Category Archives: Church

My Way or His Way

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In my spiritual development (or “spiritual progress” as they like to say in AA) I have found that there is a very useful method by which one can come to terms with Church teaching and also discerning the meaning of the Bible. That method is to shift one’s perspective.

In what way?

To view things not from a human perspective, but from God’s.

Although that is difficult for a limited human to do (and we all are limited) it is possible.

Too often when we try and grasp Church teaching or try to interpret or understand the Bible we do it from the approach of our own selfish human ego. This will never work. The Bible and Church teachings are, in general, opposed to the human ego’s natural desire to want for itself and to satisfy its own cravings.

One short way of discerning God’s will that is applicable to this is the order of importance in who an individual serves or is concerned with. You are seeking God’s will if you:

  1. Put God first;
  2. Put other people second;
  3. Put yourself third.

(For married people I would assume that Number 2 can be broken down into 2a: Spouse; 2b: Children; 2c: other family members; 2d: other people.)

Taking this to the task of understanding Church teaching and developing a proper sense of Bible interpretation more in line with the Church’s authoritative interpretation we can ask:

  1. How does this passage or teaching best help us serve God?
  2. How does this passage or teaching best help us serve others?
  3. How does this passage or teaching best help us get us closer to God and building His kingdom? (For in doing so we develop spiritually.)

This is an act of humility. It deflates the ego, (EGO: Easing God Out) and allows the grace of God to enter and illuminate our soul.

Takes some time to develop the habit, but it works after a fashion.

Your way, or His way. How has your way been doing lately?

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!!)

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you."

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The Gospel Reading from Today’s “Mass for Civil Needs: For Peace and Justice” (it being Independence Day in the United States):

John 14: 23-29,

Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
“I have told you this while I am with you.
The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name–he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.
And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.

Again, as with the other two readings for today, it’s about peace. It’s the peace that Jesus gives to us for following him, not the kind of peace that the world metes out to it’s followers, but a different kind. Christian concepts of a thing are markedly different from the world’s concepts of the same thing.

There is also a confidence bestowed: the confidence that the Holy Spirit will be with us to teach us and to remind us of what Jesus said while on Earth. This is done through the “Teaching Authority” of the Catholic Church. (You can look up the word “Magisterium” in any of the “For All Things Catholic..” reference links.) The Church, in the authority of the Pope, is preserved from teaching moral and doctrinal error by the protection of the Holy Spirit. The proof of this is in that for 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has never taught anything in contradiction to Sacred Scripture, and has never changed Her teachings to be fundamentally different from the Scriptural basis. Doctrines and Dogmas have evolved through a greater understanding of scripture and human behavior (The Holy Spirit’s guidance!) No mere human institution, whether secular or religious, can make this claim. Numerous people have purportedly “disproven” such claims, however such exposes have been from a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the teaching. Or abject misinformation.

Anyway, I digress. Love Jesus. Follow Him. You will be “In Christ” as He will dwell within you. And where He is, so will the Father be (and the Spirit, too!).

A peace that cannot be given by the world.

Human failures and weakness and pressures from the world may make that peace elusive at times, but it is always there for the asking.

Pray for peace.

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!!)

Liberty to the Captives

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The basic idea behind “Sober Catholic” is that you can use the religion and spirituality of Catholic Christianity to preserve and maintain your sobriety. Catholicism may not be your only tool, but should be the primary one.

The Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible contains many of the Hebrew prophecies concerning the Messiah (the anointed One of God), whom Christians regard as Jesus Christ.

The following excerpt from the First Reading of today’s Mass (which celebrated the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua) is from Isaiah :

Isaiah 61:1-2 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn…

This is Jesus. He had come, and is still present among us in the form of the Eucharist, and still guides us through His Church. Following Jesus and participating in the sacramental life of the Church (living out your baptismal promises and receiving Holy Communion and going to Confession) liberates you from the false and empty promises and lies of alcohol and the other seductions that the world pollutes you with. You were once a captive of alcohol. It seduced you into thinking that it was your best and only friend and only through drinking could you discover your true self.

After a fashion you discovered that this wasn’t the case. In the end you hit bottom and ended up sitting in front of a computer reading about how Catholicism can keep you sober. But like everything else about the Catholic Church, it merely points the way to Jesus. Committing to Him, as you’ve presumably have done (or are thinking of doing) liberates you from the need to subscribe to the world’s values and the world’s solutions. Jesus is “The Way, the Truth and the Life” and is the only true counter-cultural force that endures. By “counter-cultural” I mean that in being a Christian one operates in contradiction to the the preferred manner of the world. Your master reigns in Heaven, and is not subject to this world’s demands. And by following Him, neither are you.

Alcohol and its abuse is an aberration used by people who have an unfortunate misperception of the world. Feeling rejected or at odds with it, they turn to alcohol and suddenly feel accepted. Alcohol makes you feel as though you finally “fit in”. It’s a lie, of course. In the end you are nearly destroyed by the lie.

Follow Jesus. You were once captive, and now you are free. Study the Gospels and get radical about living. Study the Catholic Church’s teachings, and be lifted up. They are not designed to chain you by listing a series of “do’s and don’ts”. Taken with the proper perspective, they liberate you from the limitations of being merely human.

Faith endures. Truth liberates.

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!!)

Truth vs. Opinion

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Admittedly some of the teachings of Catholic Christianity can sound bizarre, if not ridiculous. For example, the Trinity is about 3 Divine Persons in one God, yet not three gods, only One, but they’re all One Being, and yet still Three. You get a headache trying to figure it out.

Jesus is one of those Three, fully human (except in sin) and fully God, but not half of either. Not a demigod like Hercules. All God, yet all human.

Mary! Herself immaculately conceived, and also remaining a virgin after giving birth to Jesus. Just how is that possible? A virgin birth is a contradiction.

The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is another. How can something that looks like a little white cookie be Jesus Christ, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity? Just because the priest says a few words, exactly like Jesus did? Looks like a cookie…

The Resurrection of the dead is another. You die, and perhaps centuries or millennia later, you will come to life again?

All this is either true or the biggest con game invented. So much seemingly ridiculous illogical beliefs all gathered together in one philosophy should have died out centuries ago, collapsing under the weight of it own silliness.

But it didn’t. In fact, people have shed their blood for Christianity, convinced of its Truth.

Philosophies that are inherently illogical and irrational tend to die out. They may persist for centuries, but never attracting a large sustainable following for long, relative to other ideas.

But nearly a third of this planet is Christian. That’s about 2 billion people.

Are they all nuts?

No, because as incredulous as Christianity sounds, most of those 2 billion believe in the fundamental Truths of Christianity. There is an underlying conviction of the truthfulness of Christianity’s teachings.

This conviction is that God Himself is teaching us through Christianity things about Him and how to live in accord with His will.

This is where Christianity (along with its elder brother Judaism) differ from all other world religions. Judeo-Christianity is the only revealed religion, all others derive their teachings from wise, intelligent and charismatic people.

But, all the other world’s religions are fully understandable by humans. Their philosophy may be extensive and eloquent, but they never contain anything that’s virtually impossible to wrap one’s mind around like Christianity does.

This inability to be fully understood, the idea that seemingly irrational concepts can be true is, in my opinion, the Truth of Christianity.

In short, IF IT CAN BE UNDERSTOOD, IT IS FROM HUMANS; IF IT CANNOT, THEN IT IS FROM GOD.

What does that mean? A human-originated philosophy can be comprehended by humans. A philosophy coming from God will contain the essence of God’s nature and His ways that can never be completely understood by people. It is illogical and not very humble to presume that mere human intellect can probe the mysteries of the Divine and comprehend it. Our ability to comprehend is limited by our physical and temporal nature. We exist only for a limited period of time and our physical powers are not omnipotent. God is eternal and is not subject to the laws of science and reason that He created.

Science is like this. Science is the rational and logical study and exploration of nature, from the vastness of space to the minute levels of the subatomic world. God created the world and everything else, He laid down the laws of science to keep it in motion. Is science easy to understand? No. If you study science, then you study God, through His works. Science explores God through the physical realm; religion and spirituality explores God through the non-physical realm. If you find it difficult to comprehend science, why would you feel it easy to understand God and His ways?

How does this relate to sober alcoholics? Try the next time someone tell you that you don’t need God or organized religion. Just think of what you know about Jesus and ask, “What is a better way to achieve sobriety and salvation? A human idea that can come and go, shift and change with the passing fancies of human whims, or an idea revealed by God Himself, the eternal and perfect?”

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.”
Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish?
For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Edited 10:26 PM 12 June 2007

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!!)

Catholic Resources

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As I hope you’ve noticed, there’s a collection of links along the sidebar entitled “For All Things Catholic…” This is a list of very excellent resources on the Catholic Faith. Everything from the Vatican’s website with it’s vast body of information, to other excellent sites such as Catholic First, New Advent, Catholic Answers, Scripture Catholic and PhatMass. All these contain pretty much anything you ever want and need to know about the Catholic Church from throughout its 2,000 year history. Much of the documentation extends back that far. Historical writings and records proving the scriptural basis of Catholic teaching along with proof of the Church’s historical continuity from the time of the Apostles through today can all be found in those sites (along with a few I didn’t mention, but are listed in the links.)

There’s another site that I just discovered on Dymphna’s Well (a wonderful blog listed in my “Blogs of Interest” links section). The site is Catholic Digital Studio a vast storehouse of everything from catechesis (learning about the Faith, beginning to advanced), apologetics (again, beginning to advanced) to scores of free classic and modern texts and audiofiles.

I’m agog and in awe of this site. Much of it duplicates some of the other places I’ve listed, but it’s a great one-stop-shop to learn about Catholicism.

View it as a fun way to learn, not as something that’s intimidating. Think of the fun you’ll have digging through all this neat stuff.

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 Advocate

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Tomorrow (or Sunday, depending on where you live) is the Solemnity of the Ascension. This is the Christian teaching that Jesus bodily ascended into Heaven 40 days after He died. (How He accomplished this is unknown, and is irrelevant. God is not subject to the physical laws He created.)

What is important about this is in doing so He opened Heaven to all who believe in Him, a Heaven that had been closed since the Fall of Adam and Eve. Heaven was barred to us due to our First Parent’s arrogant decision that they could be just like God and decide what is right and what is wrong for themselves. Jesus paid our price for their sin. And now Heaven is open again.

He had said that this was necessary for another reason. Without His leaving, the Advocate would not be able to come. Who, or what, is the Advocate? It is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. It is the source and guide for each of us, the ‘inner promptings’ that we sometimes receive that encourages us to do a certain thing. Our conscience is guided by it.

Our alcoholism made it impossible for us to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit tells us. Distractions from the world around us and from our own inner turmoil prevent us from hearing the ‘still, small voice’ that is the will of God caring for us.

Prayer and a disciplined life (living moderately and responsibly) helps us to keep in tune with the Holy Spirit’s promptings.

But the Ascension, important as it was for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the Earth (10 days later on the Solemnity of Pentecost), how does it relate to our sobriety?

Jesus had completed the task for which He incarnated Himself. He came down to Earth to die. He had done this, along with leaving behind a body of teachings to live by. He also established a Church to safeguard and defend those teachings until He returns. The Holy Spirit’s chief task is to prevent that Church from teaching error in matters of doctrine and dogma. It doesn’t prevent that Church or its members from behaving sinfully, after all, the Church is composed of sinners. But we have the guarantee that where the Church speaks on Faith and Morals in line with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit protects the Church’s voice, namely, the Pope. We have an assured guide when we are confused, or when our moral compass is not pointing True North.

If we are sober then we have completed a task. We have stopped drinking. Our alcoholic self has essentially died, and a new person is born. That person is now open to clearly an willingly receive the graces and guidance that the Holy Spirit offers, and we as Catholics can receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. Jesus died and lives in us in the sacramental nature of the Eucharist, and through this union we can better live out our Baptismal promises of rejecting Satan and sin. If we were Confirmed in the Faith as young adults we can grow more deeply in the Holy Spirit and spiritually develop in ways that those who adhere to a more secular way of living are puzzled and confused over. They need false and valueless stimuli as TV and and other worldly crutches to cope with the day.

Pray to Jesus, go to Mass and receive Holy Comunion, if you can. And start preparing for Pentecost, which comes in 10 day’s time.

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!!)

Feast of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles

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An excerpt from the Gospel of today’s Mass:

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus is the sole way to the Father, He preaches the Father’s Truths and belief in Him gains one eternal life with the Father in Heaven.

These are the Truths that the Apostles handed down to us through the centuries of Christianity, and that is the Faith that we profess today.

If we follow this Faith with sincerity, fidelity and with humility, we will have the strength to persevere through anything that is dealt to us by circumstance. No further need have we for alcohol when we have Jesus, the Bread of Life.

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!!)

For the Lord gives wisdom

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The “Daily Wisdom Dose” for today is from Proverbs 2:6.

For the LORD gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding…

We have two sources form the Lord’s wisdom: the Bible and the Church. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. The Church was established by Him to safeguard His teachings and also to teach in His name until He comes again. The Church’s teachings are called “Sacred Tradition” and are not to be confused with tradition in the manner of things and doings and practices. Sacred Tradition is the apostolic teachings from the first century through today, the teachings of the Popes and Bishops in union with him (as opposed to Christian Bishops that are not Catholic). They do not add anything completely new to God’s Biblical Revelation, but are derived from Scripture. Sacred Tradition is encapsulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Reading the Bible, along with the Catechism and even the writings of the Early Church Fathers provides you with access to the “knowledge and understanding” from the Lord. They all direct you to God, the source of all life and wisdom and knowledge. Enlightened by this understanding and knowledge, you grow closer to God, and increasingly view the world through God’s eyes. Perhaps another way of putting it is you view the world from the perspective of eternity. Puts things that encourage you to drink in a different framework, yes?

Along the sidebar there’s the grouping of links called “For All Things Catholic”. In it are links for three excellent translations of the Bible (The New American, The New Jerusalem, and the Douay-Rheims). There’s also links to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In addition, there are links to numerous sites that can explain Catholicism much better than I can, including anything you need to know about exactly what “Sacred Tradition” is, especially its Scriptural basis. This may come as a shock to non-Catholic Christians, but all Catholic teaching is rooted in the Bible.

The three different Bible translations are useful. Perhaps you are having a difficult time with a particular verse. Reading that same verse in a different translation my assist you in understanding it better.

Get to the links!

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!!)

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

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From today’s Mass Reading:

John 6:60-69;

Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said,
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.”
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer walked with him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

I’ve written about this passage before. The disciples and Jews could not accept the teaching that Jesus was putting forth. He was speaking literally, and not figuratively, and they understood that or else He would have corrected their misunderstanding that had caused them to return to their former way of life. He was telling them that they had to literally eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood in order to have eternal life, even though He was referring to His Body and Blood in the form of Bread and Wine. This was all too confusing, or disgusting, and so they left Him. And He allowed them to go.

When you are confronted with Scriptural or Catechetical truths that are too hard to understand, what do you do? Do you work to understand them, knowing that aince these are Divine Mysteries it will never be possible to fully comprehend them? But you accept them anyway in all humility like Peter? Or do you respond like Jesus’ disciples and the Jews in the passage above and turn away and leave? Perhaps refashion the teachings in such a way that are more acceptable to human understanding, despite their contradicting the Divine truth?

Humility is understanding your relationship to reality, adjusting your perspective to fit that reality, and being content with the results. Reality is that Jesus is God, not you, and that the only way to eternal life is through Jesus, (This does not mean that non-Christians do not attain eternal life, just that Jesus, the Just Judge, determines your admittance to Heaven based on the choices you’ve made in life. To continue on this track, then why be Christian? Because Christianity is the sole guaranteed roadmap to achieving salvation. Guaranteed by God.)

Now, many Catholics in AA and other Twelve Step Movements end up leaving the Church or accepting an illegitimate diluted Catholicism because the recovery movements offer an easier and softer way. Easier concepts to accept. Do not sellout or take the easier path. The richness of the Catholic Faith and Her spirituality offer far greater rewards than merely “staying sober”. Consider the teachings of Jesus and His Church to be a mountain that you have to ascend. The higher you climb (the tougher the Divine Mysteries you’re trying to grasp or the tougher the teachings you’re trying to live by) the more character defects you need to shed are cast off. Catholicism liberates you from the restraints of being merely human.

Go mountain climbing.

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!!)

Bruised reeds…

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Isaiah 42:3

A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench…

This excerpt from The Book of Isaiah from yesterday’s Mass (Monday of Holy Week) speaks of the mercy of Christ.

This passage is an important one for anyone to remember, but particularly for us alcoholics.

For we were bruised reeds and we were smoldering wicks. Caught in the grips of alcoholism and perhaps at the depths of despair, we were on the verge of breaking or winking out.

And yet we did not break; our light, however dim, was not quenched. How we managed to grab onto whatever lifeline that pulled us out of our misery may be a mystery. It might have been a family member calling the local AA hotline, or a clergy rescuing a lost soul, or some other seemingly coincidental or improbable event, but whatever it was, we had enough hope left in us to grab onto that lifeline.

Some of us pulled on that lifeline and entered AA. A lot stayed there, content to remain with the comfortable and easygoing spirituality and friendships it offered. Some of us were not satisfied and kept on searching. We needed something deeper and more sustainable and somehow entered the Catholic Church.

Perhaps our hurt was not fully healed by the 12 Steps of AA, and we responded well to the Church’s teachings on God’s mercy and forgiveness. That despite whatever our past, God still loves us and desires us to be close to Him. We heeded the sacramental call and drank of the deep waters of the Eucharist and Penance. And we were satiated like alcohol never could do for us.

There was a “hole in our soul” that we thought could be filled by our addiction, and we were eventually disappointed and wounded. But upon entering the Church, we became whole again, healed by the sacraments and an invigorated, deeper prayer life.

Rest in God’s mercy.

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!!)