Hope is the Lord and His Church

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From the First Reading of the Mass for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (11 Feb 2007)

Jeremiah 17:5-8

Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
but stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes;
its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.

The first two sentences can be thought to describe how we were during our drinking careers. Although we didn’t necessarily trust in human beings while we were drinking, we wanted to. And because we were untrustworthy, we were shunned, and we turned farther away from the Lord, to stand in a lava waste, a salty and empty earth.

After hitting bottom, we turned back to the Lord, by whatever means we had. We eventually ended up learning how to stay sober in AA, and thus were introduced to the concept of a Higher Power as an aid in keeping us sober.

By our own understanding, we came to believe that Jesus is that Higher Power, and by our own willingness were guided by the Holy Spirit in seeking out the Church. Many people in AA are suggested they seek out the Church of their youth as a possible source for spiritual growth and succor. Many Catholics return to the Faith. Many grow in it, but are arrested in their development by accepting too greatly the “Higher Power” concept and regard the Catholic Church as just one of another of Christian denominations. (It isn’t, and I’ll be starting a series of irregular postings on the subject of “Why the Church?” sometime soon.)

But as a seed to that end, re-read the last two sentences of the Scripture quote above. They can be describing us, after we’ve discovered how to handle sobriety, and especially how we are after we’ve accepted Jesus and His Church as the wellspring of our new life. Our “leaves stay green” and in times of drought we “show no distress.”

The Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus established, and it is the guardian of the fullness of the Gospel and Apostolic teachings.

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!!)

Selfishness – self centeredness!

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“Selfishness – self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root or our troubles.” (from Alcoholics Anonymous , 4th Edition, 2001, page 62.) The paragraph details further aspects of this, namely self-delusion, self-seeking and self-pity. Another section of the basic text of AA talks about alcoholism as “self-will run riot”. (I can’t find the page, sorry.)

I think the key word in the above paragraph is “self.” Alcoholism can be a world view turned inward upon the self. We alcoholics have certain problems with the world. It is not ordered according to our liking and God did not consult us. Therefore we turn our backs on the world in a selfish manner and seek to recreate it in the fantasies aided by alcohol. This increases our isolation from the world and escalates our negative attitude towards it. The world is an even more unfair.

One thing that AA teaches is that in recovery we have to change how we react to things. Since our worldview was messed up to begin with we reacted in a way in keeping with our delusional, fantastic interpretation. If the world is against us everything is sucked in through that filter. We react in a way that mirrors the world’s perceived hostility. And the world get more hostile.

Therefore we need to change how we react to things. The world is just there. It is indifferent to us, although we are an important part of it. (Hence Jesus’ Death and Resurrection) People do not go around plotting ways to cause our demise or tick us off, although many times it seems that way. Through a slow process of conversion initiated by whatever got us to stop drinking, we gradually begin to reprogram ourselves and change how we interpret the world and what it does. Our recovery starts with an admission of our powerlessness over that which brought us solace (and others pain).

As we continue down this path or recovery, we gradually repair our relationships. Our physical, mental and finally our spiritual healing develops as we also repair our relationship with God and then others.

We can continue this outward sign of our recovery by a further giving of ourselves in service and volunteering. I wrote about this a few days ago. When we give of ourselves without expecting anything in return we enhance that healing and the world looks different. You begin to feel and sense joy.

This is not an overnight happening. It takes time and courage to keep going this route. But the giving of oneself, in a sense almost a sacrificial offering, is a saving act. We are bringing ourselves closer to God. We cannot save ourselves in the sense of meriting heaven by our own efforts, but we can open ourselves to God’s graces by being in service to our community.

The Church teaches that God never sends anyone to Hell. Hell is chosen by those who reject God. Their rejection is so total because they are consumed entirely by the self. There was no room in them for genuine love and sacrifice.

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 prayer for alcoholics (who may still suffer)

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For a Recovering Alcoholic

Lord, alcohol addiction is such a
sad and destructive way of living
life. Give them the grace to
acknowledge their addiction and
powerlessness over alcohol.
Help them to accept the support of
counselors, doctors and friends to
sustain their resolve. May they be
deeply aware of Your love &
forgiveness as they are freed from
this addiction.

We ask you this through Our Lord,
Jesus Christ.

AMEN

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!!)

Here I am, send me!!

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An excerpt from the First Reading from today’s Mass on the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time:

Isaiah 6:5-8
Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

The Twelfth Step of AA reads: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”

We were doomed, with unclean lips, unworthy due to our alcoholism (it seemed to us). Yet as a result of our conversion, our recovery from alcohol, our wickedness has been removed (so to speak) and our sin purged.

Now anew, “new wineskins” receiving the “new wine” of the Gospel, are we prepared to seek out and carry out this message of redemption? That no matter what our past, we are now qualified by those experiences to bring the message to those who still suffer? And are we knowledgeable enough about our Catholic Faith to use it in bringing forth the fullness of Gospel and Apostolic truth that is the Catholic Church?

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian recovery websites and blogs. Almost all are Evangelical or non-denominational. That is one reason I started Sober 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!!)

In service to others

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Most people upon joining AA and other 12-Step programs are quickly told that they should perform service work in the meetings. This usually means picking up and setting up before the meeting, cleaning up afterwards, making coffee, greeting people. This is usually intended to get the new member other-directed, that is, focusing on other people rather than themselves.

It is the start in assisting them in realizing that they are a part of a community of individuals, that in this journey of recovery there is strength in numbers and one needn’t go it alone. In fact, isolation or a solitary program is almost a guarantee of relapsing. In some way, forever, you have to connect with other people and maintain that community.

Service work, or volunteering as I now prefer to call it, is an excellent way to “get outside yourself”. Once you learn the skills of giving of yourself without expecting anything in return, the benefits to yourself are measureless.

One neat saying I’ve learned in AA is that “your mind is a bad neighborhood to be caught alone in”. Without connecting to other people, without learning of their problems and troubles and maybe trying to help them (and much is appreciated in the trying) your only alternative is isolating yourself in your mind and being subject to all the self-defeating and dark thoughts that resurface. Volunteering lets other people into your life, and there are no strings attached (No pay. There is little or no economic gain or risk). This lets light into your life and you realize that others like you simply for being.

Being other-directed distracts you from your own troubles. Witnessing other people’s problems contrasts with your own and yours don’t seem so bad.

Volunteering may also help you in performing whatever for-pay job you have. Working as a volunteer detaches you from the economic strings associated with a job. Liberated from the fear of economic need, you can focus on the tasks at hand and improve your professional behavior. (In other words, you are freed from the fear of getting fired, after all, you’re not getting paid, so if you’re dismissed…)

Volunteer somewhere. Serve.

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!!)

First Step: Powerlessness and weakness

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2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.

The First Step of AA is “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.”

Many believe through misrepresentation in movies and TV that the first step is in admitting that you have a problem. This is wrong. You can admit to having a problem but still feel that using your own will you can beat it. (Although there are many alcoholics who have in fact beaten their alcoholism using their own will, or through some treatment program other than AA, this blog is focused on the Twelve Steps, and ultimately the Catholic Faith in liberating oneself from the drink. There are numerous paths to sobriety. This particular one uses the Steps for the foundation, and then Catholicism for the above ground floors.)

And so the first step is in admitting that you are powerless over the problem. I am an alcoholic, this means that I cannot drink safely, nor ever normally (because if I were able to drink normally, I’d drink all day), and I have tried on my own to stop drinking but was unable to do so, and only by the grace of God was I able to stop. Where I failed, God succeeded. I have surrendered to the fact that I cannot ever drink and have forsaken all possibility of doing so. Period. No matter how good or how bad, drinking is simply never an option. Ever. I cannot drink. Were I to do so, I would find my decision-making processes compromised and my cognitive reasoning skills sabotaged. There is no hope ever of me drinking again because of the crippling and disabling power of it.

And this is pretty OK with me. By accepting that I am powerless over alcohol, in that if I allow it the slightest amount of chemical influence over me I would then lose, disinclines me to drink. By detaching myself from the need to drink alcohol to cope with any trouble or problem or difficulty, I am liberating myself to deal with whatever the issue is in a rational and proactive manner. I allow the graces of God in me to assist me in meeting the challenges. I am stronger as a result. My will decreases so that His will in me increases, hence the strength.

I sometimes envy those who can drink normally, that is just have a few and stop. I miss the opportunities to share a glass of wine or beer in a spirit of conviviality. But there are other ways of getting that. Blessed be those who can drink a little and just enjoy it and stop. It is a gift. But not everyone needs it.

St. Paul, in the Scriptural quote that opened this entry was referring to a particular problem that he had. God’s grace was sufficient to aid Paul in dealing with that problem, and that the power of God’s grace worked more completely in Paul’s weakness. Paul had begged to be released of his problem, but it was allowed to continue. Just as we alcoholics may beg God to be released of our alcoholism (so we can drink), we are not released. But God’s graces are sufficient to relieve us of the need to drink. The problem is there, but we have the freedom from using it. We are stronger than the problem, due to God’s graces.

Dwell on this and roll it over in your brain. We cannot cope with our addictions alone. We cannot get sober in isolation. We need God and others.

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!!)

Keeping Your Head on Straight, Part 2 (Regular Daily Prayer)

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I seemed drawn to a more orderly prayer routine, almost liturgical in nature. Perhaps it was the daily Mass on EWTN and later my own Mass attendance at a local parish. At any rate, I found that meditating on the daily Mass readings helped me and gave my prayer life a more fulfilling routine. It also helped me to slowly start to see the year more in light of the Church’s liturgical calendar. The two periods of Ordinary Time, and Advent/Christmas, and Lent/Easter and Pentecost became as real to me as Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. And more relevant, too. This aided me in my continuing reversion to the Church. Seeing the year according to the Liturgical calendar helped me view the Church as a living, breathing organism, with its own tides and times.

When reading the Mass readings, or the Wisdom books and Gospels, I tried to discern a connection between what they were trying to say and my own sober journey. Either the path I was on, or just stuff that I was coping with then. The just gettin’ through the day stuff. Many times I got a connection, or advice on dealing with whatever I was going through. This gave an additional vibrancy to the liturgical calendar. Not to mention developing an increasingly greater tendency to seeking (or seeing) God’s will in daily life.

I then discovered the Liturgy of the Hours. This is also known as the Divine Office, An old name was the Roman Breviary. It is the official daily prayer of the Church, second only to the Mass. Mandatory for the Pope on down to the newest seminarian. Ordinary people (laity) can say it, and I’ve learned that it is increasingly popular amongst us. It is organized around the Psalms and other Biblical readings. It quite often ties in nicely with the daily Mass readings. It is ancient. Praying it connects you to all others in the Church who pray it, plus also those who’ve gone before. This gave a greater structure and sense of rhythm to my day.

To aid in that, this blog also has at the top links to the Daily Mass readings and also to the Liturgy of the Hours. The LOTH links (provided by Universalis) gives greater information on the Divine Office, if you’re curious. there is also a link in the sidebar to Presentation Ministries. In addition to also having the Mass readings, they also provide daily meditations that are beyond compare if you wish to live a radical, authentic Catholic life. They point to the ideal.

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!!)

Keeping Your Head on Straight, Part 1 (Regular Daily Prayer)

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One of my early realizations about AA was that its brand of spirituality wasn’t enough for me. However, one of the good things it taught me was that a regular period of daily prayer and meditation was essential in “getting your head on straight” every morning. At first I read from daily devotionals based on AA’s 12 Steps. Then I progressed to seeking out Catholic texts. Prayer books were obvious.

The need for this is simple. We are at our weakest in the morning. It is then we are most susceptible to depression or any glum view of the day. To fall into a bad routine and not get out of it.

A regular prayer routine, starting as close as possible to when you awaken is essential to survival. Prayer connects you with something greater than yourself. Call it your “Higher Power” if you wish, but doing something ASAP in the general direction of God helps you to get your head oriented in the right direction.

In AA meetings you learn that sometimes a relapse back into drinking occurs before you actually take the drink. The mind relapses and the will follows and then the drinks start pouring. Meetings interrupt the flow of thought in the mental relapse; daily prayer affords the same benefits, but with greater spiritual effects. In prayer, in which you raise your heart and mind to God, either with Scriptural readings or set prayers written by Saints, you are allowing God in and enabling him to do His work. He recharges your batteries, rewires your electrical, fixes your plumbing. Re-orders your thought patterns. He heals.

And so I developed a routine of going through various prayer books I had, in addition to trying Bible reading (namely Psalms and the other Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiates, Song of Songs, Wisdom and Sirach. Job is tough and I set it aside for a while. Still haven’t yet read it through.) The Gospels are relaxing. Any of those are a great start in a regular routine of daily prayer. There is no greater prayer book on Earth than the Holy Bible. Fifteen minutes a day is a good start. Don’t be too surprised if you find yourself reading and praying longer.

Next post continues with specifics.

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!!)

Love is…

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1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

This was taken from the Second Reading from today’s Mass, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Take out the word “Love”. Substitute the name “Jesus” in its place.

We are Christian. We are to “put on Christ”, in other words, to be like Him. Now read that passage with Jesus’ name substituted for love. That is what we ideally aspire to.

Now go back to the original reading. Again take out the word “Love”, but this time substitute your name in its place. How far from the ideal do you feel?

Yeah, me too.

That is the destination of the lifelong conversion process we are on. That is the happy destiny we trudge towards.

(Anonymous thanks to my priest for my adoption of a portion of his homily for today. 🙂 )

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!!)

"…before you were born I dedicated you…"

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Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you…”

This was taken from the First Reading of the Mass today, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Meditate upon that. Think about that the next time you’re feeling worthless and discouraged. Especially of when others are tearing you down because of your alcoholism or addictions. Despite all that, God held you in His Mind and contemplated you from all eternity. And He had a plan for your life. Alcoholism may have in some way been a part of that plan, as strange as that seems. Sometimes we discover the whys of it in recovery. It can be a healing and a fulfillment. A point of joy or a reason for resentment. If the former, then the healing occurs. If the latter, then the addiction may never be overcome.

Knowing that God knew you and loved you before you were born sheds a certain perspective on the whole thing, and how one chooses to react is telling.

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!!)