Category Archives: Conversion

Wash yourselves clean!

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The First Reading for the Mass for Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent again reminds us that if we repent, our lives will be made as new:

Isaiah 1:10,16-20: “Hear the word of the LORD,
princes of Sodom!
Listen to the instruction of our God,
people of Gomorrah!

Wash yourselves clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.

Come now, let us set things right,
says the LORD:
Though your sins be like scarlet,
they may become white as snow;
Though they be crimson red,
they may become white as wool.
If you are willing, and obey,
you shall eat the good things of the land;
But if you refuse and resist,
the sword shall consume you:
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken!”

(Via USCCB.)

A key idea seems to hinge around one phrase, “If you are willing, and obey…” good things will happen. In light of recent posts Listen to Him and Just Do It, obedience seems to bring great rewards. God knows this is not easy. But He also knows, as some of us have realized through our own spiritual progression, that obeying God and doing His will is an excellent way of shedding our defects of character. We fulfill the Lenten idea of “denying ourselves”. This means that we deny fulfilling our own self-directed or inward-directed wills and look outward towards God. We get “beyond ourselves” and grow closer to the Lord. We get His help in discovering the root causes of our sins and in amending our lives.

A thorough examination of conscience followed by Confession and Mass is an excellent way to do this.

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!!)

Remember not our past

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The Responsorial Psalm for the Mass for Monday of the Second Week of Lent helps those of us who have done the 12 Steps, or at least have gone through the first 5 (the moral inventory and the sharing of that with another).

Psalm 79: 8,9,11,13: “Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.

Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name’s sake.

Let the prisoners’ sighing come before you;
with your great power free those doomed to death.
Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
through all generations we will declare your praise.
“

(Via USCCB.)

We all have “a past”. We all have things that we wish we never did, and want that they just “go away”, not to be remembered by anyone.

With the passage of time, things do indeed dim and are replaced by other events and memories, some good, some bad. The thing that we are concerned with is what mark on our souls and impact upon our eternal life that our past has had.

God is the judge of that. He looks upon our lives and sees where we went astray, but also when we repented and returned to Him. We repent (a conversion of our heart away from the sin and resolve to not commit it again), go to Confession and beseech the Lord to forgive us, and He will. The sins of our past will “not be remembered”, and no longer held against us.

This is important for us alcoholics and addicts who wrestle with our consciences about whatever we had done in the past, especially when memories return to haunt us. Meditating upon this during the season of Lent will help us cope with the weight of our misdeeds.

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!!)

So Jonah went to Nineveh and this happened

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Everyone in the secular world focuses on the fishy part of the story of Jonah. They don’t pay too much attention to the key part of the reason for the Jonah epic in today’s First Reading in the Daily Mass from Wednesday of the First Week of Lent:

Jonah 3:1-10: “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
‘Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you.’
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD’s bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
‘Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,’
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
‘Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish.’
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.”

(Via USCCB.)

It seems that the people of Nineveh (which is I think modern-day Mosul, Iraq) repented and converted immediately upon hearing Jonah’s warning. It says that “when the people of Nineveh believed God…” after Jonah had gone “but a single day’s walk.” After all, it took 3 days to go through it, but word apparently spread more quickly than Jonah’s passage. Perhaps quite unlike the Second Step of Twelve Step movements which implies a conversion process over time. (“Came to believe…”).

When the warning signs appear on your horizon and threaten your serenity and sobriety, what do you do? Do you heed them as soon as humanly possible? Have you trained yourself to recognize the “red flags” that serve as interior warning signs of probable doom? Or do you turn aside and hope they go away?

You do not need to put on sackcloth and sit in ashes to serve as a repentance. Remove the veil from your eyes and see the danger that threatens you and turn to the Lord for help. The last stanza from Psalm 18 excerpted in today’s Morning Prayer is one of my favorite Scriptural passages:

Psalm 18:29-30: “You, LORD, give light to my lamp; my God brightens the darkness about me. With you I can rush an armed band, with my God to help I can leap a wall.”

(Via USCCB.)

Ask God for help in steering clear of the danger to you. Without Him you can do nothing, with Him, anything is possible.

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 Second Step: Coming to Believe

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The Second Step of 12 Step recovery movements is:

“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

“Came to believe” implies a process in which you once didn’t believe, but eventually adopted a belief.

This is known as conversion. “Recovery” is a distinct form of conversion, as you undergo a process in which you gradually change from the person that you were to a person that you are now by virtue of altering how you react to things and seeking other means of fulfilling and satisfying the needs of your soul. This Step is the beginning of a conversion process.

Very rarely can anyone become sober by themselves. Many people can stop drinking on their own, but do not replace alcohol as a coping mechanism with anything else. Although not drinking, their sobriety isn’t necessarily a healthy or “sane” one. For a restoration of sanity, or at least fairly normal behavior, we must resort to a “Power greater than ourselves.” This means God, but to avoid the appearance of forcing a particular concept of God upon anyone, a benignly sounding “Higher Power” of your own conception is named.

Therefore, this Step is about adopting a new frame of mind in which you admit to the fact that you need special help to become sober and sane. Just as the result of the First Step was an admission of personal weakness, now you recognize that something else has to come in and fill the void left by your corrupted will.

From the Gospel according to Mark: Mark 9:23-24: “Jesus said to him,’‘If you can!‘ Everything is possible to one who has faith.’

Then the boy’s father cried out, ‘I do believe, help my unbelief!‘”

(Via USCCB.)

Ask the Lord to help your unbelief, if you feel that your Faith isn’t strong enough to carry you forward.

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!!)

Return to me with your whole heart

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Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The First Reading from today’s Mass is from the Prophecy of Joel:

Joel 2:12-18: “Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, ‘Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?”

Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.”

(Via USCCB.)

Lent is a time of repentance and of preparation for the Lord’s suffering, death and resurrection. These are the things that we are expected to believe in as Catholic Christians and apply to our own lives. We accept all suffering that comes into our lives a sign our willingness to “be like Christ” who suffered for us. We should die to the world and reject its transitory and false teachings and values. And if we do these things, we will at the end of the world be resurrected and live forever with God in Heaven.

Lent foreshadows this and is the time we spend in contemplative reflection, examining our consciences and ridding ourselves of faults and defects that separate us from God. It is one of my favorite times of the year as it was probably the first season of the Church’s liturgical year that I started to closely identify Church spirituality with the 12 Steps of AA. A number of AA’s Steps deal with “examination of conscience” and ridding oneself of “character defects.” Lent is a great time to apply this mix of Catholic spirituality and 12 Step practice.

So, starting today, “rend your hearts”, and “fast” from worldly attractions and “mourn and weep” over past separation from God that these attractions have caused. God is “gracious and merciful” and will take “pity on His people”, which is us, His adopted children.

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!!)

Came to believe

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A few Sundays ago there was this Gospel reading at Mass:

John 2:13-22: “Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money-changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money-changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
‘Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.’
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’
Jesus answered and said to them,
‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’
The Jews said,
‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?’
But he was speaking about the temple of his Body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture“

(Via USCCB.)

The phrase “came to believe” jumped out at me and made me think of the Second Step of recovery movements:

“Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

Both the disciple’s and an alcoholic’s “coming to believe” happen after some seismic event in their lives. The disciples had to witness Jesus’ resurrection to come to believe in His divinity and the Scriptural basis for His being, and the alcoholic had to fundamentally declare his or her own weakness about their addiction before “coming to believe” that God can effect change in their lives. For the disciples faith was the result, for an addict it is sanity.

Some may have a hard time reconciling faith with sanity, for faith is belief in the unknowable, and only crazy people believe in things unseen by any method. Maybe for us alcoholics in recovery it is not such a difficult thing. Our experience in recovery gives us an insight into the situations that are otherwise unexplainable, except by faith. Our ability to cope with this (or relish this) implies a sanity.

Where are you in “coming to believe?”

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 Prodigal Catholic

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There is a new blog you all might like to add to your reading list. Helen D, a member of Catholics in Recovery , is a revert to the Church and started The Prodigal Catholic recently.

It’s a great blog, full of love for the Church and her spirituality. Check it out!

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 All Saints

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November 1st is the Feast of All Saints, which serves as the Feast day for everyone in Heaven, whether officially canonized or not.

This is an important feast day as it reminds all of us of those who made it, who had run the race and fought the good fight and have arrived at their true home.

They are important to us, these saints. As they are now in God’s domain and have lived lives of virtue and submission to God’s will, they can intercede for us still here on Earth. We can pray to them so that they can offer our requests to God, much like how we can pray for each other’s intentions, but more powerful.

God hears all of our prayers, so in essence we can just go straight to Him, but a consistent theme in how God does things is that He appears to want to do things in cooperation with us. That’s love, I guess.

EWTN has a great website on all known Saints. I said before that these people lived lives of virtue and submission to God’s will. Not all of them throughout their lives. Many were terrible sinners before a conversion experience. A great hope for us alcoholics and aaddicts.

Go here: EWTN’s “Saints and other Holy People Home” and look up people who can help you!

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!!)

Be transformed by the renewal of your mind

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The Second Reading for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time is one of my favorites. The part italicized used to be in the header of this blog, and was the first Bible verse I memorized.

Romans 12:1-2: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect. “

(Via USCCB.)

I think that this is a verse that should be particularly inspiring and thus important to anyone in recovery. For in recovery we are transforming ourselves, we are coming out of addictive behavior and need to renew. In our drinking and drugging days we reacted to things by succumbing to our addictive crutch. It helped us to a point. But now that we are free of our addiction we need to retrain ourselves to react to things differently. We teach ourselves how to discover and follow God’s will.

We also do not, and should not, do things in conformity to the ways of the world. The world is addictive, it wants us to be hooked into its morals and its ways of doing things. It wants us to be drunk on its sensory addictions. To subscribe to its ways means we turn ourselves away from God. The world’s ways are not His. We are Christian, perhaps Catholic, and our ways should never be in conformity to the world’s. All those who think that the various traditional Christian denominations and the Catholic Church should “modernize” and become more “relevant” to the world’s ways have it backward. The world does not transform Christianity, Christianity is to transform the world.

And so it is with us. We seek, by the renewal of our minds through following Jesus Christ, to do things that are good and pleasing to God, realizing as Jeremiah did in today’s First Reading that it is not an easy path. It is one prone to hardship.

But it is something to be done if we are to be considered His followers and His adopted children.

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 sins of my youth

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In the Liturgy of the Hours reading for Daytime Prayer (Midday) there is a line from Sacred Scripture that stood out:

Psalm 25:7: “Remember no more the sins of my youth; remember me only in light of your love.“

(Via USCCB.)

Our alcoholic and addictive past is full of wreckage, mostly sinful. The weight of that past drags us down unless we clean it up by turning to God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation (aka “Confession” or “Penance”) is there for our use. It cleanses us of our sins and washes clean our past before God. It is a Sacrament of Love in that our Father in Heaven takes us back and welcomes us to Him because we repented of our sins and turned to Him for forgiveness.

In the “Big Book” of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, 2001) there is a line on page 83,

“We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.”

This is part of the 10th Step Promises, which detail a list of positive changes in attitude if one has persevered in working the first Nine Steps. I won’t go into all that now. But our regret of the past is rooted in the stain of sin on our souls, our wish to “not shut the door on it” is rooted in humility. If we do not remember our past, we will make the same mistakes again. Our remembering the past tempers any judgmental attitude towards others and helps us to use compassion in our dealings with people. Quite often they are as messed up as we are.

Psalm 51:3-5: “Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense.

Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me.

For I know my offense; my sin is always before me.”

(Via USCCB.)

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!!)