For the Lord gives wisdom

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The “Daily Wisdom Dose” for today is from Proverbs 2:6.

For the LORD gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding…

We have two sources form the Lord’s wisdom: the Bible and the Church. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. The Church was established by Him to safeguard His teachings and also to teach in His name until He comes again. The Church’s teachings are called “Sacred Tradition” and are not to be confused with tradition in the manner of things and doings and practices. Sacred Tradition is the apostolic teachings from the first century through today, the teachings of the Popes and Bishops in union with him (as opposed to Christian Bishops that are not Catholic). They do not add anything completely new to God’s Biblical Revelation, but are derived from Scripture. Sacred Tradition is encapsulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Reading the Bible, along with the Catechism and even the writings of the Early Church Fathers provides you with access to the “knowledge and understanding” from the Lord. They all direct you to God, the source of all life and wisdom and knowledge. Enlightened by this understanding and knowledge, you grow closer to God, and increasingly view the world through God’s eyes. Perhaps another way of putting it is you view the world from the perspective of eternity. Puts things that encourage you to drink in a different framework, yes?

Along the sidebar there’s the grouping of links called “For All Things Catholic”. In it are links for three excellent translations of the Bible (The New American, The New Jerusalem, and the Douay-Rheims). There’s also links to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In addition, there are links to numerous sites that can explain Catholicism much better than I can, including anything you need to know about exactly what “Sacred Tradition” is, especially its Scriptural basis. This may come as a shock to non-Catholic Christians, but all Catholic teaching is rooted in the Bible.

The three different Bible translations are useful. Perhaps you are having a difficult time with a particular verse. Reading that same verse in a different translation my assist you in understanding it better.

Get to the links!

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!!)

Call to intelligence

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The Daily Wisdom Dose for today is from Proverbs 2:3-5

Yes, if you call to intelligence, and to understanding raise your voice;
If you seek her like silver, and like hidden treasures search her out:
Then will you understand the fear of the LORD; the knowledge of God you will find…

In the beginning of Proverbs there is the verse that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Today’s can be a revisiting of that. You understand that wisdom has a beginning, and you understand that in any relationship, you have to initiate or participate in it fully to gain the most of it.

The “call” to intelligence, and the “raising your voice” to understanding is prayer. Prayer is the raising of your heart and mind to God, seeking Him out.

Pray, and you will understand the fear of the Lord, and knowledge of God will be bestowed upon you.

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!!)

Turning your ear to wisdom

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Today’s “Daily Wisdom Dose” involves an act of humility, that of turning to another person and listening to their words and commands:

Proverbs 2:1-2

My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands,
Turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding…

Such a person must command respect and legitimate authority if he expects another to accept their advice and to listen with one’s heart (“incline your heart to understanding”).

We alcoholics have proudly felt that we knew what was best for ourselves, and for others. Our alcoholism fueled a fantasy life in which we rewrote the day’s events, blotting out failures and setbacks. We swelled up in our own puffery, oblivious to our impending demise.

Now, in our sobriety, no matter how long it has been, do we have the humility to acknowledge that we don’t know everything? Do we have the humility to seek out people with greater knowledge of sober living, greater knowledge of the Catholic Faith, and struggle, despite how difficult, to live by that knowledge? Or are we are own self-declared and self-styled Pope or Bishop? We declare that we know better and will live by our own guidance and judgement.

True humility enables us to recieve true wisdom. Whether it is insight inspired by prayer and Scriptural readings, or insight learned from another, wiser person, humility enables us to get ourselves out of the way, and receive what we need to learn and know.

Incline your heart to understanding, listen to the wisdom with your reason, to intellectually grasp what is being said, and listen to the wisdom with your heart, to absorb the meanings of what is said. Do not fear being changed.

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 graceful diadem

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Today’s Daily Wisdom Dose, from Proverbs 1:8-9:

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching;
A graceful diadem will they be for your head; a torque for your neck.

This may be difficult for those of who have had problematic relations with parents. (Mine were OK. No complaints. Not perfect, but everything worked out.) So for those who regard the very idea of respecting your parent’s instructions and advice to be difficult, if not impossible, read on. Other male and female iconic figures in your life can be picked to serve as “parents”, if needed.

Aside from a being a follow-up to the Commandment on “Honor your Father and Mother” this can be considered a plea for respecting legitimate authority. Parents are the first authority figures in a child’s life, and perhaps their relationship with parents form the basis for their relationship with authority overall. Perhaps a generalization, but how parents exercised their authority determines a child’s attitude toward authority later on.

We alcoholics notoriously have a challenged relationship with authority. In our recovery from alcohol, we can no longer use the excuses of a childhood environment to defy authority or run from it. In our recovery from alcohol, we now have an obligation to govern our lives with responsibility. One of the positive outcomes of the 12 Steps is that it allows us to clean up the wreckage of our past, or at least come to terms with it. One of the marks of our responsible living, if it is still possible, feasible, and necessary, is to repair and rebuild our relationships with the parents. Once they die, it is too late. Once gone, the opportunity is forever lost.

The Fourth Step involves the individual making a “fearless and searching moral inventory”. This is identifying those areas of the past that need to be cleaned up. This is what we did wrong, and now we are going to redress it. Even when we were wronged, we analyze the events to determine what, if anything, we might have done to contribute to the situation. This is personal responsibility, we committed serious wrongs (“sins”) in the past and now we shall try and clean those up. Later on in the steps, (The Ninth) we make our amends to those we have wronged.

Granted, by the time we are old enough to make these amends to parents, we may be well past the age where we need instruction and advice from them. (Personally, I don’t think anyone is ever too old for this.) Nevertheless, we do have the Commandment to “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother”, and if repairing and restoring a relationship with ones’ parents puts us in accord with that Commandment, then we are showing our willingness to carry out God’s will in our lives. We are also restoring a more balanced relationship with authority, or at least legitimate authority that exercises its power with due consideration for the rights and privilege of those under it’s purview.

The relationship with parents, if it can be restored, now opens up the promise of the passage from Proverbs. “A graceful diadem” will they be. A repaired relationship with parents is a major healing in an individuals life, so great an influence (for good or for bad) have parents had in early life that the promise of a more equitable and healthy relationship later in life may bring tremendous benefits.

Parents are the pillars upon which out life is built. They formed us. It is only right that a conscientious and sincere effort be made to repair the relationship with them. If possible.

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!!)

Fear of the Lord

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Today’s Daily Wisdom Dose:

This is the introduction to the Book of Proverbs (Chapter 1:1-6):

The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:

That men may appreciate wisdom and discipline, may understand words of intelligence;
May receive training in wise conduct, in what is right, just and honest;
That resourcefulness may be imparted to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
A wise man by hearing them will advance in learning, an intelligent man will gain sound guidance,
That he may comprehend proverb and parable, the words of the wise and their riddles.

Now, for the actual dose (Proverbs 1:7):

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction fools despise.

“Fear” doesn’t mean cowering in terror, it means the proper reverential respect due to God, recognizing His supreme sovereignty over the Universe and your life. Starting out from this necessary act of humility, you are now open to receiving God’s wisdom and inspirations. Your human self and its attachment to things of the world, no longer get in the way. Excess attachment to the self and satisfying its worldly desires blocks off the streams of God’s grace. It is through His grace that we grow spiritually and are better able to accept the commitments and obligations of Christianity. And subsequently, we are able to grow stronger in our sobriety as we cast off (or better cope with) our human weaknesses. We see them in light of God’s plan for us, and we adjust and adapt to our circumstances. We are stronger, and fear less as we know we are continuing to walk with God.

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!!)

Daily Wisdom Dose

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I am going to be starting a new endeavor here on Sober Catholic. It’s called “Daily Wisdom Dose.” It should probably be called “Daily Wisdom Pearls” but that may be taken, or at least more worthy of someone else.

In the Catholic Bible there are 7 “Wisdom Books”. They are in the Old Testament, and are the Books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs (sometimes called the Song of Solomon), Wisdom and Sirach (sometimes called Ecclesiasticus. I’ll refer to it as Sirach, easier to spell and less confusion with Ecclesiastes.)

What I shall do is take a verse, and write about how it relates to being a sober Catholic alcoholic. Each day, one verse. I will probably not do each verse, only if something relevant to the blog pops out at me.

I will intend to cover at least four of the seven: Proverbs, Wisdom, Sirach and Ecclesiastes, in that order. I will possibly not touch Song of Songs, as that doesn’t relate well to the purpose of this blog. I might change my mind, but as it’ll take me quite a while to get through the four that I say I’ll do, there is plenty of time for me to ponder that and change my mind. Songs poetically deals with the love that God the Father has for humans, and also is about idealized human love. Maybe a bit advanced for now.

I may not tackle Job, either for a while, as I admittedly have had a difficult time getting through it. It is a natural Book to cover in this blog, as it deals with the nature of suffering, a common experience for us alcoholics. It may be a separate endeavor from “Wisdom Dose”, but at any rate, it shall be a while before being discussed.

Psalms may also be a separate endeavor, as well as being a part of my ocassional Mass Readings commentary.

Once I get through all of the above, I shall either start over, or more than likely start on the Gospels. (“Daily Gospel Dose”?)

I intend to write this blog for years to come, so no hurry in getting to all the expected stuff.

“Daily Wisdom Dose” will be an attempt to get me to blogpost daily. It will also be in addition to the usual sources of blogging (ocassional Mass Readings, and the general intent of the blog as mentioned in various “About this Blog” postings.) Another reason is that there’s a lot of, well, wisdom in the Books of Wisdom. Members of Twelve Step Movements usually bandy about lots of slogans and pithy sayings that are taken from the various texts or are developed in meetings. I think it is important that sober Catholic alcoholics, whether newly sober or longer recovered, develop a familiarity with Scriptural quotes. Get to know these as well as the 12 Step stuff. NOT TO EQUATE scriptural passages that are the inspired Word of God with bonmots of wisdom thought up by ex-drunks, but this is just a way to augment or supplement the little tools you use to cope.

Enjoy.

ADDENDUM(6 May 2007: Due to a variety of circumstances (i.e. “life”), this won’t be “Daily” anymore, just numerous times a week, in addition to the usual postings.

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!!)

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

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From today’s Mass Reading:

John 6:60-69;

Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said,
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.”
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer walked with him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

I’ve written about this passage before. The disciples and Jews could not accept the teaching that Jesus was putting forth. He was speaking literally, and not figuratively, and they understood that or else He would have corrected their misunderstanding that had caused them to return to their former way of life. He was telling them that they had to literally eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood in order to have eternal life, even though He was referring to His Body and Blood in the form of Bread and Wine. This was all too confusing, or disgusting, and so they left Him. And He allowed them to go.

When you are confronted with Scriptural or Catechetical truths that are too hard to understand, what do you do? Do you work to understand them, knowing that aince these are Divine Mysteries it will never be possible to fully comprehend them? But you accept them anyway in all humility like Peter? Or do you respond like Jesus’ disciples and the Jews in the passage above and turn away and leave? Perhaps refashion the teachings in such a way that are more acceptable to human understanding, despite their contradicting the Divine truth?

Humility is understanding your relationship to reality, adjusting your perspective to fit that reality, and being content with the results. Reality is that Jesus is God, not you, and that the only way to eternal life is through Jesus, (This does not mean that non-Christians do not attain eternal life, just that Jesus, the Just Judge, determines your admittance to Heaven based on the choices you’ve made in life. To continue on this track, then why be Christian? Because Christianity is the sole guaranteed roadmap to achieving salvation. Guaranteed by God.)

Now, many Catholics in AA and other Twelve Step Movements end up leaving the Church or accepting an illegitimate diluted Catholicism because the recovery movements offer an easier and softer way. Easier concepts to accept. Do not sellout or take the easier path. The richness of the Catholic Faith and Her spirituality offer far greater rewards than merely “staying sober”. Consider the teachings of Jesus and His Church to be a mountain that you have to ascend. The higher you climb (the tougher the Divine Mysteries you’re trying to grasp or the tougher the teachings you’re trying to live by) the more character defects you need to shed are cast off. Catholicism liberates you from the restraints of being merely human.

Go mountain climbing.

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!!)

Road to Damascus

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The First Reading from today’s Mass (Acts 9:1-20) is the story of Saul’s trip to Damascus where he was going to arrest the followers of the Way (of Jesus).

Acts 9:1-6

Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus,a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
He said, “Who are you, sir?”
The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.”

And so Saul goes to the city and stays.

Meanwhile the Lord has a message for another, Ananias, who is supposed to fetch Saul so the blindness that beset Saul can be healed. Ananias had little desire to do that as Saul’s reputation for persecuting the followers of Jesus had preceded him.

Nevertheless, The Lord prevailed and Ananias did as the Lord asked.

Acts 9:15-16 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites, and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name.”

Now, there are a few important lessons observed here that can be applied to us sober alcoholics. Ananias is an intermediary, he was chosen as an instrument by God to perform a certain task. The fact that he didn’t want to is relevant. His fear of what he knew of Saul was overcome by the importance God imparted to his mission. This is something we can all relate to. We need to do a certain thing, and would rather not. Perhaps because of what we know, or don’t know, but nevertheless there is resistance to doing it. The lesson here is that fear can be overcome by an awareness that it is God’s will that we are carrying out. Granted, it would be real convenient if God made His will known to us by a vivid dream or a booming voice heard in daylight, but He can make His will known in much quieter ways, if we only knew how to listen. Prayer is the best method of listening, and knowledge of Scripture and the Catechism can assist in guiding one’s mind (Is it really God’s will, or a self-delusion?).

The other important lesson is the obvious one. Saul’s conversion. I wrote about it once before, here.

God had a plan and a purpose for Saul (now Paul). That He picked a vicious persecutor of the followers of His Son is an indication that God’s assessment of His needs bear little resemblance to human reason. The Faith needed to spread out from the Palestinian Jewish lands where it wasn’t accepted and move out beyond, into the then known world. The early followers certainly would not have thought to seek out Paul, try and convert him to their agenda, and send him out. But for reasons known only to God, Paul was the perfect person for the task God chose him for, and he became the greatest convert Christianity ever knew, and was a major force for its eventual spread around the planet. God confounds the ways of the world.

Our own conversion from misbegotten drunks into sober alcoholics in the Catholic Faith may not have been momentous as Paul’s (but from a personal perspective it indeed may have seemed so), but nevertheless it did signal a change in our lives. What we once were, we no longer are. Our life path has changed and we are now on a new course. How we use this new opportunity depends on our resolve, our faith, and our openness to do God’s will. We can take a cue from Ananias, and toss aside our fears and go and do His will. We can also be like Paul, and embark upon a radically different life (remember, Paul was not just persecuting Christians, he was a well-educated Jew, a Pharisee, a keeper of the Law of Moses) and embrace what we previously opposed and abandon our old life entirely (not by any means equating Paul’s previous observant Jewish life with our drunken past. The symbolism of a complete turning away from old ways is meant here.).

We are on our own Road to Damascus. By whatever means that it occurred, we were disrupted from our old path to destruction and are now on a new path. Same road, different vehicle.

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!!)

Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist

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Today is the Feast Day of St. Mark, the author of the second Gospel. Also the shortest Gospel, can be read in one sitting.

From the Gospel of today’s Mass:

Mark 16:15-18
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

One easy and obvious take on this Gospel passage is that if believers can do all these things, well then certainly they can stay sober. Well, certainly, and that is the whole point of this blog. But a much deeper examination is called for and asks, “Why can believers do these things?”

The answer is: faith. Faith is belief in the unknowable, of things unseen by human eyes and instruments, and as the old hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas declares, “What our senses fail to fathom let us grasp with faith’s assent.” God is unknowable, at least by the limitations of human reason.

With faith we can bridge the chasm created by our fears, previously drowned in alcohol, and connect with the unseen God. Our faith tells us that He exists, and is there to aid us in being fully human. Alcohol robs us of the capacity to be fully human.

Faith is belief. You believe. An all-encompassing, marrow-tingling, world-view shaking life change. When a Christian believes, he or she just doesn’t (or shouldn’t) believe at the surface, a Christian allows that faith to make them new, different than before. An all-encompassing transfiguration from a person broken and beaten and used up by the world into someone born anew in Christ. This re-birth is sustained by the sacraments, from our baptismal renewal every time we use holy water, to our partaking of Holy Communion and Confession.

If we apply this to our recovery from alcohol abuse then we believe that we no longer need alcohol and exchange it for our love for Jesus. Faith in Jesus renders our need for alcohol to nothingness, and therefore our faith sustains us. No matter how good or how bad, drinking is no longer an option for us. It is no longer desired.

The passage “if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them”, I cannot explain as I am not a Biblical scholar, except that it probably isn’t to be interpreted literally, in much the same sense that one doesn’t actually pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin. It more than likely is a symbolism of Jesus’ victory over death, and how powerless the evils of the world are against Him. All who believe in Him will achieve eternal life with Him in Heaven. I felt the need to address that verse considering the focus of this blog.

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!!)

You Belong to God

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I like to read the New Testament writings of St. John the Evangelist, the mysticism always reveals something new (to me at least). I was perusing through the First Letter of John during meditation recently when this verse popped out at me:

1 John 4:4 You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

The first part of the fourth chapter of this letter concerns itself with how to discern whether spiritual “truths” come from God or from the spirits of the world (Satan, perhaps, or competing ideologies that fall short of Christian Truth). Basically, if the spiritual truth is rooted in the Trinity, observing that Jesus is God Incarnate (God made human), then it is True. Anything else is false.

This passage can be adapted to our needs in sobriety. We have given up alcohol and by whatever path we took, now have embraced, or are seeking to embrace, Catholic Christianity as our means to stay sober. We have accepted Jesus into our lives and as a result have started out on a radical approach to living that rejects the world’s moral values and customs. Values that say it is OK to diminish others as mere means of economic production or consumption (the capitalist/consumerist “ethic” that erodes the soul of human culture). Values that regard human life as disposable (abortion, sexual permissiveness, along with the already mentioned economic ethic). We have Christ within us. We are baptized into His Body, and if we are Catholic we can partake of the sacraments, especially Communion and Confession. We are no longer our own but it is Christ who lives within us (a Scriptural reference, and for the life of me I can’t find the passage) who is our guide and light.

Since he is now dwelling within us, we can “fill our soul” with Him, who will never abandon us, and who can satisfy us like alcohol cannot. We can use our devotion to and love for Jesus to repel the spirit of the world, which calls us to satisfy our pleasures and cravings here and now at the expense of our well-being and future.

Jesus is our protector and guide. We have conquered our alcoholic past, it is in our history. We have Him now. He lives in us, and we are changed. We embrace our fundamental dignity as human beings, and start to care for others about us. “The one who is in the world” would seek to have us remain selfish and unconcerned.

You belong to God, move into the world and transform it. Don’t stop at your own sobriety, work as best you can to meet the world and change it.

There is a criticism of AA’s who spend all there time just living soberly. They have families and jobs, attend meeting and such, and stop there. Compared to their alcoholic past, this is an improvement. Their response to criticism that they should get active is usually along the lines of “Hey, if all I’m doing is raising a family, holding down a job and staying out of jail, then that’s better than most.” This may be true, and for perhaps most, quite enough. But if you have all these things, why stop? If you have it within you to use these things for something greater than just being normal and ordinary, then do it. At your job preach the Gospel, not with words, but with your actions. Don’t just be a Christian during prayer time and Church. Live the Faith on the job. Get your family unit organized around a spiritual and religious life. Too many families are broken or breaking, too individualistic with the group. Lead by example.

Get outside allow your “belonging to God” to renew the world.

Get radical.

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!!)