Anxiety is another cross that we alcoholics have to bear. Fears and worries about the future or about present circumstances and the apparent powerlessness over them leads to anxiety. Anxiety happens when faith is weak or absent. We lack the confidence that God is there to help us or provide for us, and we feel …
Continue reading ‘Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes for Alcoholics: Day 2’ »
We are all individuals. Sometimes our sense of individuality gets unhealthy and and is replaced by a feeling of aloneness. We feel isolated and no longer a part of whatever community or communities we belong to. This separation is distinctly harmful and will lead to all sorts of thoughts about our well-being that are untrue. …
Continue reading ‘Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes for Alcoholics: Day 1’ »
On February 11 is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It honors the 1858 apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France. Along with the apparition at Fatima, Portugal, it is one of the best known of Marian apparitions. Even non-Catholics have heard of it due to miraculous healings of …
Continue reading ‘Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes for Alcoholics’ »
This Immaculate Heart Saturday post is intended to suggest ways to practically apply one’s Marian Consecration; this is the fruit of my closer studies of the writings of St. Maximilian Kolbe and Militia of the Immaculata literature and lots of woolgathering. It will hopefully help make manifest my Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary in …
I have been delving deeper into EWTN’s programming since I posted the other day about Mother Angelica is as helpful and inspiring today as she was decades ago. I have also begun exploring their programming on Lourdes (an obvious devotion for anyone who is an alcoholic and addict or is otherwise afflicted with physical and emotional …
The idea: Popularizing a Triduum of Monthly Marian Consecrations. What’s a Triduum? A Triduum is three consecutive days on the liturgical calendar commemorating or celebrating a feast day. We used to have many back in the olden times before Vatican 2. We’re really down to just the Easter Triduum of the evening of Holy Thursday through Easter …
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This blog has a new patron. As today is February 11th, traditionally the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes (and the World Day of the Sick), I have decided to consecrate Sober Catholic to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have mentioned previously (most recently today, in Our Lady of Lourdes/World Day of the Sick) that …
A few years ago while in very early recovery I had the time to spend getting deep into the 12 & 12 and culling from it what I could. (The “12 and 12” is a book of essays on the Twelve Steps of AA: Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, …
Continue reading ‘A Spiritual Axiom: a Disturbance of the Spirit’ »
This was originally written on February 29, 2008, which was a Leap Day. It was posted to a soon-to-be-discontinued blog of mine and is being transferred to this one like most of the other posts on it. I had kept it as a draft in my blog editor, postdated to February 29, 2012, but have …
“The Sober Catholic Way” helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety. Drawn from nearly two decades of blogging at SoberCatholic.com, “The Sober Catholic Way” shows the importance of the sacraments, the Bible, the Catechism and other books. It continues on with the various ways one can …