If you are a Simon of Cyrene…

Posted on March 28, 2026 by Paul

The Second Reading from the Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours for the Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent is from a homily by Saint Gregory Nazianzen, bishop:

If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up your cross and follow Christ. If you are crucified beside him like one of the thieves, now, like the good thief, acknowledge your God. For your sake, and because of your sin, Christ himself was regarded as a sinner; for his sake, therefore, you must cease to sin. Worship him who was hung on the cross because of you, even if you are hanging there yourself.

Courtesy: Divine Office.org

We are all Simon of Cyrene. We all are called to take up our Cross and follow Christ (Matt 16:24) Or, help Him carry His. (Colossians 1:24)

We have been crucified because of the sins of our addictions and through the process of recovery. This passage from St. Gregory Nazianzen is a call for us to acknowledge who is the source of our recovery and the new life in Christ we now have. And then what? We show Him gratitude: we worship Him and pay Him homage. Our sins don’t excuse us.

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!!)

Happy the man who considers the poor and the weak

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Paul

The excerpt from the Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours for Friday in the 5th week of Lent from Psalm 41:1-3

Happy the man who considers the poor and the weak.
The Lord will save him in the day of evil,
will guard him, give him life, make him happy in the land
and will not give him up to the will of his foes.
The Lord will help him on his bed of pain,
he will bring him back from sickness to health.

Courtesy: Divine Office.org

Let’s say you’ve been clean and sober for a while now. What have you done with it? I know I’ve asked that question at least once before during these daily Lenten bloggings. It’s important. Maybe you should now consider “giving back” which could mean any one (or more!) of a number of things. If a recovery movement really helped you, keep on attending meetings and help out the newcomers who remind yu of what you were like when you first stumbled into the rooms. Or, take a more active role in your parish. Parishes live on volunteer work as it saves them from hiring people. Plus, if you need it, you can add your volunteer jobs to your resume. Employers LOVE volunteer stuff on resumes. Check out your parish bulletin and see if therea re any requests for help of some kind; otherwise, you can email the parish office and see if they have the inside scoop of stuff that needs doin’ but doesn’t get in the bulletin. Visit a nursing home or hospice. You can sit with the dying and pray with them. We all will eventually cross the veil separating us from eternity, you may want to begin familiarizing yourself with the possibility.

Or, think of something else you can do to “give back.” Recall the words of Pslam 41:1-3!

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!!)

Mother Angelica died 10 years ago today

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Paul

Mother Angelica died 10 years ago today.

Mother Angelica and EWTN are probably the primary reasons why I am alive today. Her shows, plus the Daily Mass homilies and the Divine Mercy devotion that EWTN propagated helped keep me going in early sobriety and later on, during my Mom’s decline and death and the suffering I went through over that loss as well as what my so-called family was putting me through (which had caused me to attempt suicide.)

EWTN has a special documentary commemorating the day, here is the YouTube link; it is also on the EWTN+ streaming service. I am grateful that EWTN is keeping her memory and her shows alive (although I really wish they had all of her programs with all the episodes on EWTN+. They only have 100 “Mother Angelica Live” episodes.)

Remembering Mother Angelica: 10 Years Later

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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!!)

Lenten Feast Day of Our Lady of Sorrows

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Paul

Lenten Feast Day of Our Lady of Sorrows (Friday after Passion Sunday*)

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Like I said in this post:

There is an old, pre-1969 Catholic devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. Prior to the revision of the liturgical calendar in 1969, the Friday after Passion Sunday was known as the Feast of the Seven Dolors/Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows…Since this Feast of Our Lady essentially duplicated the September 15th Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, it was deleted from the calendar in 1970.

But it’s perfectly acceptable to continue honoring this day as a feast in honor of Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows, hence the Novena I cobbled together which concluded yesterday.

This post from a few years ago has a meditation for each of the Seven Sorrows, I encourage you to read it for today’s meditation: Our Lady of Sorrows.

This post has some general information of the Devotion: Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows

ChurchPop has a few great articles to learn more about the devotion:

The Seven Sorrows of Mary & The Promises to Those Who Meditate Upon Them Daily

and:

16 Powerful Graces Our Lady Promises to Those Who Honor Her 7 Sorrows

and also:

How to Pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary & Our Lady’s Powerful Promises to Those Who Pray It (that version differs slightly from how I say it; I don’t use the Introductory Prayer mentioned, I just say an Act of Contrition. No worries, there are slightly varying methods of reciting the Seven Sorrows chaplet.) Speaking of which, here is another variant from Immaculee’s website: 7 Sorrows Rosary Prayer.

I hope you enjoy these resources! Please cultivate a devotion to Our Sorrowful Mother!

Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence,
Be Thy Mother my defence,
Be Thy Cross my victory;
While my body here decays,
May my soul thy goodness praise,
Safe in Paradise with Thee.
(Stabat Mater)

*On the contemporary Liturgical Calendar, this is now the Fifth Sunday of Lent.

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!!)

Lenten Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows: Day 9

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Paul

Day 9 (Thursday)

Vigil of the Feast

The King has descended to the Dead, preaching the Gospel to the righteous Just of the Old Testament. Adam and Eve, Abel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Kind David, and all the other Patriarchs and Prophets up until His own foster father Joseph and John the Baptist are nown hearing the Good News (although Joseph and the Baptist already knew it.)

Mary, meanwhile, has remained in the Upper Room, bereft with grief over her Son’s death. Yes, she knows that He will rise again; but this does not lessen her grief. The deeper your love, the deeper your grief, and His promised rising again doesn’t overcome the pain of her loss.

We can perhaps use this time during Lent to increase our empathy for other’s pain. Rather than make excuses or some other way to ignore or account for it, perhapswe can try to see through other’s eyes and feel through other’s hearts the pain they are going through. I need to do this. It’s scary.

The harrowing of hell 13247.

Wounded with his every wound,
Steep my soul till it hath swoon’d,
In His very blood away;
Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In his awful Judgment day.
(Stabat Mater)

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!!)

Look to God…

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Paul

The excerpt from today’s Mass for the Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent is from Psalm 105:4-5.

Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.

Courtesy: USCCB

God is your rock, your stronghold, the one thing you can count on when all others have failed you. He is unchanging. Therefore, it is right and fitting that you should seek out and do His will. (What’s God’s will? Read the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Gospels, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and you can sort it all out and discern how that all applies to you and your state in life, you personality and predilections.)

Just remember all the things He has ever done for you in the past, the times He has come throiugh for you when the going was iffy, and how He has offered “corrections” to keep you on the Way.

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!!)

Lenten Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows: Day 8

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Paul

Day 8 (Wednesday)

The Burial of Jesus

And so Jesus is buried. If we keep with the theme of death being the extinguishing of the old self, then the burial in symbolic of the consigning to the past (God’s Mercy) that old self. Have you let go of that self? Are you still clinging to aspects of that life? Time fpr another Step 4 if you’re still “working the Steps” or another thorough examination of conscience. lent is winding down, now is the time when many parishes have Penance services. Make use of one, there are often many more priests available than during your typical weekend, plus you get to talk to a priest you might not know (not important, but if it relieves your stress and anxiety…)

Soon, a new journey will begin.

BurialofChrist CarlBloch.

Virgin of all virgins blest!,
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share thy grief divine;
Let me, to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of that dying Son of thine.
(Stabat Mater)

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, Lord; I come to do your will

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Paul

The refrain from the Responsorial Psalm for the Mass on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is adapted from Psalm 40:8-9

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.

Courtesy: USCCB

If you are reading this blog, then I am assuming you have some degree of sobriety behind you. What have you done with it? If you are doing your best to lead a normal life, being a responsible family person (husband, father, wife, mother, sibling) or citizen (gainfully employed and such like) then that is great! But you can do more. if you are specifically reading this blog because you are Catholic, then perhaps you are seeking “what to do” about your Catholcism. It’s OK to “just be responsible.” Most people aren’t. But you can do so much more. God may be calling you to be a Christ-bearer to others, just like Mary!

Botticelli, annunciazione di cestello 02.

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will. Pray to the Holy Spirit for discernment in how to do that. If you need help, there’s my book, Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics.

Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics is a call to arms, or rather, a call to pens, paintbrushes, and video cameras, for creative Catholics to take up St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe’s call to infiltrate pop culture and help alleviate the ills that pervade contemporary society. St. Maximilian saw back in the 1920s how the use of cinema, radio, and mass-market books was corrupting society. He thought that those same tools could be used as a countercultural force to overcome this corruption.

Furthermore, it explains through the example of three critical apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima how she herself suggested strategies and alternatives to the dehumanizing and increasingly pagan contemporary culture we have today.

Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics concludes by showing how the Catholic Faith can be used to provide a road map out of our current morass and a blueprint to build a more just and fair society constructed according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and other elements of traditional Catholic Social Teachings.

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!!)

St. Oscar Romero, patron saint of Mental Health and Anxiety

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Paul

Late tonight a friend shared this on What’sApp about St. Oscar Romero, whose feast day is today, March 24th. He is regarded as a patron saint of Mental Health and Anxiety! (Zoinks, do I need him nowadays!)

I was unaware of this patronage, and I’ll look up more things on him to post later. If I’m still blogging next year I’ll remind you in the days leading up (perhaps I can find a novena.) (For those who think St. Dymphna is the patrom of mental health disorders, there can be multiple patrons of a particular thing; I’ve blogged quite a lot on this or that saint, blessed or venerable and how they’re a patron of alcoholism or addictions.

For starters, here’s a link to an article (itself having more links) on his relationship with OCD and scrupulosity.

From that link:

St. Oscar Romero (1917-1980 El Salvador) struggled with scrupulosity his whole life, but when he was 49 a psychiatrist diagnosed him with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Already a priest, Romero had the humility to undergo psychoanalysis and seek counseling at a time when mental illness was spoken of only in hushed voices.

He continued to deal with his OCD throughout his life, including during his work as archbishop fighting for the rights of the oppressed, for which he was ultimately killed.

Here’s a Vatican biography on him: ST. OSCAR ROMERO, MARTYR

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!!)

From his misery he raises the poor

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Paul

The excerpt from the Psalmody for Evening Prayer I for the Solemnity of the Annunciation on the Tuesday in the 5th week of Lent (that’s a mouthful) is from Psalm 113:7.

From the dust he lifts up the lowly, from his misery he raises the poor.

Courtesy: Divine Office.org

As alcoholics and addicts we were shunned and cast off towrds the margins of decent society. And rightfully so, for our actions caused this. Nevertheless, God loves each and everyone of us as we are, even in the depths of our sins. He made us, how can it be otherwise? We all have equal dignity in His eyes regardless of our worldly status. So, when He sees us deep in our addiction, He is at the ready to help. Sometimes He waits for us to reach out to Him, and at other times He doesn’t wait.

Just as Mary said “Yes,” to when the Archangel Gabriel announced to her that the Holy Spirit desriref to overshadow her so as the Second Person of the trinity could manifest Himself in her and redeem the world, you can say “Yes” to Him and become another Christ-bearer to others.

The annunciation 1667.jpg!Large.

And He is not frightening, either. This is why He came to the world as an infant. God, the Creator of All, King of the Universe (and Multiverse, if that exists) entered intto human existence as a baby. He humbled umself that much just so as to be approachable. If it helps you to approach God in thaty manner, that is, regarding Him as an infant, that is perfectly acceptable! There is a old, venerable Catholic devotion known as the Devotion to the Infant Jesus (usually involving the “Infant Jesus of Prague.”)

BY THE WAY: THIS ISN’T A DEVOTION FOR WOMEN, ONLY! Although it appears that women would be more attracted to this, it is a great way for men to learn humility.

These websites have detailed information on the devotion to the Infant Jesus.

The Story of the Infant Jesus of Prague

Infant Jesus of Prague History & Devotion

Infant Jesus of Prague Novenas, Chaplet & Devotions

Prayers and Devotions to the Divine Infant Jesus of Prague

The Infant Jesus of Prague (EWTN!) Mother Angelica had a huge devotion to the Infant Jesus! See:

“Build Me a Temple”: Mother Angelica’s Mystical Visions of the Divine Child Jesus,

Mother Angelica describes her vision of the Divine Child Jesus,

and finally: Divino Niño Day

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

If you are a Simon of Cyrene…

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Happy the man who considers the poor and the weak

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Mother Angelica died 10 years ago today

Remembering Mother Angelica: 10 Years Later

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Lenten Feast Day of Our Lady of Sorrows

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Lenten Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows: Day 9

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Look to God…

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Lenten Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows: Day 8

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Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will

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St. Oscar Romero, patron saint of Mental Health and Anxiety

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From his misery he raises the poor

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