Five Smooth Stones

Posted on January 23, 2008 by Paul

An excerpt from the First Reading from today’s Mass:

1 Samuel 17:40

Then, staff in hand, David selected five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag.

In his homily, the priest at a parish I attend had said that the reference to a particular number of stones was significant. Why five? Many have postulated that the 5 smooth stones are foreshadowing the 5 wounds of Christ on the Cross. (Each hand, each foot and the spear which pierced Him). Just as Jesus defeated Satan and sin on the Cross through His wounds suffered, David whacked the Israelite enemy with 5 stones. David is a precursor to Jesus, a King from whose line the Messiah will come.

The priest further went on to say that each of us can have “5 smooth stones” that we can use to defeat our enemies, or just the forces of the World that seek to keep us prisoners to it. Or, in our case, slaves of addiction.

What are your 5 smooth stones? The priest said his was the Bible, the Catechism, Mass and the Eucharist, personal prayer and his family. I would say the first four are also mine, but would substitute my fiancee for family (got family issues) .

So, what’s in your shepherd’s bag?

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!!)

Gratitude

Posted on January 20, 2008 by Paul

Gratitude is wanting what you already have, and being thankful to God for it.

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!!)

Mom's Birthday

Posted on January 20, 2008 by Paul

Today would have been her 92nd birthday. A post from a year ago.

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 well do not need a physician

Posted on January 19, 2008 by Paul

The Gospel reading from today’s Mass (Saturday daily, not Sunday Vigil) has a particular relevance for us alcoholics:

Mark 2:13-17;

Jesus went out along the sea.
All the crowd came to him and he taught them.
As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus,
sitting at the customs post.
Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed Jesus.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples;
for there were many who followed him.
Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners
and tax collectors and said to his disciples,
“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus heard this and said to them,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

This is why Christianity, and in particular Catholic Christianity with her sacraments, is an excellent spiritual path for people recovering from an addiction. Jesus doesn’t care who you are, what your background is or anything else that the “world’ deems important. People that the world shuns and deems inferior, He runs to and picks up and heals. Jesus came for all humanity, but in particular for the broken and the wounded. In the Gospel accounts He was frequently associating with the outcasts of society. He was always taken to task for it, as is the case in today’s reading.

We alcoholics and addicts are broken and wounded, regardless of the length of sobriety. We will always remain a little bent and cracked, but Jesus and His Church are always there to pick us up.

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 Four Last Things

Posted on January 15, 2008 by Paul

I’ve started another blog, entitled “The Four Last Things.” It can be found here .

It is about the four last things that we all will face: Death, Judgement, Heaven or Hell. Topics not often brought up in recovery meetings.

The first post tells all about it.

UPDATE: The “Four Last Things” blog has been shuttered. Please see “R.I.P.”. For why I did it: “The Future of the Four Last Things Blog.”

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!!)

Alcoholism and Temperance (the Virtue)

Posted on January 14, 2008 by Paul

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (“CCC”) has this to say in the subject of alcoholism:

Paragraph 2290;

The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.

The virtue of temperance is explained here:

Paragraph 1805:

Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called “cardinal”; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. “If anyone loves righteousness, [Wisdom’s] labors are virtues; for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice, and courage.” These virtues are praised under other names in many passages of Scripture.

Paragraph 1809:

Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will’s mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: “Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart.” Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: “Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites.” In the New Testament it is called “moderation” or “sobriety.” We ought “to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world.”

To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul and with all one’s efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only [God] (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence).

One can see by studying Paragraph 1809 that the addiction of alcoholism makes it impossible to have a moderate attraction or use of certain pleasures. In some Catholic writings, particularly older ones, the phrase “inordinate attraction” is quite often used to describe something we would now use the word “addiction” for. Through temperance, our love for God is kept “whole and uncorrupted”, therefore, with the ability to develop the virtue (if that’s the correct phraseology, what I mean is to practice or make use of it) our love for God is absent. This may be the “hole in the soul” that I and plenty of other addicts and alcoholics have experienced while drinking or using.

This “hole” was only able to be filled with drinking and drugging. Obviously, the addiction just worsened the inability to employ temperance and the other virtues. Those other virtues as mention in the CCC text: prudence, or wisdom; justice or maybe a sense of fairness and moral certitude and direction; and fortitude, or strength. One can easily see these lacking in a well-developed untreated alcoholic. Finally things come crashing down and we are left with nothing. The “hole in the soul”, which was filled with a false spiritual feeling, is ever larger and threatened to consume us entirely. The betrayal of what we thought was saving us was complete. We hit bottom.

And so we arrive at some place. And we reach for either death or hope. If you’re reading this you either are or have grasped onto hope. Jesus is our only hope, without Him there is nothing.

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 Baptism of the Lord

Posted on January 14, 2008 by Paul

A day late, but better done than never. Sober Catholic readers should be getting the idea that I have a casual attitude towards time. A character defect that I’m working on eliminating, at least with regards to blogging and writing.

Yesterday was the end of the Christmas season. It was the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in the River Jordan.

One of my rosary meditations was on it. Read it here . Thank you.

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!!)

Withdraw to deserted places

Posted on January 11, 2008 by Paul

There is a line in the Gospel from today’s Mass (Friday after Epiphany) that I found interesting. Please pay particular attention to the part I italicized:

Luke 5:16-17;

The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.

Jesus had just healed a man of his leprosy, and news of this spread all about. “Great crowds assembled”, and this probably pressed Him in His daily life. Not that He minded much, and He was doing His Father’s will, but nevertheless He was seriously occupied.

“He would withdraw to deserted places to pray.” Why deserted places is obvious, He needed to be alone, or with His disciples. But He still occupied His time, He didn’t get away from the crowds to just do nothing. He prayed.

Perhaps prayer gave Him the strength or focus needed to cope with the multitudes that came to Him to learn and be healed. Or maybe He was just creating an example for us. Just as He needn’t have been born a baby of a woman, but chose to do so anyway to teach us the value of humility, He chose to pray when it doesn’t seem that He would need to do that. Why would God be praying?

Praying in deserted places frees you from distractions and assists in your growing closer to God. Now it doesn’t mean that you literally escape to a desert and engage in prayer, it could mean that you just make time for prayer. Create a “desert” in your day, when nothing from the outside world can enter and thrive. The outside world hates prayer. It thinks it a strange waste of time. It knows that when a person is in solitude, he or she may get reflective and ponder too much upon the follies and fallacies of the world. People who pay too much attention to God have little regard for the world’s silliness.

Go to a deserted place. Perhaps it is outside. A forest or a beach. Or just an interior place created within yourself that is shielded from the world. The place where you exist.

Go to your deserted place and pray. You may find that you can face the multitudes more easily.

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 made clean

Posted on January 11, 2008 by Paul

From the Gospel according to Luke, from today’s Mass (Friday after Epiphany)

Luke 5:12-16;

Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately.

Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”

The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.

The man was instantly healed of leprosy. Would that our addiction of alcoholism be lifted immediately as well. No pain, no suffering (ours or anyone else’s) no loss of family, jobs, years and so on. No need to rebuild everything from the start in your 30’s or 40’s or 50’s and wonder if it’s too late. (Although people in recovery invariably enjoy that aspect of it, once there’s been a sustained period of sobriety. The idea of a fresh start is wonderful. Still, there may be a lingering feeling of “Why me?”, especially when you dwell to long on regrets.)

Anyway, such is not our doing. We cannot linger in the time-wasting exercise of regret, nor the “Why me?” attitude towards our alcoholism and addiction.

We can, however, approach Jesus and ask for our healing and humbly wait for as long as it takes. Things are done in God’s time, and the process of healing may take as long as it does for our own benefit. We learn from it. Alcoholics and addicts are people who routinely want what we want, and we want it now. And when we get what we want, we sometimes forget what it was like before we got it. Our want was satiated, our lacking was satisfied and then we’re on to the next want. Nothing is learned.

People who are sincerely trying to recover from alcoholism and addiction through a spiritual method such as religion or a Twelve Step movement understand that things useful are earned and merited, not given.

Ask God in your prayer time not “Why me?”, but rather, “What are You trying to teach me in all this? What am I supposed to do with this? How is this bringing me closer to You and to others?”

Then wait silently and listen, the answer may come soon.

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 is Back!! (Really this time!)

Posted on January 11, 2008 by Paul

As of yesterday, January 10th, I finally got Internet connection at my new residence. My move is mostly over, just a few boxes to unpack, but at least the premature announcement of a return to regular blogging made here can finally be realized.

Sorry for the delay, but I should be on at least as often as I was before my relocation started in October 2007, maybe hopefully daily.

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

Catholicism, Recovery, Sobriety, Conversion, Prayer, Fasting, Repentance, Penance

Five Smooth Stones

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Gratitude

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Mom's Birthday

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The well do not need a physician

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The Four Last Things

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Alcoholism and Temperance (the Virtue)

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The Baptism of the Lord

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Withdraw to deserted places

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Be made clean

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Sober Catholic is Back!! (Really this time!)

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