Category Archives: Holy Days and Sundays

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!!)

Lent Begins On Wednesday

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Tomorrow begins Lent, the season of penitence.

Please read this post from last year (which itself has a link to the previous year’s Lenten intro).

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 Soul's

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On November 2nd we celebrate the Feast of All Soul’s. It is the day that we as Catholics offer up the Mass and pray for the deceased who are suffering in Purgatory. In another blog of mine, I have posted about Purgatory (and will continue to do so a few more times this month). Here are 2 links to recent posts:

The Four Last Things: Purgatory

and

The Four Last Things: Prayers for the Dead and Dying

This is the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on Purgatory. It is authoritative, and is a required belief for Catholics:

Purgatory:

1030:All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

1031: The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire.

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.

1032: This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: ‘Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.’ From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.“

(Via USCCB.)

Attend Mass on November 2nd. Remember the dead who have gone before you. Remember your deceased loved ones, family and friends, think of people long ago. Remember all those alcoholics and addicts who died a lonely death, still caught in the slavery of their addiction.

If you do not remember them, who will remember you after you have passed?

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!!)

Feast of the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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From a post last year saying Happy Birthday, Mom

Call your Mother. Say the Rosary.

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!!)

Like fire burning in my heart

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The First Reading for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time is particularly relevant for anyone who does God’s will, but resisted it at first:

Jeremiah 20:7-9: “You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.

Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.

I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.”

(Via USCCB.)

Resist doing the Lord’s will and He will use a way to get you to do it. It may come with time, but if you are destined to fulfill whatever mission God placed you on Earth for, then so help Him, you will end up doing that.

He is too strong for you, you cannot outwit Him, He will triumph in time.

Resist, and it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it

And if that is not enough, you may suffer the pain of subsequently doing His will. The world dislikes that, it call you all sorts of things, does whatever it feels is necessary to stop you.

For inspiration, a musical interlude:

Jeremiah

(Via Happy Catholic.)

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 St. Maximilian Kolbe

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Today is the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, one of my favorite saints.

From a blog post of mine from 2007:

“St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan priest who was executed at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1941. He offered himself up in place of another man, who survived the death camp and lived to see Fr. Kolbe’s canonization. More about him can be found at the Consecration and Marytown websites.

St. Kolbe also founded the “Militia of the Immaculata” a Catholic organization dedicated to evangelizing the world. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. All of its members are consecrated (sworn ‘by blood’ to belong to) the Virgin. I am a member. The Consecration site in the previous paragraph is its webpage in the USA. The international site is here .

St. Kolbe, due to the nature of his execution, is one of the patron saints of addicts. Although he was not an alcoholic or an addict, he died by lethal injection in a cell.”

I have been a member of the Militia of the Immaculata, having consecrated myself to the Blessed Mother on October 7, 2002.

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 the Transfiguration

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Today marks the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. I had written about it earlier, as a part of the meditation on the Fourth Luminous Mystery of the Rosary .

Today also marks the beginning of what you may call an “unofficial” Lent. Lent is a period of penance and mortification lasting 40 days, culminating in the Crucifixion of Jesus. The Transfiguration of Jesus occurred just prior to His departure for Jerusalem where it all took place.Why would today mark the beginning of an unofficial Lent? Because 40 days from now marks the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. This is every year, so it must have been the Church’s intent to give us another focused opportunity for spiritual growth and development. Maybe you can make up for this year’s Lent if you didn’t meet whatever goals you set. Call it a “do-over”, or a “redo”.

I had planned on posting daily with meditations from the seasonal Lenten Mass readings. That isn’t going to happen. I missed them earlier this year due to the happy distractions of preparing for marriage and starting a new job. I may still post from those, but definitely not daily. I do not think that I can maintain a steady posting routine for 40 straight days, but like I’ve said before, daily posting is something I intend to do eventually. But it ain’t gonna happen now!

Have a happy Transfiguration feast. The rosary meditation for this event in Jesus’ life is on “spiritual courage”. Maybe that is why it marks another 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!!)

Keeping the faith, finishing the race

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It is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and the Second Reading from the Mass for today is from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy:

2 Tim 4:6-8,17-18;

I, Paul, am already being poured out like a libation,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,
which the Lord, the just judge,
will award to me on that day, and not only to me,
but to all who have longed for his appearance.

The Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.
And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat
and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.
To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Despite all the trials, troubles and tribulations that Paul went through, he never took his eyes off the prize: persevering in the faith that is the pursuit of Jesus Christ and finishing that pursuit having done the job he was born to do, and did well.

Paul was tenacious in his zeal for Jesus, and that paid off: in preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles today 1/3 of this planet is now Christian. Perhaps not very good ones, but that’s for God to judge.

How zealous and dedicated are we? (I’m asking this of myself, too.) Will we let the opinions and attitudes and behaviors of other people affect how we live our Christian vocation? Or do we set it aside when it gets inconvenient and difficult?

Paul’s perseverance was aided by God. The Lord helped him through his pain and suffering so as to enable Paul to accomplish his mission. Just as the Lord will assist us when we seek to do His will in all things, Paul got it done despite everything only because God helped him.

Paul’s comment about keeping the faith and finishing the race reminded me of statements in AA meetings when some member dies, it is usually remarked that “so-and-so died sober,” as if that is all that mattered. Most often it does as drunk we can hardly accomplish anything.

But as I’ve written before, “Not drinking” is only the start. “Not drinking” is not the goal in itself, it is the basis by which we move out into the world and transform it by our sobriety and Catholic Christianity.

We clean and sober Catholics, as well as anyone else no longer practicing their addiction, have been given a new lease on life. We are in our second lives, so to speak. The first one was wasted by our alcoholism and addictions. Our new start, regardless of how long we’ve been clean and sober, is a second chance at doing whatever we were placed on the Earth to do. Even if that mission was based on our prior addiction (as in we were made addicts for a reason) we must make the most of it. We find that out through prayer and meditation (Step 11 for people in a 12 Step movement).

Go to Mass or read the Mass readings prayerfully today. Peter and Paul started a conquest of the world that is still going on now. Join them.

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!!)