Category Archives: Aloneness

Suffering as foreshadowing destiny

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A recent article in Spirit Daily: entitled “OPEN TO GOD, CLEANSE, AND FIND THAT BIG PROBLEMS OFTEN MEAN A GREATER DESTINY” says what I’ve suspected in that sufferings, trials and problems in general in life may be indicative of greater and better things later on.

Read and ponder!

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!!)

The Healing Rosary

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There is another interesting article from Spirit Daily entitled: “MYSTERIES OF YOUR LIFE CAN BE REVEALED AND HEALED THROUGH MYSTERIES OF ROSARY”

(Via Spirit Daily.)

I encourage you to read it and ponder.

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!!)

Transcending hurts

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There is a nice article in today’s Spirit Daily entitled: “RISE FROM WHAT MIRES YOU AND TRANSCEND HURTS OF THIS WORLD THROUGH HIS POWER”

(Via Spirit Daily.)

A good read on spiritual warfare and healing.

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!!)

Young man, I tell you, arise

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The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass (Wednesday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time) has been special for me these past few years.

Luke 7:11-17: “Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.

As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her,‘Do not weep.’

He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you, arise!’

The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, ‘A great prophet has arisen in our midst,’ and ‘God has visited his people.’

This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region. “

(Via USCCB.)

I was not the only son of my mother, but I was her youngest and I had lived with her for her last 10 years on Earth. For her last 18 months I was her caregiver of sorts.

I discovered sobriety just in time to be useful to her in her final years. The thought of my still being addicted to the bottle at any time during her last couple of years scares me to this day, I am very grateful to God that He pulled me away from the bottle in plenty of time for Mom to see me sober and responsible enough to care for her. This is why I have a special connection to this Gospel passage. I was dead, but with God’s graces through AA and then the Catholic Church I arose from the death of alcoholism and I became sober and a strong Catholic.

Today I was reflecting on her death and the hellish period that followed for me. I remember walking around the streets of my hometown on the day she died muttering and mumbling to myself about how alone I was. This was in between tears. I was convinced that I was alone and that I would forever be alone. I do not believe that I had ever felt this way, this mind-numbing, marrow-curdling feelings of aloneness and abandonment.

I wanted to die. I wasn’t suicidal, but I had prayed to God that He would take me as I was convinced that my mission on Earth was over. I was born late in Mom’s life (just after her 47th birthday) and things seemed geared for me to be useful to Mom at various points in her life, especially after Dad died in 1995 and as I stated above, just before her own death in 2005. I hadn’t amounted to much of anything through 2005, at least by most people’s standards.

I am glad that God didn’t agree with me. I am glad because I have discovered relative security and deep love in my life. My faith in God’s Divine Providence and reliance on His Catholic Church pulled me through and gave me a new meaning in a life that I wouldn’t have scripted, but am happy with nonetheless. I am still puzzled by many things, but life isn’t really a problem to be solved, but a mystery to unravel.

I had arisen, like the young man of Nain.

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!!)

Restless Hearts

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Today, August 28, is the Feast of St. Augustine. You can read all about him in this article from CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Augustine of Hippo .

Many times in 12 Step meetings or when listening to someone in recovery speak about their journey, they mention a “hole in the soul” that was filled by their addiction. Eventually they were no longer able to fill that hole with their addiction, at which point they hit bottom or otherwise reached their “jumping off place”, from which they slowly turned away from alcohol or drugs and towards a “higher power”. Hopefully that “higher power” is God and not some secular idol, but nevertheless they discover something better.

St. Augustine discovered something better after his life of debauchery and other various sins. A well-known quote of his is:

CHURCH FATHERS: Confessions, Book I (St. Augustine): “Thou movest us to delight in praising You; for You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.”

(Via New Advent.)

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!!)

Look upon the Cross

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Crucifix.jpg

A very nice lady walked up to my wife and I after Mass and told a story about her grandmother. The story itself isn’t important, except that she related something that her grandmother told her about going through trying times.

“See that man upon the Cross? Look at Him and THEN tell me your troubles.”

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!!)

An effective prayer against the usual mental maladies that plague us

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There is a prayer at the end of the Divine Mercy Chaplet that I say quite often when I am experiencing fear, anxiety, stress, resentment (and so on):

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your Mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is love and Mercy itself.

It is from paragraph 950 in the diary of St. Faustina, entitled Divine Mercy in My Soul (advance notice, music will play after site loads, so quiet your speakers if you’re in a public place).

It has been a very effective prayer when I experience doubts and any of the above named mental issues.

NOTE: The online Diary does not number the paragraphs, but you can click on the link for Notebook 2, page 2, and scroll towards the end. Or go to any Catholic bookstore or the online Divine Mercy shrine gift shop and purchase a copy (I get no commission, despite the plug. I just enjoy using my new blog editor, Mars Edit. It makes writing for blogs easy, especially for inserting links 🙂 Just wait until I figure out all the media uploading tools!)

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!!)

Crown of Thorns. Crown of Glory

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If you are an alcoholic or an addict, chances are you might be familiar with anxiety and depression. There is a new blog that deals with those issues from a Catholic perspective. It is written by Rosario and is at

Crown of Thorns.Crown of Glory: “CATHOLIC HOPE FOR THOSE WITH DEPRESSION AND OTHER ANXIETY DISORDERS.”

(Via Adrienne.)

Add it to your arsenal.

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!!)

The many ways of God's healing gifts

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The following is a link to an article on being open to the varied and diverse ways that God can heal you. Please read and consider how or if it can be relevant to your life.

Spirit Daily – Daily spiritual news from around the world: “GOD IS A GOD OF SURPRISE AND HAS SUCH IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU HEAL INSIDE AND LOVE”

(Via Spirit Daily.)

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!!)

Introducing "Catholics In Recovery"

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This weekend, and indefinitely beyond, is the official “launch weekend” for a new Catholic social network for those of us in recovery from alcoholism or other addictions.

The name of the place is “Catholics in Recovery” .

As I have posted before in this blog, I had searched when I first sobered up for some sort of interactive websites like forums and blogs where I can get readily updated information on how to use the Catholic Faith in my recovery. I didn’t find anything pertaining to alcoholism.

This search led me to create the Sober Catholic blog you’re now reading. I have taken that one step further and have started “Catholics in Recovery” .

A number of invitations have been sent out, email addresses were gleaned from correspondence with readers or email subscription lists. I am hoping these didn’t end up in your spam or junk mail folder. If you are sure that I have your email address, and you didn’t receive an enmail invitation, just go to the link in this post or click on the “Catholics in Recovery” badge in the sidebar.

Join up! You can post in the forums about various topics I’ve already set up, or create your own topics. You can suggest new categories of topics if there’s something I haven’t covered. The network is still new and growing. You can establish your own page there and post stuff to it or upload photos and whatever. Your page needn’t be recovery-issue related, it’s yours. The site just offers you the opportunity to connect with other readers of Sober Catholic, as a sort of mutual support group. I’m tired of being alone in this.

CONCERNING PRIVACY ISSUES:

you can control whatever others see. No need to give out your real name and such, the privacy settings are customizable.

Just play nice. People can be banned from the network if anyone is offensive. I mean in a mean and hurtful way.

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!!)