Category Archives: Conversion

Division

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You are embarking upon a new way of life. You are sober and have left the bars or solitary drinking behind you, and are also living (or learning to live) a Catholic life.

Some people aren’t going to like that.

A lot of people have this New Age-ish 1960’s or 1970’s touchy-feely view of Jesus as just this swell long-haired freaky hippie dude who just wants people to get along and be nice.

Not quite.

From the Gospel of the Mass on the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C):

Luke 12:49-53

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Like I said, not quite the peace-and-love flower handing out “Can’t we all just get along”, acoustic guitar strumming, (OK, Paulcoholic, we get the idea.) guy of pop culture derivation.

Jesus was a radical who knew that commitment to His teachings and living them out would be a sacrifice. Not everyone would go along with your conversion or reversion to the Catholic Christian life. Any convert or revert will attest to the fact that acceptance of Catholic Christian living will be met with less-than-enthusiastic embracing by other members of their family, friends and acquaintances.

Some people will reject you for your new way of life. As is heard quite often in the meeting rooms of 12-Step groups, sometimes people may need to be left behind if they are a hindrance or obstacle to your survival.

Even if they accept your sobriety, they may draw the line at your Catholicism. So you may feel compelled to quit you new-found Catholic Faith and instead pick a less radical way. Just keep to 12-Step meetings or a less demanding Christian denomination.

OK, fine, do that. But the risk to your soul is not worth the gamble of picking the easier, softer way of 12-Step meetings or a different denomination. Only the Catholic Church contains the fullness of the Gospel and Apostolic teachings from Sacred Scripture. Pick pretty much any post in the “Church” label in the sidebar and there will be something written about that.

Do not expect the easy path. It will be difficult and you will lose people. But consider the probability that the people who oppose your new way of living are looking out for their own self-interest. They may resent your change simply because it reminds them they may have to, as well. Or you commitment to a radical new way of living is incomprehensible to them.

Be that as it may, pray for them, and if needed, let them go.

For an explanation as to why you’re reading this on a post date of “Thursday” instead of the expected “Sunday”, read this post .

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!!)

That you may not grow weary and lose heart.

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You’re struggling with your alcoholism or addiction. You think there’s no point in going on, of even trying. Take heart with this:

From the Second Reading of the Mass from the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C):

Hebrews 12:1-4

Brothers and sisters:
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.
For the sake of the joy that lay before him
he endured the cross, despising its shame,
and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.
Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners,
in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

As I’ve written before, you’re not alone in your struggle. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, gain strength and perseverance from the suffering that He endured. Offer your suffering up to God, in imitation of the Son of God’s crucifixion and death for our sake.

People may reject you for your intention to become sober and or clean. They may oppose your efforts to survive. They may despise your struggle to live the Catholic Faith to keep sober and clean.

He suffered on the Cross to the extent that He did so you can draw upon that strength in your own trials.

Do not weary and tire. Do not lose heart. In your struggle to survive in a sober and clean life you are cooperating in building up the kingdom of God, that is working to transform the world from its destructive ways and towards a culture of life.

Choose to live. You are not alone in the struggle.

For an explanation as to why you’re reading this on a post date of “Thursday” instead of the expected “Sunday”, read this post .

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!!)

"I look at Him, and He looks at Me"

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One of the things that I have seriously overlooked on Sober Catholic is talking about the lives of the Saints. I think I mentioned that in my introductory post, or in some other “About this Blog” post that I would do that. As this blog concerns itself with using the Catholic Faith and spirituality in maintaining one’s sobriety, talking about the saints is a crucial aspect in this regard. After all, saints Made It. They’re in Heaven, and they were once Down Here, like us. So, they did something right, against whatever odds and personal failings they struggled with.

So, I will attempt to be more attentive to the saints as the appear on the Church calendar. I may even discuss saints not on the calendar, along with probable future saints.

Anyway, today, August 4th, is the feast of St. John Mary Vianney. He is as good a saint as any to start with. He was known as the “Cure of Ars” and you can read more about him here. Ars is the small town in France where he was assigned as priest. “Cure” (pronounced kyoo-ray) means “Pastor”. So, he was the pastor of a church in a small town in France.

One day, or so the story goes, St. Vianney saw a little French farmer visit his chapel daily, about noon. The Cure was curious as to what the farmer was doing in there, as he was alone. Not worried, I guess, just concerned. Anyway, one day he decided to ask him. And so he did. The little farmer said that he comes in to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament (The Eucharist reposed in the Tabernacle).

The little farmer’s style of prayer was simple. He told the future saint, “I just look at Him, and He looks back at me.”

A simple, yet profound declaration. Take a look at this passage from St. Paul’s 2nd Letter to the Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 3:18;

All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.

This is what the little French guy was doing, gazing upon the Lord and being transformed. We are no longer the same person when we partake of the Eucharist, whether it is receiving it at Mass, or gazing upon it in an Adoration chapel. This is what Jesus, in His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, does for us. And if this is focused on our efforts to remain sober and clean, how successful we will become! Ask Jesus, in faith, next time you receive Him in Communion, or pray before the Tabernacle to help you strengthen your sobriety. No matter how long you’ve been sober. Ask Him to help you. Ask Him for what you need to know to accomplish this.

Read from the Gospel of Matthew 7:7-8;

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
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!!)

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!!)

Virtue to love

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Last Friday night I went to my weekly Holy Hour. What’s a Holy Hour? See here.

Anyway, while in my Holy Hour I chanced upon this passage from The Second Letter of Peter:

2 Peter 1:5-8

…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge,
knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,
devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.
If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The passage makes a continuous connection of a right living that will bear fruit in growing into a deeper relationship with Jesus. You will not be idle (spiritually stagnant or lukewarm?) and will instead grow in the knowledge of the Lord.

Starting with virtue and concluding with love, the Letter provides a roadmap for living and loving the Way of Jesus. We should not be content to merely provide lip-service to our Christian vocation. We are instead called to live by it fully. It isn’t just for Sunday morning. It’s a way of living out our full lives.

All the more reason to continue with, or struggle towards, a clean and sober 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!!)

A New Creation

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I’m not sure if this is from a recent Mass Reading that I forgot to write about on the relevant day (it’s been sitting in draft mode for a while) or just something I picked up in a blog or Bible perusal, but ponder this from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 5:16-18

…from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.
And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

We are “in Christ” when we live out our Christian vocation. Being Christian isn’t something you do for an hour on Sundays or when its convenient or inoffensive. It isn’t something you turn on or off. No one is perfect in the ideal, but you try anyway.

When you are “in Christ”, you’ve cast off your old self, the self that belonged to the World and its shifting and changing “anything goes” corruptible moral and social values. By being Christian and living according to Jesus’s teachings, you are a new creation, a new person, one who has been reconciled to God through Jesus by His sacrifice on the Cross.

We have been reconciled for our sins, no matter how scarlet, no matter how often committed. No matter what the transgression was, reconcile yourself to God, and be “in Christ.” Confess your sins to a priest and be made new.

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!!)

Treasure of your heart

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In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass Jesus talks about priorities:

Matthew 6:19-23

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.
But store up treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

“The lamp of the body is the eye.
If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.
And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”

Think about the line that I emboldened. You can discover what is truly the priority of your life by the attention and conviction you give it. I fall short of this quite often which is why I’m writing about it (and coincidentally the Gospel reading just happens to be what had been on my mind recently. That happens a lot. My mind mulls over something and lo and behold an upcoming Mass Reading is about it. Perhaps the unconscious is at work. Or the Holy Spirit is leading. Or both.).

What is the priority of your life? Is it discerning God’s will for your life and trying for the strength to live it out? Does it go beyond maintaining your sobriety and perhaps using that as a vehicle for living out God’s will?

You can discern where your treasure is right from the start. This is the part that I’ve been thinking about recently. “Right from the start” means right from when you awaken. There are reasons why in many monastic communities they awaken early and immediately are exhorted to rise from the bed and proceed to Morning Prayer or whatever the daily routine is. To start the day off right and to establish where your priority is your must conquer yourself, your selfish desires to remain in bed and catch a few extra minutes (hours?) of sleep and self-indulgence. Getting up and immediately going about the day gives you an immediate victory: you’ve conquered the desires of the flesh to remain at rest and be comfortable. This is something to build on. How many times have you smacked the snooze button a few times, felt OK about it but later on decided that the day wasn’t going too well because in sleeping in you had to curtail or rush through whatever your morning routine is? This establishes the tone and tempo of the day.

How long does it take you to get to you morning prayer and spiritual routine? Is it among the first and earliest? Or is it after you’ve gotten through most everything else and “Now I can get to and devote some time?” If it’s not amongst the first things you do, you morning offerings and prayers to God, then it’s not where your heart truly lies.

It’s not amongst your treasures.

This is more than just what you do when you awaken in the morning. It’s the mountain that you climb every day. What is at the summit of your endeavors? Fulfilling God’s will and growing closer to Him and maybe leading others by your actions to Him? Or merely fulfilling what the world expects of 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!!)

Forgive

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On Monday I went for a drive to visit my parent’s graves and just as I was heading down the street I had to stop to avoid this other driver going the opposite way. He had briefly swung into my lane to get around a line of parked cars. I think that I had the right-of way as my lane was clear and he was obligated to stop and wait for me to get past him before he moved into my lane. Not a big deal as it wasn’t a near collision, we were far enough apart along the road. But a little bit of irritation with him rose up briefly that was squelched by the word:

Forgive.

It sprang up unbidden, just wafted up from my unconscious and hung there. Not that there was much to forgive but it was interesting nonetheless. Perhaps if I was more angry the word never would have had a chance at breaking through the emotion. But it saw an opportunity and it took it.

My usual automatic reaction would be one of annoyance or irritation or a whole host of nasty thoughts. The dark detritus just emerges and hangs around like toxic waste just poisoning my mood. Frequent negative thoughts fight through and hang about, and from what I gather this is common to most people.

But I was curious as to why the word forgive just popped up and nestled in my brain instead of the brief annoyance or irritation just planting itself, taking root and growing into a monster vine of resentment at other people and how dumb they are.

So I took it upon myself in this drive of which the original destination (the cemetery) turned out to be a brief stop and not the destination, and pondered the notion that forgive was my reaction, and not something meaner, despite the minor offense of the other driver.

I ended up thinking that maybe I can embark upon yet another round of focused spiritual development, of interior conversion centered around training me to have forgive as an automatic reaction rather than a negative one that normally festers. I’ve done this before successfully in my 5 years of sobriety. The AA “Big Book” mentions some things about anger and resentment being “red flags”. And so I, over the course of time, tried to recognize these “red flags” as they arose and strike them quickly. It works. It took time and effort, but eventually I became a less outwardly angry and irritable person. At least I think so. Working on “impatience” as much the same way. As before, when I felt rising anger, irritation and resentment building up that I tried to get rid of, feelings of impatience also were dealt with similarly.

I still get angry, annoyed, irritated and impatient, but they don’t define me. At least I hope so.

Anyway, back to forgive.

So I thought about the effects of going about the day keeping in mind that in any given instance I might have my feathers ruffled, for real or imagined. This post has been bouncing around my head since Monday’s drive, time to get it out on paper. Or electrons. 🙂

It seems to work. Whenever there is an instance where someone bothered me (again, specifics don’t matter, just go about your day and reflect on how many times people seem to irritate you, and they probably aren’t even aware.) It was like a mantra, just thinking forgive.

It has a healing effect. It immediately soothes. Instead of a rising negative attitude that may be sustained for a few minutes or hours, it quickly quiets them. All this repeated negative detritus just accumulates and poisons your soul. Repeating forgive gets you over it quickly.

I am melancholic. Which means I have a tendency towards being sensitive and dwelling on things, along with a certain bit of nostalgia. That sometimes makes for an unhealthy combination in which things from the past get dredged up and dwelt upon. Sometimes from the faraway past. Just repeating forgive helps soften the pain. To me, it was as if I was automatically releasing it (whatever it was) to God.

The repetition of forgive also helps interrupt the flow of the negative thoughts. This is related to something I had posted before, I forget which post, about why AA’s attend meetings when they feel like they may be about to relapse. The idea is that you relapse sometime before you actually take that drink, but meeting attendance, if that’s the best tool you have, interrupts the sequence of thoughts leading to the drink. Even if all the AA did was attend the meeting, regardless of the topic, the environment was enough to stifle the continued flow of thoughts which would have led to the action of taking a drink.

Same for thinking the word forgive. It immediately interrupts the self-righteous, indignant feelings that arise when you are wronged, regardless of how serious, regardless of whether the injury was intended or just accidental, or real or imagined. (You know what I mean, someone looks at you the wrong way, or they’re talking quietly to themselves and you think the muttering is about you. You’re not as important to the World as you think, they may not even be aware that you were passing through their field of vision when a stray thought of theirs caused them to do whatever it was they did. And maybe it was an upsurge of negative thoughts! HA!)

Just let it go. It isn’t worth mulling over. It isn’t worth wasting time holding onto the resentment of a momentary irritation, or some wrongdoing someone wrought upon you the other day or some time ago. Just forgive.

We Christians know how to forgive. Turn it over to God, let Him deal with it and you just cut the emotional ties to the event. Stop feeding the monster. If you persist in nurturing the resentment, it’s as if you are climbing up on God’s judgment seat and condemning the other person. That’s God’s job, assuming He agrees with you. He might not. If you are a Catholic Christian, in your examination of conscience that you do prior to Confession, analyze what you may have done in your relations with the other person to have caused the incident. (That’s part of humility. Never assume you’re entirely innocent.) Then confess it and work on your firm purpose of amendment to not do that ever again. Don’t feel self-righteous about another’s behavior towards you. “How dare they?” You’ve probably caused your fair share of unintentional and unwitting grief as well.

This repetition of the word forgive whenever something irritating is done by somebody is also done unconditionally. You don’t debate who’s right or who’s wrong. It’s easy enough to sweep away the garbage when the rising emotion comes from a routine going on about the day and there’s a host of attitudinal and emotional bumping and grinding. (Like the driver way back in the beginning of this post. Wow, that’s way back up there!) It’s another when there is a rupture of some degree and there is genuine hurt. This was touched upon in yesterday’s post.

You may refer to Matthew 18:21-22 “Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”

Jesus was using a common Hebrew shorthand of using multiples to mean “a lot” or, “a long time”. You forgive as often as you need to. As often as you are wronged.

Forgive anyway. It is tough, and o
ften might not be immediately possible, but is necessary eventually.

There is also something perhaps uniquely Christian about just saying forgive. It is self-sacrificial. This is the unconditional part from 2 paragraphs up. You are not counting the cost to yourself, nor determining who’s right or wrong. In any rupture, both sides can be held accountable. Even the person wronged, perhaps. (I mean interpersonal conflicts, slights, offenses. Not crimes.)

Think of Matthew 5:38-45 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”

Therefore, you are in essence, “turning the other cheek” when you think or say forgive. You are not making an accounting to settle with later. You are turning it over.

Forgive is healing in another way. As you go about the day uttering to yourself forgive automatically whenever the heat of rising irritation begins to bubble towards the caldera of your mind, and those times when you forgive the really big hurts that have been inflicted on you, you notice that you heal in another manner.

You begin to forgive yourself. Sometime by this weekend I plan to post something I thought of during the priest’s sermon last Sunday. The post (title unknown yet) concerns concupiscence (look it up) and self-esteem. Anyway, we all hurt. Much of it is self-inflicted. Many times we are harder on ourselves than we are on other people. We tend not to forgive ourselves. As we repeatedly utter to ourselves the word forgive it gets easier to ignore slights, real or perceived, committed against us by others. But it also should make it easier to forgive ourselves. For anything. No matter how long ago. As long as you also take care of it in sacramental confession, presuming it’s a sin, jettisoning the negative emotional dreck should become easier.

Forgive, then, works then simultaneously on inside, as well as on outside, threats. As you learn to forgive others, and become more accustomed to it, you get used to doing it for yourself. This doesn’t absolve you of any responsibility towards making amends to people you’ve hurt, but in the possibility of no reconciliation, it’s a good way to complete the healing.

Don’t forget some of Jesus’s final words spoken from the Cross:

Luke 23:33-34

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left.

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” They divided his garments by casting lots.

He was dying, up there. God, a common criminal. And yet he forgave them. Of course, He’s God, He can do that. But it was a lesson to us. An important one. If He can forgive what was done to Him, who are we to decide that we cannot?

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!!)

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!!)

Memorial of St. Athanasius (May 2nd)

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Today’s Mass was the Memorial of St. Athanasius. An excerpt from the First Reading (1 John 5:3-5):

For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Who (indeed) is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Here, then is the key in our victory over alcohol. If we keep the Commandments of the Lord, we show that we love God, and we are rewarded with victory over the world (especially its allurements and entrapments, such as alcohol).

An interesting point is made in the verse that states, “And His commandments are not burdensome…”. The world will tell you the opposite. The world will tell you that following God’s commandments puts you at odds with fully enjoying the world’s offerings of sin and wonder. And didn’t we agree to this when we were drinking? Didn’t we cast off the “shackles” of organized religion? Didn’t we feel “freer”. Perhaps, until we were caught in the world’s traps, and discovered the false allure of the world’s “freedom”. It’s “freedom” comes at a price (alcoholism, drug and porn addiction, sexually transmitted disease).

His commandments are not burdensome. They instead liberate us from the confines of the world and help us overcome it and conquer it. If we look upon them as best we humanly can from the perspective of eternity, then we can see they are easy to follow, once we keep our eyes on the prize of Heaven and our salvation.

Keep your eyes on the prize.

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!!)