Category Archives: Lent

Take up your cross daily and follow Him

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On this, the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, the message is clear:

Luke 9:22-25: “Jesus said to his disciples:
‘The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.’

Then he said to all,
‘If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?’“

(Via USCCB.)

Ponder this today and oftentimes afterwards for a guide as to how well a disciple of Jesus you are.

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

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

Return to me with your whole heart

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

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

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

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

(Via USCCB.)

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

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

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

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

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

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!!)

Praying Lent 2009

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There is an excellent online resource for experiencing Lent this year:

Praying Lent 2009

(Via Creighton University Collaborative Ministry.)

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!!)

Lenten progress

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Lent is over two weeks old. In this time of fasting and abstinence, or becoming introspective and focusing on shedding sinful behaviors, how are you doing so far? A rhetorical question, your conscience can answer for you. You need to just listen to it.

I measure my progress by where I end up by Holy Thursday. This is regardless of the goal. You need not make steady progress the whole season. As sinners, we advance and we fall. We try to do better. The important thing is to not let our defeats get the better of us and convince us that we shouldn’t bother.

I forget the source, except that it was probably a priest on EWTN, said that a good Lent is one that is better that the one last year.

We fall, we get back up. We sometimes pay more attention to our sins and our weaknesses. As long as we remain focused on those, we run the risk of remaining in our defeats. We must instead learn to focus on the love and mercy of God. The Divine Mercy of God is freely available to any who ask of it. (See the Divine Mercy links in the sidebar.) By redirecting our attention to the love of God and His desire for us to be united with Him, we may more easily resist temptations and sinful acts, and also when we do fall, to rise up and resolve to do better.

We do not deny our sinful nature and sinful acts. They are just not the focus of our attempt to amend our lives.

As with Lent, in which we have the entire season to work with and not let early distractions and backsliding get us discouraged, we have all our lives to work with in amending our behavior and preparing, hopefully, for Heaven. As we continue to seek out His love and Mercy, and trust in His perfect justice, we will be on the path to our true home, Heaven. When our exile on Earth is complete we will be admitted into His loving embrace and be reunited with our loved ones gone before us.

Keep plugging along.

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 healthy do not need a physician

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From the Gospel Reading for Saturday after Ash Wednesday:

Luke 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

The season of Lent is the season of repentance. Lent is probably the best time of the Church’s liturgical year for people to focus on the interior life of conversion. It is that time when we seek to identify those aspects of ourselves which demand improvement or shedding.

We cannot do this on our own. As recovered alcoholics we still suffer from the disease or disorder of alcoholism regardless of how long we’ve been sober. We need a physician, as does anyone who is sick. Jesus is the Divine Physician, He comes to minister to us.

Our alcoholic past produced much pain, both in ourselves and in others. In our recovery from alcohol we needed to clean up that past and to make amends. This process resulted in the healing of our self-inflicted wounds and maybe the wounds inflicted on others. This continuing process of amending our life produces the results of our recovery. We attend to our conversion process, we continue to grow and develop.

Jesus is our healer. He heals us when we petition Him, but does so in His own time, not ours. The duration spent in healing (the waiting I feel is a part of it) helps us to grow and develop our relationship with Him. We learn from our patience and from our suffering, and we carry this education in our dealings with others. Everyone is suffering in some way. Everyone is a wounded soul. The wise know this, the fools delude themselves.

As we come to terms with our past, we move forward and learn from our experiences and the pain caused. “We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.” (from Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 2001, pg 83). We have divorced our pain from the memories associated with the past actions, but we retain the experience. The memories push us forward into wanting a better future with others and with God than our past indicated. And so we repent.

“I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners,” Jesus says in John’s Gospel account. We are all sinners, but us alcoholics and addicts have perhaps been a little selfish in accepting and acting on that part of our nature. By repenting, we are truly sorrowful and contrite in our admission of our past actions. We turn to Jesus and beg forgiveness and continued healing. The graces from God are freely available in the sacrament of Confession. It is a sacrament of healing. Guilt is removed and you are restored.

Let the healing begin. Go to Confession.

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!!)

Rending your hearts

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From the First Reading from the Mass for Ash Wednesday, 2007:

Joel 2:12-14

Yet 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.

The Israelites practiced circumcision on males to show fidelity and obedience to the Law of Moses, and by this, to God. Jesus did away with that as he completed and fulfilled the ancient Hebrew prophecies and established a new covenant with us. The passage I took from today’s Mass I liken to a “circumcision of the heart”, a way to show our fidelity and obedience today.

We strayed, and must return to the Lord with our whole heart. We repent from our misdeeds of the past. In this season of Lent we fast and abstain, and regarding our sins, weep and mourn.

God’s mercy triumphs over His judgment (James 2:13). Repent and be sorrowful for your sins. Offer up your sorrow to the Lord as a prayer.

Lent is a great time also to prepare for Confession, especially if you haven’t been in years.

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!!)

Ash Wednesday-Lent begins

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Today marks the beginning of Lent. For the next 40 days (Sundays excluded) we prepare for the Passion of Christ (the trial, sentencing, Crucifixion and Death of Jesus , the Son of God).

Forty is a significant number in the Bible. It usually marks a time or period of trial or a passage through some thing to somewhere (symbolizing conversion). It rained on Noah and company for 40 days and nights. The Israelites wandered about the Sinai desert for 40 years. Elijah spent 40 days traveling to Mount Horeb from a spot in the desert outside Beersheba. Jesus went into the desert for 40 days and was tempted by Satan.

Fasting and abstinence marks the period of Lent. Catholics are bound by certain obligations regarding such. You can check with a priest to learn what they are (usually listed in the parish bulletin) or you can go to the EWTN website in the sidebar, click on “Lenten Reflections” and then click on “Fast and Abstinence”. Trying to link to it in yesterday’s post caused me much trouble and made me lose the post.

Anyway, fasting involves not eating. There’s more to it that just that. When a Christian fasts, they are linking the act to prayer. Their sufferings of the fast are being offered up to God as a sacrifice. This transcends ordinary prayer, which is powerful, but as you are linking a physical act to the prayer, it is more poignant. God hears all prayers, but the prayer of fasting rings through more clearly and is an acceptable offering pleasing to Him.

Abstinence involves not eating meat. Again, like fasting, abstinence involves much more than the Lenten regulations. The forsaking of something and offering it up as a prayer assists you in detaching yourself from worldly concerns and desires. It liberates your mind to dwell more deeply in God’s Truths, eschewing merely human concerns. Abstinence is the “What are you giving up for Lent?” question. But you do not have to just “give up” something. You can take on additional tasks. Increased prayer and meditation, especially on the Lord’s Passion are fruitful, as well as doing things for others. By doing things for others, it can be said that you are abstaining from the self.

Lent is also and excellent time to start work (or continue) on ridding yourself of character defects and personality problems. What better time to focus on and accelerate your conversion than the season of Lent? It’s perfect, because you are not alone on the journey. Other Catholics are along as well.

Have a productive 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!!)

Lent 2007

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I had a post marking the beginning of Lent, which starts tomorrow, but lost the whole thing during an edit. I took it calmly. Really. I shall attempt to re-write it tomorrow.

So instead, a small plea: If you are Catholic, please go to Mass tomorrow and receive the mark of ashes on your forehead. It is a wonderful sign of public witness to your Faith. It is a reminder to others that there are considerations besides the purely secular.

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!!)