism, but only deal with one area, your mental health. Your soul still needs work.

That is why nearly a year-and-a-half ago I started this blog. I had looked all over the web for Catholic sites dealing with sobriety, but found not much. No blogs or other readily updated and interactive sites. I had hoped to introduce people who are seeking a deeper spirituality than that offered by recovery movements the opportunity to see how the Catholic faith and spirituality can help you stay sober and more importantly, grow closer to God. That hope continues after some periods of inactivity these past 6 months. (Note to regular readers: That random inactivity may be over as I have settled into my new job and new life as a husband. From now on there shouldn’t be major interruptions to blogging, as a normal, albeit grander life has returned.)

Follow Jesus and His Church. Just as Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, so is His Church (problems and all. The Truth and Holiness of the Catholic Church is found in her teachings, not the behavior of her members.) . If you’re new to reading Sober Catholic, take some time and randomly read articles in the archive. If you’ve been here before, regular blogging has (hopefully) returned.

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 hopefully brief hiatus (or, Still Here, Part 2)

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A few weeks ago I wrote this post about little posting activity.

This is to announce that Sober Catholic is gong on a brief hiatus, only until after my wedding this March 29th and after our internet service is switched over to a new provider. I may blog a little from my fiancee’s (or wife’s!) computer, but will probably be too busy setting up house and completing my move. In addition, I may be signed up for some additional training for my new job, that may begin next week, a few weeks earlier than originally planned by the company. I will have to study for this.

The stress has actually eased up.

I shall see you all again by Mid-April. Keep meditating on the Daily Mass readings!

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!!)

We celebrate for 8 days

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From a post from last year.

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!!)

Holy Thursday

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Today is Holy Thursday, please read this post from last year.

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!!)

Still here

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In case anyone has missed this blog, I haven’t disappeared.

March 2008 has so far been an interesting month, and mostly for the right reasons.

I am getting married on March 29, and a few weeks ago I started a new full-time job. So I am adjusting to these two realities. I look forward to getting married very much, and I thoroughly enjoy my new job.

I have had the time to blog, I just haven’t had the energy to apply myself. I have one more Rosary Meditation for the Sorrowful Mysteries to write, and I can’t come up with anything that should see the blogosphere. I would like to get through the Glorious Mysteries for Easter, but that may not happen. I had also hoped to write Stations of the Cross Meditations.

I am (once again) sorry that certain fundamental changes in my life have interrupted the postings and development of this blog. That seems to have happened a lot since October 2007. At the very least, they can provide some hope to anyone still struggling with alcoholism or any other addiction that things do get better. It may take a while, but there is hope. Things do get better. After nearly 6 years of sobriety (with some major shocks and traumas to my system, such as a death in 2005 and a deep-seated rift in my family) I am getting married. I have found a decent paying and rewarding job. It’s just that putting the pieces together in a sober person’s new life isn’t an easy ride.

This blog may go on hiatus again. I will be moving around the beginning of April. I will be moving in with she-who-will-by-that-time be-my-wife. Not sure at this point if we will be living in her house, or somewhere else. The plan was to move into her house, but there has been some uncertainties suddenly developing regarding that. Details are unimportant but I will either be spending a lot of my time these next few weeks continuing the rehabilitation of parts of her house, or finding someplace else to live. Anyway, like last November and December, Internet service may be interrupted. My fiancee has Internet, but we will be switching to a different service provider and I am not sure how long (of even if) service will be off, it all depends on the move. So if there is very infrequent blogging over the next month, that’s why.

Once again, one great thing to do besides re-reading old posts is to read and pray about the Daily Mass Readings found in the link in the upper right. The inspired writers of the Bible are much better than I. Read them, and try to figure out how to apply them to living. That is what I did in my very early years of sobriety, and that habit lead to me writing this blog which quite often is about the Daily Mass Readings.

I am going through no small amount of stress, both the good and the bad kind. That also has taken it’s toll on the blog. When I’m not working at my new job or doing something nice with my fiancee, I am surfing all over the Internet as an escape. Perhaps an inappropriate response, but at least I didn’t return to drinking. Back in the day, I would drink because things got better, or drink because things got worse. I would drink to feel better, or drink to nurse or sustain resentments. Nice weather, bad weather, didn’t matter. And I am going through a lot of things which in the past would have driven me to drinking. It just shows that I also still have a lot to learn about alcoholism and spiritual development. The fact that I haven’t returned to drinking means that I also have learned a lot about those things, and about myself. I just have to fine tune things.One day at a time.

At any rate, like I said last Winter when I put this blog on hiatus to do a move, this blog isn’t going anywhere. It will be back and I really, really, hope that by May I can develop a regular routine.

Bear with me and pray for me, please.

Oh, one last thing, if anyone had hoped that I would blog a lot during Lent, what with this blog’s emphasis on interior conversion coinciding very nicely with this season’s focus, fear not! There is another Lent coming up later this year! There is another 40 day period on the Church calendar where you can invest in penitential practices and more deeply focus on your conversion! That period is the 40 days from the Transfiguration to the Triumph of the Cross. I’m too lazy to look up the actual dates, but I think that’s August 6 to September 15. It isn’t mentioned much by the Church, I only got the connection from some daily devotional I used to read. But when you figure that the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mt. Tabor was just a few days before His final journey to Jerusalem, culminating with His Resurrection later, you have to wonder why the Church placed the Transfiguration feast and the Triumph of the Cross feast 40 days apart. Anyway, I will attempt to take the Lenten Daily Mass Readings that I missed, and blog about them then. Attempt, because I will no longer promise anything for this blog until I deliver it.

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!!)

blog update

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Sorry much has not been written recently.

I have been interviewing for a new job, which I got! I start this next Wednesday.
A better and more fulfilling job (full-time, too) than the previous one. I shall now be working for the MR/DD population (mentally retarded/developmentally disabled) cared for by a Catholic social services agency.
This next week I hope to continue the Rosary meditations I began and hoped to finish months ago. I plan to start writing the “Sorrowful Mysteries” sometime this weekend. Next week, maybe, I hope to start meditations on the “Stations of the Cross”, a traditional, ancient Catholic devotion usually done in parishes on Fridays during Lent.

I hope you have been reading and praying about the Daily Mass Readings.

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!!)

Posted in Me

You will be like gods

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An excerpt from the First Reading from today’s Mass for the First Sunday of Lent:

Genesis 3:1-7;

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?”
The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'”
But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die!
No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.”
The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

This is the explanation for the cause of evil and suffering in the world. We humans are responsible for a decision in which we believed that we can be like gods and decide for ourselves what is morally good and what is not. It isn’t in today’s reading, but the next verses from Genesis Chapter 3 detail the punishment God meted out to our first parents and their progeny. Read on and decide, “Yes, that explains evil in the world and why life is a succession of toil and drudgery.” Granted there are breaks in between full of beauty and peace, but essentially things are tough because we chose long ago to decide for ourselves to be arbiters of morality and justice. This was wrong as before this we had lived in perfect harmony with God, therefore what need had we to try exalt ourselves to His position, the source of all that is good and moral? For our arrogance we Fell and life is the way it is.

One reason I started this blog was due to my perception that this was in a way being replicated in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, at least where and when I attended them. But in reading AA literature such as the Grapevine magazine and online forums, I think it is common elsewhere. The concept of AA’s “Higher Power” had drifted away from it’s original intent. It had been designed to enable religious members of the early AA to continue to believe in whatever their concept of God was, as taught by their religious tradition. It has come to mean that “It doesn’t matter what you believe in, as long as you believe in something”. It has become to be used as an excuse for disavowing organized religion (particularly Catholicism as it is the example used most often) and just doing whatever feels nice and spiritual to you. The “Higher Power” has become God designed in our own image.

God made us, not we Him. By creating Him in our image as the “Higher Power” concept has devolved into merely serves to permit people to follow the path of least resistance morally. We decide for ourselves what is moral and what is not, by our own self-determined convictions. This is not the way to believe or behave as Christians, Catholic or otherwise.

We have a clearly defined moral path as laid out in Sacred Scripture and authoritatively interpreted and taught by the Church. We go our own way and we repeat the Original Sin of Adam and Eve.

It’s a tough road to trudge, submitting to a power greater than yourself and the earthly institution He created. No getting around that. Easier and softer ways in one’s relationship with God may be all feel-good and inoffensive, but ultimately unfullfilling.

But on the other hand, it’s the tried and true roadmap to eternal peace and happiness. Really, not a tough decision.

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!!)