Category Archives: Blessed Virgin Mary

Immaculate Heart of Mary and Purity

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Back when I was looking around for Catholic resources for addiction recovery, I was stunned to discover that almost all of them dealt with porn, lust and sex addiction.

Today is the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an optional Feast Day on the Church’s liturgical calendar. Mary is the refuge of those seeking purity, as it was only through her immaculate conception that Our Lord was able to become Incarnate and redeem us from our sins (as He certainly could not be born through a woman enslaved by Original Sin, right?)

Today is also the 98th Anniversary of the Fatima Apparition of June 13, 1917. It is a happy coincidence that the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary falls this year on that anniversary.

One of the significant parts of the “Message of Fatima” is that the Lord is greatly offended by the increase in sexual impurity. Those are my words, Our Lady didn’t speak that way to innocent children. She basically said that various fashions are displeasing to the Lord and many people go to Hell for such offenses. Later on, I think, this was interpreted to mean the increasing secular nature of culture and the growing trends towards immodest fashions and casual sex.

If the Lord was offended by the standards of sexual culture 100 years ago, you can imagine His offense today.

Anyway, if you are troubled by lust and impurity, the Rosary is a safe refuge. Praying it slowly, meditating of the Mysteries can interrupt the thought processes leading you to impure acts. Perhaps find sacred art and place it around your residence. Fill your mind with holy things! It will take effort, some times easier than others. Lust never sleeps; like alcohol, it is “cunning, baffling and poewerful.”

Related posts: Immaculate Heart of Mary and IHM and Fatima Apparition of June 13th.

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!!)

Fatima: Prayer, Conversion and Penance

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Today, May 13, 2015 is the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. On this date 98 years ago the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three little shepherd children near Fatima, Portugal. I introduced this last year in this post: Fatima. It also contains links for your further edification as you should really, really, be interested in this Apparition of the Virgin.

As I said in that post, I plan on blogging about the Apparitions at Fatima on or about the anniversary dates of each one. The reason is that the “Message of Fatima” is an important one, and is very applicable to those struggling with addictions.

On May 12, 1982, Pope St. John Paul II gave a General Audience just before leaving on a pilgrimage to Fatima. His intent was to give thanks to the Virgin Mary, whom he felt had preserved his life after an assasination attempt one year earlier in St. Peter’s Square. He said in that General Audience, “I am going particularly as a pilgrim of brotherhood and peace to that land that the Virgin chose to launch her sorrowful appeal for prayer, conversion and penance.”

The Holy Father later stated that “I nourish the hope that this gesture of mine will serve to reawaken in believers a renewed sense of responsibility, inducing each one to question himself fairly about his consistency with the values of the Gospel.”

I was reading a compilation of speeches that Pope St. John Paul II gave on the ocassion of his 1982 pilgrimage to Fatima, compliled by the Daughters of St. Paul, entitled “Portugal: Message of Fatima,” and these quotes jumped out.

“Prayer, Conversion and Penance.” These are the core strategies for those of us struggling with alcoholism. We pray, we have an ongoing conversion, and we live penitential lives (or, we do this as best we can. Some times and years are better than others. But we carry on.).

And we must always do a “self-check” ala AA’s “Step 10” concerning how best we live our lives according to the Gospel’s values. Do we choose the Gospel, or the World? Do we live by the divine Gospel message, or secular political or economic messages? Do we cause an injustice and refashion the Gospel so that it fits into our secular ideologies?

If you missed last year’s posts, all my Fatima posts are here: Fatima Post Archives.

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 Miracle of the Sun and Halloween

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On October 13, 1917 the final Marian Apparition at Fatima, Portugal took place.

I know I’m a few weeks late with this, but upon reflection, I decided to push back writing this until today, the Feast of All Hallow’s Eve (a/k/a “Halloween”). I’ll explain at the end.

Seventy thousand people attended the event, which was supposed to have a miracle promised by the Virgin Mary so that all may believe.

Amongst those present were representatives of the Portuguese media, all socialist and all anti-clerical (theophobes who despised the Catholic Church, professed atheism, and who cooperated in what they hoped would be the eventual destruction of the Church in Portugal. The country had undergone a revolution in 1910 which deposed the Catholic monarch and imposed restrictions on the Church.)

Our Lady appeared as promised, but not alone. St. Joseph also appeared, holding the Christ Child.

Oh, yes: the sun also danced in the sky. Witnessed by all those in attendance, and by more hundreds of miles away, the sun whirled about in the sky, terrifying the witnesses.

It also appeared to hurtle towards the Earth, convincing people that the World was ending (and this part of the Apparition is why I decided to take advantage of my posting tardiness and write this today.)

One note on the sun dancing: for anyone who may be skeptical, one evidence that “something” happened lays in the fact that it had been raining heavily all day long, so much so that the ground throughout the area was drenched. Saturated with water, and combined with the foot traffic of 70,000 attendees, it was a horrific muddy mess.

Until the sun dried it. Nearly instantly. According to all those present, after the Apparition was over and the sun returned to its normal state, the ground was hardened as though it had not seen rain for weeks.

And another note for skeptics: this was all duly reported by the anti-clerical media. The reporters had gone there hoping (or rather assuming) that the whole event would be a non-happening; that the seers would be shamed,the Church embarrassed and once and for all the foolish belivers would have their religious superstitions exposed for what they are – nonsense.

But no, they couldn’t deny the event, their skepticism and non-belief didn’t prevent them from witnessing the Miracle of the Sun, nor acknowledging the effects on the physical environment.

So much for that.

Now, as to why I “reframed the situation” and took advantage of my lateness in posting this.

As the sun plunged to the Earth the believers were understandably freaked out. They thought the world was ending.

The liturgical calendar for the Catholic Church has tomorrow as the Solemnity of All Saints, and after that the Memorial of All Souls. All Saints is for all those in Heaven, officially canonized by the Church or not; and All Souls is for the Faithful Departed who are undergoing purification in Purgatory.

These two days are there (amongst other reasons) to remind us of our ultimate end. Someday we will all die. There is no escaping that.

Maybe this is something for you to consider, before God decides to hurl the Sun at you.

(This is the last post on the Marian Apparition at Fatima, Portugal for 2014. As I’ve stated before, I plan to write on this Apparition around the anniversaries of each apparition in the months they occurred through the centenary anniversary in 2017. The Apparition happened on the 13th of May, June, July, September and October, as well as a late one on August 19th. I do this because upon my research into the the Apparitions, I find many things useful to Catholics in addiction recovery. To discover more, please see the “Fatima” category in the drop-down Category menu in the sidebar.)

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 September 13, 1917 Marian Apparition at Fatima

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The Marian Apparition at Fatima, Portugal on September 13, 1917 was marked by increased crowds as news of the previous appearances of the Blessed Virgin continued to spread throughout the country.

For this particular one Mary told the seers to prepare for the next one on October 13th, that St. Joseph will also appear with the Christ Child to bless the world; and that Mary herself will appear as Our Lady of Sorrows as well as Our Lady of Carmel.

The seers were instructed to continue to pray the Rosary for the end to the War (World War I was still raging).

She reminded the seers that for the last Apparition for 1917, a miracle will occur that will cause many to believe.

This is also the next-to-last post on the Fatima Apparitions that I will write for 2014; as I have stated previously, I am undertaking a series of posts on the most famous of Our Lady’s apparitions as I feel the Fatima message (of penance, prayer and reparation for sins) is important for Catholics in general, but there are specific aspects of them that are applicable to Catholics suffering from alcoholism and addictions. You can follow them by clicking on the “Categories” menu over on the right, and looking for “Fatima.” Click on that category and all of the posts on Fatima and its message will appear.

And once again, these posts will appear in every month that the Apparition occurred and within a week or so of the date (the 13th of May through September) until the centenary of the Apparitions in 2017. Simple at first, I will gradually delve more into them as time goes on.

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 Delayed Fatima Apparition of August 13

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The Fatima Apparition of August 13, 1917 did not occur when it was supposed to. The three seers of Fatima: Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, had been essentially taken “hostage” by the local government administrator just prior to the Apparition. As a result they were not present, but were miles away being threatened with torture (being boiled in oil) if they did not reveal the “Secret” that the Blessed Virgin Mary had shared with them earlier (a vision of Hell, amongst other things).

Nevertheless, Mary was not about to be upstaged or thwarted by a mere bureaucrat. Our Lady did appear to the shepherd children on August 19th.

During this Apparition, our Lady requested that the seers continue to return on the 13th of the month and to continue praying the Rosary.

Lucia asked her as to what they should do with the money that was beginning to be donated. Mary replied that two “litters” (like stretchers to carry someone) are to be made, one to be carried by Lucia, Jacinta and some girls, the other by Francisco and some boys, for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Money left over is to be used for the construction of a chapel to be built on the site.

Mary concluded with, “Pray, pray a lot and offer sacrifices for the sinners. You know that many souls go the hell because there is none who pray for them.”

As I have said previously, I plan on blogging about these Apparitions in hopes that Catholics in recovery can find some additional tools to pack in their spiritual toolkit for fighting addictions. Every month from May through October, on or about the 13th, I shall post something on that month’s Apparition through the 100th Anniversary in 2017. Initially I’ll be very basic, but when the anniversaries approach again up through 2017, I hope to delve deeper. I am still beginning my journey of exploring the spiritual wealth of Fatima, and the more I read, the more I am coming to regard Fatima as an essential devotion to any Catholic in recovery from addictions.

You can keep up with Sober Catholic’s blogging on Fatima at this link: All the Fatima Posts.

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!!)

Five First Saturday Devotions

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The “Five First Saturdays” were instituted at the request of Mary in 1925, during an Apparition to Lucia, one of the then only surviving seers of Fatima.

Our Lady requested that the faithful, on the first Saturday of the month for five consecutive months:

 • Go to Confession

 • Receive Holy Communion

 • pray the Rosary

 • meditate on the one of the mysteries for fifteen minutes

 • all of the above in a spirit of reparation

Confession can be eight days before or after.

Communion can be received in the usual ways: either at Mass, such as a Saturday morning daily Mass or the Saturday Evening Vigil Mass, or from a priest or Eucharistic Minister, or during a Communion Service. Many parishes may have such a service to assist people in fulfilling the requirements. Check around your locale at Mass Times for parishes.

Why five Saturdays? Our Lady requested that for the following reasons:

Five first Saturdays of reparation were requested to atone for the five ways in which people offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

 1 attacks upon Mary’s Immaculate Conception

 2 attacks against her Perpetual Virginity

 3 attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind

 4 for those who try to publicly implant in children’s hearts indifference, contempt and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother

 5 for those who insult her directly in her sacred images.

I am posting this now as tomorrow, August 2nd, is Saturday, and the first one of the month. It’ll be a good time to start as there are only five calendar months remaining in the year, so it’s easy to remember. When I did this devotion, I usually selected November through March, as they are the five full (or nearly full) months without any Major League Baseball regular season games. I’ve never heard of anyone selecting any particular months to do this (any five will do, as long as they are consecutive.) But in my opinion, try five that will be easy to remember to complete the devotion. The first five months of the year, or the last five, or if your favorite sport has a five month-long offseason, or something else entirely, whatever works! 😉

Why consecutive? I don’t know, probably to link them all in a continuity.

For more information, please visit here: Immaculate Heart of Mary and here.

The Five First Saturdays devotion is a part of the Fatima series of posts, found here.

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!!)

Fatima Apparition of July 13, 1917 and Praying for Peace

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The third Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three little shepherd children occurred on July 13, 1917. In this appearance, Our Lady asked that the seers pray the Rosary every day for world peace and for a “end to the war.” World War I was raging at the time.

This call to pray the Rosary for world peace is just as urgent now as it was in 1917, perhaps even more so. Considering the continued existence of nuclear weapons, terror threats and the increasing persecution of Christians world-wide (but especially in Africa and the Middle East/Southwest Asia), we need to use all of the spiritual weapons at our disposal to combat the evil spreading about the world.

The oldest of the three seers, Lucia, asked her as to who she was. Mary replied that she will identify herself in October, and also will provide a miracle so that all will believe.

It was also during this Apparition that Our Lady provided the seers with a vision of Hell. I’ll refrain from writing about that, this year. I do have to spread things out as I have three more years (God-willing) in which to work on these Fatima posts. I have to save some things for later. 😉

For those of you who recite the Rosary, it was also during this Apparition that Mary requested that the phrase “Oh My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Your Mercy” be added to the end of each decade of the Rosary.

So, that is it for this month’s post on the Fatima Apparitions. As I have said before, I plan on blogging about these Apparitions in hopes that Catholics in recovery can find some additional tools to pack in their spiritual toolkit for fighting addictions. Every month from May through October, on or within a week or so of the 13th, I shall post something on Fatima through the 100th Anniversary of the Apparitions in 2017.

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!!)

Immaculate Heart of Mary

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Today is the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Traditionally linked with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it is a devotion to Mary’s interior life, as exemplified by the passage from Luke 2:19,

But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.

via Catholic Public Domain Version of the Sacred Bible.

In Twelve Step programs, we are reminded that we cannot hope to always work the program perfectly, that we should focus on “spiritual progress, not perfection.” Mary, however, was our race’s greatest triumph, and due to her immaculate conception, was sinless. Essentially perfect. Although we cannot hope to be just like her, we can strive to imitate her virtues and devotion to Jesus and God the Father.

If you are struggling with impurity, a devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary can help ease the suffering.

She can be our model in our recovery life. She can help us, inspire us, and through our recitation of the daily Rosary, be the focus of our Step 11 work. Yes, I think the Rosary is the best way to really practice Step 11 daily (in addition to whatever prayer manuals and such you may use. But you can carry a Rosary about you wherever you go. It can be recited while driving. Difficult to do that with a Bible or prayer book.

Wikipedia has a nice article on the Immaculate Heart:

Immaculate Heart of Mary – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

And so does the Catholic Encyclopedia:

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Devotion To the Heart of Mary.

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!!)

Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Fatima seers

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Today and tomorrow are two special days on the Catholic liturgical calendar. Today is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and tomorrow is that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. More on the latter in a subsequent post.

Recently I have undertaken a study of the 1917 Marian Apparitions at Fatima, Portugal. While I had known the basics, I felt it necessary to delve beyond those and read more about the Apparitions. In doing so, I have found myself becoming more devoted to two of the three little shepherd children who were seers of the Apparition, Blesseds Francisco Marto and his sister, Jacinta. Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta in 1920, both a few years away from becoming teenagers. They were beatified in 2000.

I have started a series of posts on Fatima, and these will continue on or about the anniversaries of each Apparition through their centenary in 2017. And so while I will be writing more about each of the two Blesseds off an on during the series, today I wish to introduce two aspects of them that I think Catholic alcoholics and addicts might find helpful in their struggle to maintain their recovery.

In reading about Fatima, I fell into a fascination with the unashamed and unabashed piety and holiness of these two young ones. While it might be relatively easy for young children of that era to be very devout and pious, before the corruption by mass media, TV, movies and radio, it was still very edifying.

Both of them, in their spiritual development during and after the Apparitions, took to two different pious acts. Francisco was always seemingly drawn to “comfort and console” Jesus; while Jacinta was more concerned with making reparations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. All of this can perhaps be better grasped if you read more on the Apparitions and the two Blesseds elsewhere (as I encourage you to do as it’s beyond the scope of any one post), or just gradually wait for the publishing of future posts on Fatima here 😉 . But in short, the basic message of the Apparitions was that the Blessed Virgin Mary exhorted the three seers (Francisco, Jacinta and their older cousin Lucia) to pray the Rosary for world peace and offer up personal sacrifices for the salvation of souls, especially those caught in grave sin, particularly sexual (although due to their age, the reference to sex was about “sins of the flesh.”) and to make reparations to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. The result in the lives of the three seers are inspirational and hopeful messages of courage and love.

They were horrified to learn that many people are damned due to certain sinful acts; their lives afterwards were marked by a sincere desire to make reparations for these acts. The Virgin Mary had revealed that people should make reparation for sins against the Sacred Heart of Jesus (heresies, sacrileges and blasphemies against the Church and the Eucharist) as well as sins against her Immaculate Heart (specifically against impure acts, in addition to Marian teachings and practices of the Church.)

And here is why I think Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto might make wonderful intercessors or even patrons for those in recovery, especially those addicted to sex and porn: based upon my readings of their lives, it often seemed that they would automatically, as if it was a part of their very nature, offer up sacrifices and make reparation for sins. Like I said up above, Francisco would be mostly concerned with “consoling” Jesus and Jacinta with making sacrifices in honor of Mary’s Immaculate Heart. With regard to Francisco and his emphasis on consoling Jesus, I would remind you that a central theme of the Venerable Matt Talbot and his “Way of recovery” is to transfer your love for your “drug of choice” onto the Sacred Heart. In other words, love Jesus and not the addiction. Not easy, but like any recovery program, a process you have to work at.

I have found it useful and fruitful to begin to call upon their help. I have yet to make it a habit, but when I remember, it seems to work. Whenever something is going on that might result in sin, be it anger or impatience or whatever, I can almost hear Blessed Francisco cautioning me to “be careful, that would hurt Jesus.” Or if I’m tempted in other ways, I can feel Blessed Jacinta warning me that it will offend Mary. “Too many people go to Hell! You mustn’t!”

And I get through it and feel stronger.

This is why I’m introducing them to you all today, given the proximity to the feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A pretty good opportunity to bring them to your attention, two feast days that should be of interest to those addicts and alcoholics who struggle with the Catholic Faith, as well as impurity and other grave sins.

(In talking about this with my wife Rose, she told me that her father also had a devotion to them, ending every Rosary decade with a prayer to them. She isn’t sure offhand what the invocation is, if/when she remembers or finds out, I’ll add it in the comments.)

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 Fatima Apparition of June 13th and the Immaculate Heart

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I am late in getting to post on the June 13, 1917 Marian Apparition at Fatima, Portugal. Last month, near the 97th Anniversary of the first one, I had mentioned that these best-known of the approved apparitions can be very beneficial to recovering Catholic alcoholics and addicts due to the emphasis on prayer, penance and reparation. You can read that post here: The Apparitions at Fatima.

The June Apparition occurred on the 13th, as Mary promised. Word had gotten out that Mary was to appear and so the three little shepherd children were not alone, a small crowd was also present. Those gathered were saying the Rosary.

Mary appeared, visible to only the children. Mary reiterated what she had requested during the May 13th Apparition, that the shepherds were to return on the 13th of each month through October, and pray much as well as to learn to read.

She also confirmed what she said in May, that two of the children will be going home to Heaven shortly (Blessed Francisco Marto and his sister Blessed Jacinta Marto.)

One other thing (and this is why it might not be bad that I’m late with this): Mary stated that the Lord wishes that there shall be a devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Feast day for that is coming up on this next Saturday, June 28th. I shall have a post on that with a further explanation.

So, that is it for this month’s post on the Fatima Apparitions. Like I had said in the post linked to above, I plan on blogging about these Apparitions in hopes that Catholics in recovery can find some additional tools to pack in their spiritual toolkit for fighting addictions. Every month from May through October, on or about the 13th, I shall post something on Fatima through the 100th Anniversary of the Apparitions in 2017.

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!!)