Category Archives: Conversion

Learning more about Catholicism (To Julie, a/k/a "authorette")

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In a previous post this week a Sober Catholic Reader named Julie, aka “Authorette” asked this question in the comments section:

A beautiful entry. I could relate to it so much.

I am a recovering alcoholic/addict with 3-1/2 in sobriety. I, too, have been through the 12-Steps. I find, though, that I am looking for something more. I am seriously considering converting to Catholicism. All my life I have wanted to, but I couldn’t because I was married to an evangelical protestant. We are now divorced and I have remarried.

Could you direct me to where I can learn more about the Catholic faith?

Thank you.

Julie

Her question was important enough that I decided to post it above, along with my answer, which was:
Hey Julie!

Just a quick response for now as it’s late at night, but for starters, you can try Catholic Answers. Another is Catholic Digital Studio. Scripture Catholic might be good to help counter anything you picked up from your ex-husband, as well as Bible Christian Society
. I’ll see what a priest friend (he married my wife and I 3 weeks ago), can suggest. The “For all things Catholic…” group of links in the sidebar is great, but some of the info can be overwhelming at first. I included them all just to satisfy varying levels of curiosity and interest. But the above ones are great for starters.

I had originally neglected an EXCELLENT resource:

Catholic Converts blogs

Anyway I hope this helps Julie and anyone else interested in converting.

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!!)

Lent

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Today Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.

Lent is one of my favorite times of the year, what with the opportunity to direct the interior conversion and cleansing that are a part of the customs. This is an attitude that I only adopted after I sobered up in 2002 and returned to the Church.

It isn’t necessary to “give up” something for Lent, but that’s the easiest way to focus on your interior conversion.

This conversion is namely the result of a successful struggle against your tendency to sin or partake of pleasurable things. Nothing inherently wrong with pleasurable things unless one is inordinately attached to them and places them above God and family. By giving them up you are allowing yourself to direct your struggle against a particular want or need and therefore can make the best effort to grow spiritually and closer to God. To give something up and then be enormously happy when Lent is over so you can take up again whatever was abstained from misses the point. The lesson of abstaining from something might not have been learned if the objective was just to make it through Lent.

I wrote some neat stuff last year on Lent in this post . In addition to all that, one thing I heard on my local Catholic radio station was that you could prayerfully read the daily Mass readings during Lent. They are excellent guides to conversion. You can get them at this blog, at the top of the sidebar. Read them slowly, with a eye and ear towards applying their lessons.

Have a fruitful Lent!

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 Devout Life

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There is a Saint that should become familiar to Sober Catholic readers. This is St. Francis DeSales. He wrote a classic text on spiritual development entitled “The Introduction to the Devout Life”. I admit to not having read it (yet) and therefore only know it by its eminent reputation.

An excerpt on this text and St. Francis from “The Catholic Encyclopedia” in the New Advent website:

We may give here a brief résumé of the spiritual teaching contained in these works, of which the Church has said: “The writings of Francis de Sales, filled with celestial doctrine are a bright light in the Church, pointing out to souls an easy and safe way to arrive at the perfection of a Christian life.” (Breviarium Romanum, 29 January, lect. VI.)

There are two elements in the spiritual life: first, a struggle against our lower nature; secondly, union of our wills with God, in other words, penance and love. St. Francis de Sales looks chiefly to love. Not that he neglects penance, which is absolutely necessary, but he wishes it to be practised from a motive of love. He requires mortification of the senses, but he relies first on mortification of the mind, the will, and the heart. This interior mortification he requires to be unceasing and always accompanied by love. The end to be realized is a life of loving, simple, generous, and constant fidelity to the will of God, which is nothing else than our present duty. The model proposed is Christ, whom we must ever keep before our eyes. “You will study His countenance, and perform your actions as He did” (Introd., 2nd part, ch. i). The practical means of arriving at this perfection are: remembrance of the presence of God, filial prayer, a right intention in all our actions, and frequent recourse to God by pious and confiding ejaculations and interior aspirations.

St. Francis DeSales‘ feast day is celebrated on January 24th (I know, I’m 2 days late in writing about it, so what else is new).

Additional material can be found here and here

The classic text can be read for free, online here . More modern translations can be found in bookstores.

I’ve included “Daily With DeSales“ a daily meditation using excerpts from his writings and the “Devout Life” sites in the Catholic Resources for Alcoholics links section 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!!)

He is out of His mind

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From the Gospel from today’s Mass on Saturday morning:

Mark 3:20-21

Jesus came with his disciples into the house.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Take some comfort in the fact that even His family thought Jesus was crazy. If your family feels distant from you or they just think you’re nuts because of the lifestyle changes your adherence to Catholicism and a recovery movement has wrought in you, take comfort in that.

By living according to Catholic religious principles and spirituality, and whatever recovery movement you may participate in, you are essentially living in a manner contrary to what the world , and therefore most people, think is normal.

Jesus understands.

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!!)

Second Sunday of Advent: Repentance

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From the Gospel from today’s Mass of the Second Sunday of Advent speaks of repentance:

Matthew 3:1-12;

In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea (and) saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: “A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'”

John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them,

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Repentance means a conversion of the heart. Interiorly you are changed from one mode of behavior and towards another. This is not an external change, one that is superficial, this is a fundamental turning away from attitudes and actions that are sinful and turning towards something that is good and holy.

You change. A conscious decision on your part to not continue down the path you were trodding upon. In many an addict’s or alcoholic’s life it happens when they hit bottom or just decide that they are sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.

Instead running away from something, it may be an easier task and of more lasting duration to decide what you are rather than what you are not. Being pulled towards something provides a more substantial motivation to change. Granted, fear of what you are running away from provides great motivation, but having a definite destination is more a guarantee of success.

Run to Jesus. This is Advent, He is coming. Are you preparing for His arrival?

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!!)

First Sunday of Advent

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From the Second Reading from today’s Mass for the First Sunday of Advent:

Romans 13:11-14;

Brothers and sisters:You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

Today the Church begins a new liturgical year with the start of Advent. Why is this particularly useful for us sober alcoholics? Because Advent is the time during which we prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus. Advent means that Christmas (or Jesus’s Birth) is near. If you had been attending Mass or studying the Sunday and Daily Mass Readings during November you would have noticed that the Church was focusing on death and the end of the world (or the Second Coming of Jesus). Fitting, as November is dedicated to the blessed dead. The Church was reminding us of our own mortality and also that of the world’s. Immediately following that month, we are happily reminded of Jesus’ First Coming, His birth as a mortal human. So for two months or thereabouts, the Church is trying to get us to prepare for the arrival of Jesus in our lives. Why?

From today’s Gospel Jesus says:

Matthew 24:42-44;

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.

So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

Are we prepared in our internal spiritual lives and in our external moral lives? Are we ready for Him to come? When He arrives, either in our commemoration of His Birth or sometime in the future when the world ends, would He find in us people of strong moral character, of strong faith in Him and in His Church? Or will He find us caught up in the distractions of the world, in our own selfishness and sinful ways? Will He find us as Christians, true followers of Him?

Start preparing for the arrival of Jesus. Advent has a penitential character like Lent, although not a sorrowful style as we are awaiting His birth, a joyous event. God deigned to become one like us (in all ways but sin), and as a humble, innocent little baby. He didn’t have to. The least we can do is examine and inspect our lives and humble ourselve to admit our imperfections and sinfulness and struggle to overcome them. We amend our lives. We repent and confess our sins and struggle to not repeat them.

Start using this Advent and work on those areas of your life that need improving. No one should be content with the state of their moral and spiritual lives. We can all maintain and improve our spiritual progress.

Keep your eyes on the prize: Jesus is coming! Are you ready?

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!!)

Dying and Persevering

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From the Second Letter of St. Paul to Timothy:

2 Timothy 2: 11-12;

If we have died with him we shall also live with him;
if we persevere we shall also reign with him.

By dying with Christ means, I think, to die to the world of sin, to reject the world’s morals and values, to become more like Jesus in following the will of God, as much as humanly possible. We accept all suffering as part of our working out our salvation, and if we persevere to the end of our lives, we will be rewarded eternally by living with Him and our loved ones in Heaven.

Twelve Step movements like AA usually regard do-it-yourself sobriety as an “easier, softer way”. This means that unless you undertake a program of recovery, usually 12-Step, it means that you are unwilling to do the necessary sacrifices and struggles to become and remain sober. You are unwilling to “do whatever it takes”. Clearly, Christianity is a tougher road to travel, and Catholic Christianity perhaps the toughest. It demands much from its adherents. But the rewards are eternal. The rewards of Twelve Step spirituality are merely sobriety. Relative to Christian spirituality, using solely the 12 Steps, and the comfortable design-it-yourself Higher Power is the easier, softer way.

It is a shame that Twelve Step spirituality has taken so many Catholics away from the Church. The vague “Higher Power” concept of God, which was originally meant to allow Catholics and devout practitioners of other faiths the freedom to pursue their religion, (without seemingly being forced to adopt religious beliefs contrary to their own) has devolved into a “doesn’t matter what you believe in, as long as you believe in something” type of spirituality. One denomination or religion is NOT as good as any other. They all differ in regards to the Truth.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He is the same: yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). So is His Church, the Catholic Church.

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!!)

Mountain Climbing

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Psalm 24 recurs frequently in the daily prayer of the Church known as the “Liturgy of the Hours”. The following excerpt appeals to me:

Psalm 24:3-6;

Who may go up the mountain of the LORD? Who can stand in his holy place?
“The clean of hand and pure of heart, who are not devoted to idols, who have not sworn falsely.
They will receive blessings from the LORD, and justice from their saving God.
Such are the people that love the LORD, that seek the face of the God of Jacob.

That passage resonates with me as I regard the “mountain of the Lord” to be the goal of our life and sober existence. To me the “mountain” symbolizes the summit of our lives, that is to become closer to God by shedding our character defects and weaknesses and striving to progress spiritually by seeking to better understand the teachings of the Catholic Church and the Bible. Neither are easy to comprehend, constrained as we are by our human limitations.

Nevertheless, as we struggle to come into full communion with Church teachings and struggle to live by the Bible’s ways, we come closer to ascending the mountain of God. We shun idols (anything that distracts us from God or takes us away from Him) and we live honest, truthful lives (as best we can.)

Every moment or opportunity to better ourselves in accord with the Church and the Bible gets us closer to the summit of the mountain. We may never reach its zenith, but the point is that we are trying.

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!!)

A Glutton and a Drunkard

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As usual, I cannot pass up posting when a Mass Reading refers to drunkenness. This time Jesus had been called a drunkard! See:

Luke 7:31-35;

Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

John the Baptist and Jesus came preaching and teaching the Truth. Not some political or social truth, but Truth. God’s Truth, as subsequently laid out in the Bible and defended and taught by the Church. Both John the Baptist and Jesus threatened the established political and social order with the Truth. This didn’t make them popular. Both were executed for doing so.

Prior to their physical execution however, their reputations and character were attacked. In essence, a character assassination or execution was attempted before their detractors realized that it wasn’t going to work and more drastic measure were called for.

This happen to you? You are living your life as you see fit to do so. You are new to sobriety and find that living according to the Catholic Faith and maybe also the 12 Steps is the ideal for you. (Or not new but have dealt with this in the past.) Others that you are leaving or have left behind because they either prefer to remain drinking and drugging, or just do not like the new person that you’ve become seek to tear you down.

They do not like a certain Truth. That Truth is that you have bettered your life, even if you are only starting to, and this represents to them a threat. Too many people are too comfortable wallowing in the morass that is their life. The suffering is too comfortable and they resent the idea of changing because it’s too hard. This suffering is not the redemptive kind, those crosses that you accept and offer up. Their suffering largely self-inflicted. Perhaps just like yours was back in the day before you said “Enough!” It seems easier to them to suffer and complain than to do something about it. They can’t pin anything on you apart from your past sins and indiscretions and so they just seek to tear you down.

Keep on doing what you are doing, leave them behind no matter how painful. New people will enter your life who will appreciate the new and improved you, and if they’ve travelled a crooked and broken path, they will understand 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!!)

Have Mercy on me…

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The Responsorial Psalm from today’s Mass on the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time is probably one of my favorites for when I desire a conversion of heart and need to repent of something horrible and get right with God.

Psalm 51:3-19;

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.
Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight That you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn.
True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me.
Still, you insist on sincerity of heart; in my inmost being teach me wisdom.
Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow.
Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Turn away your face from my sins; blot out all my guilt.
A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit.
Do not drive me from your presence, nor take from me your holy spirit.
Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit.
I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may return to you.
Rescue me from death, God, my saving God, that my tongue may praise your healing power.
Lord, open my lips; my mouth will proclaim your praise.
For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept.
My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.

Carefully go over each line of this excerpt and imagine it having a healing affect on you. You are a sinner, broken, bruised, come to be made aware of your sins. (The psalm was written by King David after his infidelity with Bathsheba was exposed. He had her husband killed in battle so he could be with her.) You feel that God Himself has rejected you because of what you did, or had done with your life up to this point.

This would be a good prayer to say when you complete your 4th Step moral inventory if you are in a 12 Step program. (The Fourth Step: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” From Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th edition, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001; p.59. Also known as “The Big Book”)

The psalm describes a soul blackened with shame and guilt over wrongdoing, and describes a process where he turns to God, begs forgiveness and ask God to transform him into something he wasn’t before. All that the souls offers is sorrow, remorse and contrition, nothing else can make up for the deed, the soul offers up its own pain as a sacrifice.

This is basically all that we, as sobering alcoholics have to offer. We have nothing after we hit bottom and painfully turned our lives around. All we have is the wreckage of our life and the pain emanating from it. The healing of our pain by God due to our sincere remorse and contrition heals our souls and allows us to no longer be defined by our past.

Sacramental confession with a priest is necessary to remove the sins from your soul, but saying Psalm 51 helps prime you for that part of your healing.

I always feel better after saying this prayer, and I find the courage I need to go to Confession. When I say the psalm, I say it slowly and many times repeating a particular verse until I “feel something”, then I continue. If needed, I say the psalm again.

No matter how bad your sins, no matter how scarlet they are, there is no sin that God cannot forgive. Your sins are not stronger than God’s mercy. There is no debating this. No matter what you have done, God can and will, forgive.

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!!)