Category Archives: Divine Mercy

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!!)

Pit of Destruction

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You are an alcoholic or addict an all seems lost and hopeless. You are at the “jumping off place”, that place where you feel that if you continue to drink you will die, but if you don’t drink, you may wish to die.

Call upon the Lord and He will hear your prayer.

From the Responsorial Psalm from the Mass on the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, (Year C):

Psalm 40:2-4

I waited, waited for the LORD; who bent down and heard my cry,
Drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp, Set my feet upon rock, steadied my steps,
And put a new song in my mouth, a hymn to our God. Many shall look on in awe and they shall trust in the LORD.

God will hear your cry, as plaintive and as weak as it may feel to you. The depth of your pain and anguish is a loud scream reaching out to Heaven. God and all of Heaven hear it. In my opinion, every alcoholic and addict who has died and been saved hears it.

Being drawn out from the pit of destruction, whether you put yourself there or got there by however addicts and alcoholics get that way, won’t be easy. But ask, and God will assist. “Seek first the Kingdom of God” instead of the easy pleasures of the world, and you will be drawn from the pit. Your feet will be (eventually) steady and you will love God with a new gratitude. A new song (or perhaps a new way of life?) will be sung by you and you will learn to trust in God. You will listen to Him, instead of the world you tried to hide from in your addiction.

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!!)

Novena Through St. Maximilian Kolbe – Day 8

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Almost there! Day 8 of our novena through St. Maximilian Kolbe for anyone, or yourself, still struggling with addiction to drugs or alcohol. Like on previous days, go here and then read this, and ponder:

James 2:13;

For the judgment is merciless to one who has not shown mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Remember this. “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

God’s mercy triumphs over God’s judgment. For all your faults and failings and struggles, if you are sincere in your effort to stop drinking and drugging, God will look upon you with mercy instead with harsh judgment.

Remember this when others are harsh with you and treat you like filth. They may be judging you, but they have no business doing so. They may withhold their trust and keep you at bay for a while if you’ve hurt them with your drinking and drugging. And that is a Cross you have to bear.

He will help you bear it, He who is 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!!)

Snatched from the grave

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While praying the Liturgy of the Hours recently a line from a Psalm popped out at me and demanded attention:

Psalm 107:17-20

Some fell sick from their wicked ways, afflicted because of their sins
They loathed all manner of food; they were at the gates of death.
In their distress they cried to the LORD, who saved them in their peril,
Sent forth the word to heal them, snatched them from the grave.

I’m not sure as to the authoritative Church interpretation of this passage, but it struck me a pretty apt description of an alcoholic careening towards their bottom, and then asking for God’s help.

Our “wicked ways” are all the harm we have caused to happen to other people that we will clean up in the Steps and in our own conversion process within Catholicism.

“Loathe all manner of food”, well, I lost a ton of weight towards the end. I could barely stomach food. Said stomach couldn’t handle it, and besides, it minimized the effect of alcohol consumption.

We were all at the “gates of death”.

And most assuredly, even if we didn’t know it, in our “distress” we “cried to the Lord”, who indeed saved us from our peril. We wound up in AA or some alternative program of recovery, and I’d like to think you found this blog as a part of His response to you pleading.

His Word healed us, we were snatched from the grave.

Edited 24 July 2007. Left out “their sins” in Scriptural quote in original post. Ooops.

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!!)

Month of the Precious Blood

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July is dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus. It is a symbol of our Redemption by Jesus’ sacrifice and death. It is among the oldest Christian devotions.

One moving scene in Mel Gibson’s epic film, “The Passion of the Christ” depicted Mary and Mary Magdalene taking rags and cleaning up Jesus’ blood after His scourging at the pillar.

There is a special prayer one can say in this devotion.

“Eternal Father, I offer you the Precious Blood or your Divine Son Jesus, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass said throughout the world today, for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners every where, in the Universal Church, in my own home and within my family.”

The Precious Blood is the symbol of God’s mercy, as it was spilled to pay for our sins. It is part of the Eucharist (whether you partake of the wine at Mass or not, its redemptive and spiritual significance is in the Bread as well).

Imagine yourself swimming in the blood-red sea of God’s mercy.

More on the Precious Blood here.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

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!!)

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!!)

Jumping off place

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Every alcoholic eventually arrives at a bottom. It is different for each, for some it could be the loss of house, spouse, job, money, health and respect. For others it could merely be the threat of those losses. Something happens at which point the alcoholic decides, “This cannot go on.” It is that point at which the alcoholic decides that maybe not drinking is better than drinking. “If I continue to drink I will die.” Or, “If I stop drinking, I may just wish I were dead.”

At any rate, the alcoholic is at a crossroads. AA’s basic text, the so-called “Big Book”calls it the “Jumping off place”. It is that point at which the alcoholic decides between life or death. It may not be an easy decision, some fight with it and manage to struggle for years before finally choosing (or have the choice made for them).

Choosing life is the path to recovery from alcohol and sobriety. It is also the path back into the Father’s loving embrace as you seek His help in staying free from alcohol.

It is a choice made in today’s Gospel reading, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” See Luke 15:11-32. The Gospel contains a verse (#17): “Coming to his senses he thought…”. This implies the son had reached a decision after some thought. He had squandered his inheritance from his father, lived as a lowly servant feeding pigs, and envied the pigs. You would think he wouldn’t take too long in deciding the right course of action, but human pride is a strange thing. Some have trouble admitting to having made bad decisions, they would rather continue on the destructive course they are on. Perhaps a form of suicide. He eventually chose to return to his father and plead for mercy and forgiveness, accepting whatever he would receive.

Rather than receiving punishment and chastisement, the son was most warmly welcomed and embraced back into the fold of his father’s house.

So to, are we received by our Father in Heaven, when we come to our senses by whatever means we arrive at, repent and ask forgiveness. We drank and hurt Him, others and ourselves. We stop and begin the painful process to picking up our lives and amending it.

If you are reading this and are an alcoholic, perhaps you have hit bottom and have made the decision to choose life. You found this blog perhaps because you were seeking tools to help in your continued recovery. That is wonderful, I do hope this place helps. Or perhaps you have yet to reach that point, and still think you do not have a problem or can handle it on your own. Your decision-making process is affected by your drinking, listen to the voices around you who may be telling you things about your behavior. Take a cold, hard look at life. Has it always been this way? perhaps things were terrible before you began drinking, but how are they now, compared to those times?

Have you come to your senses?

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 whole lot of forgiving going on

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In the Gospel from today’s Mass, Peter poses a question:

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 then goes on with the parable of the servant who was to be sold along with wife and family and possessions to pay off a debt, then begged and received forgiveness. In turn, this same servant failed to show the same leniency in forgiving a debt that he was owed. He paid for his lack of forgiveness. (Read the full Gospel reading at Matthew 18:21-35.)

What does this mean for us sober alcoholics? Quite simple, as we have made amendments to God and to others for our past wrongdoings and have sought and perhaps received forgiveness, so must we show forgiveness to others for their transgressions against us.

In cruder terms, we screw-ups generally recognize such behavior in others and should be more forgiving of it. We’ve been there, we’ve done that. How can we, of all people, sit in judgment of others?

As Christians, we can judge another’s behavior to a degree, but we cannot judge the person. In judging another’s actions, we must be charitable and understanding of that person’s dignity as a child of God. We do not tolerate and condone sinful behavior, we just retain awareness that we also were gravely sinful, and caution others in a loving manner of what we see as a wrong.

We sinned. We’ve asked forgiveness. We’ve received it. Others sin against us, and whether they ask for it or not, we forgive them. This cuts the bond that the trangression holds over us. As the servant in the parable failed to forgive the debt owed to him, and as a result was sent to prison to be tortured for his treatment of the other servant, so too, will our lack of forgiveness be like a prison of torture for us, as long as we hold onto the resentment over the action.

It goes deeper. In the Lord’s Prayer, also known as the “Our Father”, which is said at the end of many AA meetings in North America, there are the words: “…forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In other words, there is more to forgiveness than merely releasing resentment against another. The degree to which we forgive other people is the degree to which we will be forgiven by God. No matter how much we beg forgiveness for ourselves, if we lack forgiveness for others, it will be lacking towards us from God.

It is only fair. We want something for ourselves, we should aid others in receiving it.

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 your mercies, Lord

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As recovering (or recovered) alcoholics, we embark upon a new way of living. We are learning to live according to new principles, whether they be 12 Step or Christian. But we still have our old lives to contend with.

From the Reponsorial Psalm of today’s Mass:

Psalm 25:4-9

Make known to me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.
For you I wait all the long day, because of your goodness, LORD.
Remember your compassion and love, O LORD; for they are ages old.
Remember no more the sins of my youth; remember me only in light of your love.
Good and upright is the LORD, who shows sinners the way,
Guides the humble rightly, and teaches the humble the way.

This excerpt from Psalm 25 can serve as a prayer for those of us in transition from the old ways of drinking to the new ways of sobriety. We need a new way of living, a new path to chart our lives. We implore God to teach us the way, and if we incline our ears to listen to Him, we can discern the meanings and teachings in our heart. We learn to trod the new path.

The old path needs to be cleaned up. We have sinned against God and against others. We also implore God to forgive us for our past wrongdoings. We ask Him to blot out from memory our past misdeeds and to look upon us through a Father’s loving eyes. For a loving God He indeed is, as He sent us His only Son to die for our species’ past transgressions in the beginning of our history. Only Jesus, fully human and fully divine, could pay the price for our Original Sin. Jesus, in His human-ness, accepted our guilt (though He committed no sin), and in His divinity, He redeemed us. We would otherwise should have died as a species were it not for His compassion and love. He allowed us to live despite Original Sin, and instead had His Son pay the price for us.

This is the God that we implore to remember us in the light of His love.

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!!)