Category Archives: Mary

A Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, and Creation I: to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin

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And so begins the First of the Nine Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation, and this one is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Servant of God Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. It runs from June 20 — June 28, 2020. I will not post this every day as the prayers and intentions are the same for each day. I’ll just leave it here for nine days; if I need to blog in the interim, I will just blog a reminder afterwards. For the background, please read this post (especially if you need to learn about who Bob Waldrop, the creator of this Novena, was, and why I am introducing it to you.) Or go here: A Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation.

Don’t worry if you jump in at some point later in the 81 days. To paraphrase Bob “just pick up whenever you happen to join in.”

AFTER THIS SENTENCE, THE WRITING IS ALL THAT OF BOB WALDROP, not me, Paulcoholic.

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Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation I: to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin (June 20 — June 28, 2020)

“Getting Started:

Begin each novena prayer with a time of quiet prayer. You may find it helpful to pray some repetitions of the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner), a decade of the Rosary, the Chaplet of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, or a time of spiritual reading or lectio divina that will prepare your mind and your heart for the prayer to come. This could be a time for a daily examen, where you consider your actions of the day and how they relate to God’s call in your life.”

General Intentions: For the redemption of structures of violence, oppression, exploitation, and despair with beauty, goodness, mercy, and peace. Reparation for sins against life.

The First Work of Justice and Peace: Live simply and justly in solidarity with the poor and marginalized and be a good neighbor. Make no war on them, rather, be one with them in spirit, truth, and love.

Act of Caring for Creation: Pick up trash in a public place.

God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me. + Let us pray together in peace, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, help the helpless, strengthen the fearful, comfort the sorrowful, bring justice to the poor, peace to all nations, and solidarity among all peoples. Give us strength to stand against the demonic powers which prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Open our eyes to see the beauty, joy, redemption, and goodness which comes through obedience to your Son our Lord. Teach us to be a refuge of hope for all who are oppressed by injustice and violence.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for those who serve the poor and who accompany them in their journeys; may we who keep this sacred commemoration experience the joy and love of the grace of your Son; may His most Sacred Heart, together with yours, pierced with sorrow for the evils of the world, be a sure refuge of hope in a time of trouble for all who are oppressed by injustice and violence.

The Magnificat of Mary. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant. From this day all generations shall call me blessed.

The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name. He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation.

He has shown the strength of His arm, He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of His servant Israel for He has remembered His promise of mercy, the promise He made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.

Dorothy Day: Dorothy Day, friend and partner of the poor, guiding spirit for the Catholic Worker, home always open to the unwanted, early, often lonely, witness in the cause of peace and conscience, eloquent pattern of gospel simplicity, Dorothy Day, disciple of the Lord, may we continue your gift of self to the needy and your untiring work for justice and peace. Help us to follow your example and dedicate our lives to the creation of structures of beauty and goodness, wisdom and mercy. Amen.

Peter Maurin: Peter Maurin, Holy Fool, teach us to give and not to take, to serve and not to rule, to help and not to crush, to nourish and not to devour. As we create a new society within the shell of the old, remind us that ideals and not deals, creed and not greed, are what makes humanity humane. Amen.

Prayer to St. John Chrysostom on behalf of the U.S. Catholic bishops.

Most Glorious and Venerable St. John Chrysostom,
Grace shining forth from your lips like a beacon
has illumined the universe.
It shows to the world the treasures of poverty;
it reveals to us the heights of humility.
Teaching us by your words, O Father John Chrysostom,
intercede before the Word, Christ our God, to save our souls!

Pray for the bishops of the United States of America,
who do not teach or practice the Catholic faith in its fullness,
that God will deliver them to orthodoxy,
and reform their ways of living,
so that as exemplars of orthopraxis, they will protect all life,
from the moment of conception to the time of natural death.

Teach them true solidarity with the poor, so that they
understand the consequences of their moral abandonment
of entire nations of human beings to a collective fate of cruelty and violence
because they were in the way of the American Empire and
its gluttonous lust for oil, supremacy, and blood.

As you refused to obey the aristocratic commands of your era,
help our bishops turn away from the political demands
that cause them to preach a false gospel of moral relativism regarding war and peace.

Having received divine grace from heaven,
with your mouth you teach all people to worship the Triune God.
Instruct our bishops with the wisdom of the Gospel,
so that they repent of their material cooperation with the objective evil of unjust war,
and call all people, in authentic word and deed, to live in solidarity, peace, and justice.

All-blest and venerable St. John Chrysostom,
we praise you, for you are our teacher, revealing things divine!
Pray for us that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

O God, Who by the preaching and teaching of Saint John Chrysostom
has given us an example of fortitude in the face of persecution and political corruption,
grant that we who reverence his life and ministry may also imitate
his example of fidelity to wisdom, truth, justice, and beauty,
through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Our Father . . . Hail Mary… Glory be. . .

Thoughts for the journey. Today many swords pierce the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Injustice, oppression, violence, war, murder, the rape of Creation — all these and more are sins and structures of sin against justice and peace. We know that within our hearts are the seeds of the problems the world faces.

This redemption begins in my heart and your heart. It all starts, as they say, with the man — or the woman — in the mirror.

If we want to see a better relationship of Christ and the world, we must ask first about our own personal relationship with Jesus. Is he the Easter Bunny? Someone who makes us feel good, but who is remote and not really involved? A cultural construct? A topic in a religious education course?

Or is Christ a living reality in my life?

We are in this for the long haul, and it will be a long haul. We will not wake up on the 82nd day after 81 days of nine novenas and discover that we have prayed and worked ourselves into a new world of justice and peace that cares for Creation as God intended for all of us. There is much more work and prayer to come.

If we think we can do this in our own strength, we are wrong.

If we are going forward in the work of justice and peace, the place to start is with an examination of our own lives. How do my sins of omission and commission create and support structures of injustice and oppression? How do I participate in and profit from the social sins and unjust wars of this age? What must be redeemed in my life so that I live in solidarity with those our society has pushed to the edge and further, into the abyss? How can I change my life so that I promote peace, rather than demanding war? Can I end (or minimize) the ecological harm I cause to Creation by my lifestyle?

Have I abandoned Christ for secular saviors? Do I bury myself in the busy-ness of life and ignore God’s call?

As you pray these novenas for the next 81 days, let this be a time when your personal relationship with Christ blooms and flowers. Our prayer for everyone who takes up these novenas is that their hearts will be open to the reality that Christ is alive and he loves each and every one of us. He gave his life to save us and our societies from sin and oppression. He lives today and is at your side every moment of every day to enlighten, strengthen, and free you. OK, I am paraphrasing Pope Francis here, but I think the point is clear: the journey of justice and peace is a journey with Christ.

If we are to change the world, each of us must begin with himself or herself as we ourselves become the change we wish to see in the world. That change is the fruit of the Spirit that grows from our personal relationship with Christ.

Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin:

Dorothy Day was an early advocate of women’s rights who wrote for radical leftist newspapers in the early years of this century. She was a bohemian as they said in those days — but when she looked in her heart of hearts, she found it empty. By the grace and providence of God, she found our Lord and was baptized into the Catholic Church. Thus began a journey which led to the founding of the Catholic Worker movement, together with Peter Maurin and the other first Workers.

It’s clear from their writings that both Dorothy and Peter experienced a tender and intimate relationship with Christ. This relationship was the source of all that they were able to do for the cause of justice and peace. Dorothy was not a stranger to activism; for years she had struggled in the streets as part of the great social battles of the first years of the 20th century — women’s suffrage, the 40 hour week, the right to join a union, justice for workers.

Peter Maurin, a French peasant who came to the United States via Canada, taught that it was a great blessing to assist the rich in coming to the assistance of the poor. Too often, “never the twain shall meet,” and certainly, in this day and age, communication between the poor and the rich is as bad as it has ever been. Communication requires that each person who wants to be heard and understood must see and hear the “Other” as a human person. It’s not easy, and it takes practice.

The program that Peter and Dorothy offered to the world was direct, personal involvement with other human beings. They called us to open houses of hospitality, to engage in clarification of thought so we would understand what needs to be done, and to found agricultural communities as the seeds of new villages. They believed in the importance of the Eucharist, the Rosary, and many traditional devotions — because their work responded to their lively interior relationship with Christ. They were suspicious of the imperial State. They wanted the Catholic Worker movement to be an organism, not an organization, that drew its strength from the Eucharist and the real presence of Christ in the lives of the workers.

As the United States empire entered a time of great triumph, they called for establishing the seeds of a new society within the “collapsing ruins of the old. ” They taught that the poor should be fed by Christians, not by large government bureaucracies. Peter wrote many “Easy Essays” — short little works, almost poetry in their simplicity, each one packed with intense theological concepts about the human person and how we relate to one another in community. He also reminded us of the nobility — and the necessity — of manual labor (something we’d often like to forget in this day of convenience and instant gratification).

Dorothy and Peter worked to create and live structures of beauty and goodness. In the midst of the slums of New York, they provided hospitality to the poor while working for social justice. They learned that the works of mercy and the works of justice and peace are one and the same, different aspects of the same journey, all going the same direction.

Long before it was a theological mantra, the “preferential option for the poor” was a living reality in the life and work of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. They were informed critics of current events, prophetically looking for the truth in the signs of their times, and finding Jesus in the poor, rejected, and marginalized.

Their example inspires us today to consider how we can ensure fair distribution, subsidiarity, economic opportunity, justice, and food security for everyone everywhere. As we open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to the Spirit’s guidance, we can discern our response to the signs of these times. We then can see the structures of sin that bind us in poverty and war, and name the demons which oppress us.

We can buy farms and dedicate them for the purpose of raising food for the hungry. We can organize microenterprise co-operatives in every city to provide opportunity for the poor. We can look at our own individual situations, and adopt lifestyles of simplicity and frugality, rejecting the culture of materialistic conspicuous consumption in favor of a life of living simply, that others may simply live. We can minimize our use of fossil fuels and thus remove one of the major causes of war. We can buy our food directly from farmers, and stop funding the destruction of the family farm community. We can discern the cry of the widow and orphan in our own neighborhoods, and be the hands and feet of God in relieving distress and creating justice. We can open our own hearts to the reality of life in Christ, and embrace him as savior and friend.

Dorothy Day used to quote St. Catherine of Sienna — “All the way to heaven is heaven.” May this be our prayer, in Jesus’ holy name.

Caring for Creation

Our act of reparation during this 9 day novena, and going forward, is to pick up trash in a public place. You won’t have to look far, but I think there are extra blessings for picking up trash in low income neighborhoods. Trash is endemic everywhere. It is a sign of our careless attitude towards the gifts of this Earth that God has so freely given us. Much trash is useful — many items can be recycled or repurposed, but often we think only of our selfishness and do not take the time or the care to do the right thing by Creation and reduce our impact on the planet by recycling. Examine your conscience! Do you sin against God’s Creation by your casual attitude towards waste? Now is the time for actual works of penance, which is why we pick up trash in public places.

Courtesy: Bob Waldrop, St. Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House

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(Paulcoholic, back. Thank you for reading and praying. Just a few thoughts of my own, here, on some of the language Bob used, particularly referring to the US as an “empire,” within a pejorative context. Well, it is painful, but the United States IS an Empire. While an Empire in and of itself is not a bad thing, ours is costly. Excessive tax dollars are spent on maintaining a military presence overseas we can hardly afford; money that could be spent domestically on infrastructure, healthcare, education and other things. In my thinking, there is little reason why we should still be maintaining military bases in Europe. They can potentially defend themselves. NATO served its purpose as the defense of the West against any potential Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion; after the fall of the Communist alliance NATO should have been mothballed and the European nations taken upon themselves some form of collective defense, if needed. While engaging in military action against terrorists might have seemed a good idea in the early 00s, in reality continued action in the Middle East has only served to create more terrorists. I’m uncertain as to the solution, but the way things are going there and domestically, I think we should cut our losses and our troops recalled. )

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On Bob Waldrop and introducing the Novena of Novenas

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Today begins a special period of prayer, the “Novena of Novenas.” This was started several years ago by Bob Waldrop, the late founder of the St. Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City. Bob died on August 30, 2019.

I never met Bob in person although we had been friends on Facebook for around ten years. I first discovered him online in the early 00s. I was exploring my Catholic faith and seeing what was online (I am revert) and in the course of looking into various theories of Catholic living ran across his site on “Champagne Living on a Beer Budget.” This intrigued me, given my recent sobriety. I quickly learned that it had nothing to do with the drinking, brewing or fermenting of alcoholic beverages, but rather was an omnibus guide to frugal, simple living. I believe that it was from Bob’s numerous sites that I started learning that Catholicism wasn’t just about the sacramental and liturgical life. There is an entire system of thought rooted in Scripture, interpreted and implemented by saints, popes and laity, that brings into the political and economic sphere the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Soon afterwards I discovered Distributism, Subsidiarity and Solidarity; Personalism and Communitarianism. I’m lousy at applying many of them, but I try. Much later, monarchism and Tradition. (Bob was by no stretch of the imagination a monarchist. I think he was Traditional Latin Mass-friendly, but he was a Liturgical Music Director at a parish that only offered the Mass in the Ordinary Form. But his YouTube Channel does offer videos of chant and other pre-1962 hymns.)

I became entranced by Bob’s sites. I bookmarked them all including subpages in a browser folder entitled “Bobternet,” as his sites were massive (albeit disorganized, which he admitted) and contained copious amounts of information about a plethora of subjects, I figured he was a subset of the Internet and hence gave it that name. (He thought it hilarious when I told him years later on Facebook.)

Bob was a Catholic Worker, with “‘‘hair on fire’ rants on politics, economics, food, permaculture, sustainability, peak oil, climate instability, cooperatives, local foods, and etc.,” that afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted. He lived the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy. He was truly a disciple of Servant of God Dorothy Day and her colleague Peter Maurin (co-founders of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933). He believed in Jesus with a passion and adhered to the Church’s orthodox teachings. One might think that with his stance on social issues he would be a “cafeteria Catholic” and pick and choose what he preferred amongst the teachings, but his sites on the Church’s social justice teachings, from politics and economics, to war, the pro-life movement, poverty and human suffering, migrants and such, exuded orthodoxy with supporting documentation from Scripture, the Saints, Popes and the Catechism. This makes people uncomfortable, particularly those who prefer a quiet and tidy Christianity of Sunday Mass or ‘worship service’ followed by secular activities. “Just let me worship and pray once in a while, and please don’t remind me of my obligations to serve others.” Bob’s faith was an active Catholic Christianity.

Well, one of the things that he introduced was this thing called the “Novena of Novenas.” Nine consecutive individual Novenas, thus stretching across 81 days. He began them annually on the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (the Saturday immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.) This year it begins today, and ends on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in September. (I don’t think they always end on another important liturgical event, but I think it is way cool when they do as to me, it signifies a God-incidence.)

I will borrow (copy/paste) from Bob’s work on the Novena’s particulars, but I have included links directly to his sites so you can access the complete information (just be aware that when you do go there, dates are incorrect as he died during the last one, and no one is in charge of maintaining or updating his sites. All of the links are to the Internet Archive’s version of his sites. I will address that issue at the end of this post, so do not be concerned about the links.) One thing: I have never prayed this before, and so I do not know if the intentions change every year. I am going with the last one from 2019, as that was Bob’s last and he died during it.

OK, here we go (Bob’s writing is italicized. When I interrupt, it’ll be back to non-italicized font.)

“A Novena of Novenas
for Justice, Peace, & Creation

This “novena of novenas” is 81 days of intercessory prayer, reflection, and orthopraxis (“right action”) for peace among nations, justice for all people, and the care of Creation. We start on the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, — June 20, 2020 and end on September 8, 2020. Our novena dates wander around from year to year, since we always begin on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a movable feast, the date of which is dependent upon the date of Easter. (It’s the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, which is the Friday after the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ.)“

“A novena is 9 days of prayer, and recalls the 9 days that the Apostles spent praying in the “Upper Room” between the Ascension and Pentecost. This call to prayer consists of nine consecutive novenas -81 days!

Each novena has a general intention, the prayers, thoughts for the Journey, and an act of caring for Creation.“

All right, Paulcoholic here, and you might be wondering what this all has to do with the typical focus of Sober Cat, which is sobriety. Quite some time ago I changed the subtitle of this blog to “Catholicism, Recovery, Sobriety, Conversion, Prayer, Fasting, Repentance, Penance.” Mainly because I wanted to gradually expand beyond writing about “how to maintain sobriety and recovery by means of Catholic spirituality etc., etc., etc.,” And Bob’s stuff is within the realm of the subtitle. Also, and this is important: if you are reading this blog, then there’s a good chance you are or were an alcoholic or addict, or you know and love one. Recovery, to me, isn’t just about staying clean and sober. I firmly believe that once we establish our sobriety from booze and drugs, we continue that work, only extending outward from ourselves and to our neighbors. It does mean in part that we reach out to others we know or suspect are trapped by addictions, but it also means that we recognize the inherent sickness of the world around us and the fact that human society today, everywhere, is addicted to something. Just look around. There are power struggles everywhere leading to violence, intolerance and injustice. People make demands rather than appeals. We are addicted to materialism and the acquisition of more goods. Many people, including myself at times and perhaps you, root our identity in what we do for a living, how much money we earn and what we spend it on. Too many secular distractions abound that take us away from God. The Church is under attack from without and within. Face up to it: humanity today is sick and in dire need of a massive makeover that can only come from embracing the Gospel. “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.” (Words of Jesus in the Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, “Divine Mercy in My Soul,” paragraph 300.) Peace is not found in perpetuating injustices, in acquiring more material goods, using up the natural resources of our planet with little regard for future generations. Peace is not found in aborting future generations! Peace will not happen unless justice is established and in Catholic social teachings, justice means that everyone receives what is their due based upon the individual’s intrinsic dignity of being made in the images and likeness of God and in being His adopted children through Christ. All human life is sacred and unique, from womb to tomb, and was not put on this Earth to be exploited, enslaved, or oppressed for narrow political and economic goals. A Mercy-based culture.

And so we have the essential themes of the Novena of Novenas. Each one focuses on separate issues. But, back to Bob:

“Each novena is dedicated to one of the titles of Mary and one or more of the saints of justice and peace, whose prayers of intercession we invoke for our various intentions. It’s like calling up a friend and saying, “Please pray for me.” The “Works of Justice and Peace” of the first seven Novenas are from the statement of mission of the…Saint Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House.

Each of the 81 days we will also pray the Novena to St. John Chrysostom on behalf of the conversion of the United States Catholic Bishops, so that they will come to a better understanding of the necessity of authenticity in leadership. We think the orthodoxy (“right teaching”) of the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to a certain way of living. That’s known as “orthopraxis” — or right action..”

Me, again. Yes, the Bishops of the United States (and perhaps in your country, as well) are in need of conversion. Too many lack the courage and fortitude to be true shepherds of the Church in these times of Spiritual Warfare. The bishops should lead us towards a ‘certain way of living,’ but when they don’t the Holy Spirit raises up the laity to compensate for when the Bishops lack. The Spirit did that when He brought Dorothy Day into the Catholic Church, just in time for her to meet Peter Maurin and establish the Catholic Worker. The work of the Movement was seen by some to have been a major reason for the failure of Communism to gain traction in the United States in the 1930s. It seems we have come full circle. In the 2020s we are back to battling the forces of Marxism; forces we thought were defeated when the USSR collapsed. It wasn’t, it just metastasized. Oh, Bob wants to speak again:

“The spirit of this novena may be found in these words of Saint Oscar Romero. . . “It is very easy to be servants of the word without disturbing the world: a very spiritualized word, a word without any commitment to history, a word that can sound in any part of the world because it belongs to no part of the world. A word like that creates no problems, starts no conflicts.”

“What starts conflicts and persecutions, what marks the genuine church, is the word that, burning like the word of the prophets, proclaims and accuses; proclaims to the people God’s wonders to be believed and venerated, and accuses of sin those who oppose God’s reign, so that they may tear that sin out of their hearts, out of their societies, out of their laws – out of the structures that oppress, that imprison, that violate the rights of God and of humanity. This is the hard service of the word.”

“But God’s Spirit goes with the prophet, with the preacher, for he is Christ, who keeps on proclaiming his reign to the people of all times.”

At this point you may be asking, “OK, Paulcoholic. Enough already. Where’s the actual, you know, NOVENA? Helllooooo?”

Bob’s got you covered. Here he goes:

“Getting Started.

Begin each novena prayer with a time of quiet prayer. You may find it helpful to pray some repetitions of the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner), a decade of the Rosary, the Chaplet of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, or a time of spiritual reading or lectio divina that will prepare your mind and your heart for the prayer to come. This could be a time for a daily examen, where you consider your actions of the day and how they relate to God’s call in your life. 

All right. That’s it. You know about Bob Waldrop, you’ve been introduced to a whole muncha buncha things to think about; I am not now going to load you down with the actual First Novena itself. “What?!?!?!” you scream in horror. “After all this…”

“Hang on.” I interrupt. “That will be in the next post, almost immediately after this one. This blogpost is long enough, dontcha think?. But if you can’t wait a few minutes or so before I post the intentions and prayers of the First of the Nine, here’s a link to the whole kitten kaboodle:” The Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace and Creation

(Update! The First Novena is now up: A Novena of Novenas for Justice, Peace, & Creation I: to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin

NOTE: all of the links that I gave for Bob’s sites are to their last versions that have been scooped up by the Internet’s “Wayback Machine,” also known as Internet Archive. This is because his domains are going dark or becoming security risks from lack of updates, or are being coopted by squatters. So the only reliable place to get what Bob taught and shared is in the Wayback Machine. Thankfully, all links are self-contained, so that if you click on something in one site that links to another page of his, it remains within the Archive even if the link is to a different site of Bob’s.

Since his death, his work in helping the poor, the marginalized, and all those considered “expendable” by society is being carried out by other groups since, as far as I can find out, the Romero House has since shut down. (I was informed last Autumn by someone who knew him very well that the House’s operations were transferred to the Dorothy Day Center in Oklahoma City. The Romero House itself was on the verge of being condemned. My information may be dated, but the Romero website’s domain name has been abandoned and subsequently taken over by a website squatter hawking goods. This person, who is as unique an individual as Bob was, and who is a dedicated Catholic Worker, wrote a nice obituary on her blog. Please go here: GOD’s Garden Gnome Gone Home.) Perhaps if she reads this she can post an update on the Romero House and legacy, in the comments.

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!!)

Spiritual Communions

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OK, as promised in Worshipping and Adoring in a time of Pandemic here are several spiritual communions you can use daily (and multiple times a day) in these times; and whether or not you can get to Mass.)

To the prayers!

One of the more common:

My Jesus,
I believe that You
are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things,
and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment
receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.

Amen.

The Anima Christi:

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within your wounds hide me.
Permit me not to be separated from you.
From the wicked foe, defend me.
At the hour of my death, call me
and bid me come to you
That with your saints I may praise you
For ever and ever. Amen.

More:

Jesus, meek and humble of heart; make my heart like unto thine.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore, help me love thee more and more.

Another thing you can do is to just say something about desiring Jesus to unite Himself with you. Using your own words may even be better, once in a while!

This is a link to a PDF file for the Proper Prayers of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form Votive Mass for the Deliverance from Death in Time of Pestilence:

Proper Prayers of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form The page numbering on it appears odd; I think it is intended to be printed out for those without Missals at Latin Masses. They’re good to read and add to your devotions in these times. If you’re planning to print out this post, click on that link and it should open in a new tab, then download and print.

These were posted earlier in Faith in a time of Pandemic, but in case you want to print out all the “In Time of Pandemic Prayers,” I’m including them again.

Oh My Jesus, I include myself in all the Holy Masses which are being celebrated this day throughout the whole world, and offer them to You in union with the intentions of Your Sacred Heart. I implore You to reserve for me, from each Holy Mass, Your most precious Blood to atone for my sins and their punishment.

Grant me also the grace of obtaining through the merits of every holy sacrifice the release of one poor soul from the pains of purgatory, the conversion of one sinner, and that one soul in the agony of death may obtain mercy, and that one mortal sin, which is so painful to Your Sacred Heart, may be prevented.

Eternal Father, we offer You the Blood, the Passion, and the Death of Jesus Christ in satisfaction for our sins, in aid of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for the needs of Holy Mother Church, and for the conversion of sinners. Amen.

Another:

Lord Jesus, I unite myself to Your perpetual, unceasing, universal Sacrifice. I offer myself to You every day of my life and every moment of every day, according to Your most holy and adorable Will. Since You have been the Victim of my salvation, I wish to be the victim of Your love. Accept my desire, take my offering, and graciously hear my prayer. Let me live for love of You; let me die for love of You; let my last heartbeat be an act of perfect love.

Here’s one more that I say daily:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, the reparation for sin, and the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.

Regarding the latter, I sometimes omit the words “Apostles of Prayer,” and substitute “Knights and Ladies of the Militia of the Immaculata” and “Knights at the Foot of the Cross,” as I am a member of both the Militia of the Immaculata and their sister organization, Knights at the Foot of the Cross. If you are a member of some other Catholic apostolate, such as the Knights of Columbus, the Legion of Mary, or are Third Order Franciscan, Carmelite, etc., maybe use that instead (or along with.)

…

There are many more prayers to be found online. If you’d like, you can post some in the comments. I’ll try and check in frequently to review and/or approve.

One last thing: Pray the Rosary often. Stick close to Mama. 

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!!)

Soberversary! Seventeen years sober, today.

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Today I achieved my seventeenth year of sobriety. That’s One Day At A Time repeated 6,209 times.

A certain Twelve Step movement helped a lot at first; but I credit my endurance to Our Lord and Saviour’s Church, the Holy Catholic Church and to His Most Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. I think a few saints assisted along the way, too.

That’s all. No major revelations. “If I can manage to become sober, so can anyone.”

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!!)

Spiritual Warfare

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I said in an earlier post, DON’T LEAVE JESUS BECAUSE OF JUDAS that “Those that are in the Church and are guilty of the crimes reported are followers of Judas. They will go to their own reward unless they repent. And speaking of who else dwells in the place of that particular reward, the scandals and corruption seem to me proof that Satan himself knows which Church is the One True Faith, for it would be that very Church which would suffer the most targeted and evil demonic attacks.”

(This is the “follow-up post. There will be others.)

We are engaged in spiritual warfare. It is us versus the Evil One. We have the Church and Her Sacraments and sacramentals, prayers, devotions and the MASS in our armory of weapons. Not to mention the considerable force of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she who will “crush the head” of the serpent.

Jesus established His Church (the only one, all others having been spun off of Her over the millennia) to safeguard His teachings and those of the Apostles and their successors. Satan knows this and has as his chief goal Her destruction. Hence, the primary target of his attacks on the Church has been against the hierarchy and priesthood.

No Pope, no Bishops and no priests: no Church.

This is not the time to remain weak, fair-weather Catholics.

St. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the directors of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places.”

Courtesy: Sacred Bible: Catholic Public Domain Version

That is what we are doing battle with; to that end I will be reviewing my browser bookmarks and adding a new link section to Sober Catholics’s sidebar: “Spiritual Warfare.” For THAT is what we are engaged in, warfare. I’ll do a post announcing when it’s on the sidebar. I will also add a new post category with that same name as I will be writing more on weapons to be used in our spiritual warfare.

See: I won’t leave Peter because of Judas. Men don’t leave the Lady when She’s under attack. Stand and fight and defend Holy Mother Church. That was a Tweet I posted in the aftermath of the initial reports of the sex abuse scandal. (I referenced “Men,” obviously women are called to fight and defend the Church as well; I was referring to men due to our traditional roles as warriors and fighters for a cause.)

Start arming yourselves. Take up your Cross and follow Jesus. He is to be found truly, really Present in your Catholic Parish. Start spending time in Adoration.

Grab your Rosary, start saying it daily maybe even 4 times a day! It does make a difference!

Study your Catholic Bible. I recommend the Jerusalem Bible, primarily because Mother Angelica, EWTN Foundress loved it and used it in her Bible studies. It’s also a good read. I also like the Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition (RSVCE), it’s also a good read and Fr. Benedict Groeschel, who appeared often on EWTN, loved it. The Douay-Rheims is excellent if you’re in a traditional mindset. Available: EWTN Religious Catalog: Bibles

Study your Catechism. Not just the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” circa 1997, but also the venerable “Roman Catechism,” also known as the “Catechism of the Council of Trent.” The former is available in bookstores as well as EWTN Religious Catalog: Catechism, the latter, here: TAN Books (Note: you can also order the Douay-Rheims Bible through TAN.)

Frequent the Sacraments. Attend Mass every Sunday as well as Daily, if possible. If there is a Traditional Latin Mass with driving distance from your home, attend that. (I will post either here or on my other blog, In Exile Latin Mass resources.)

Study the Divine Mercy Message. Get St. Faustina’s Diary. (Available through the link in the previous sentence.)

Read the diary of St. Therese of Lisieux (“Story of a Soul.” Available anywhere.)

Try saying the Stations of the Cross; they’re not just for Lent, you know.

Learn about the Sacred Heart Devotion.

Another devotion is to begin saying (daily, if you can, otherwise whenever you are able) the Chaplet of St. Michael the Archangel. His Feast day is coming up on September 29th, so a Novena to him begins on the 20th; I will post some novena prayers for you as well as how to say the chaplet. (Probably within a few days, but just in time.)

This is a lot. But all is necessary. Studying the Bible and the Catechisms as well as the diaries I mentioned is important. There are many claims as to the “root causes” of the sex abuse scandal. All may be true to this or that degree, but the root cause of all is dissent. Toleration, acceptance and promotion of dissent from the teachings of Jesus as expressed through His Church is what caused all of this. This is why I referred to the perpetrators of the scandal as “Judases.” For they betrayed Him just like the original Traitor. All dissent is treason, if you are culpable (know that it is dissent, and not that “you didn’t know any better.”) So fortifying yourselves with TRUTH via the Catholic Bible, the Catechisms and great spiritual reading is paramount if we are to defeat the forces of darkness pervading the Church.

All of the above have their own links in the sidebar of Sober Catholic: as this blog was intended for people who might have left the Church due to various reasons encountered in their addictions or recovery, I placed many links to sites to help people learn about the Faith. Hence…

…How to Become Catholic or Return to the Church
The Church and the Bible
For all things Catholic…

Sacred Heart
Rosary
Divine Mercy…

… are all groups of website links in the sidebar. Visit and learn! There are other groups of links in the sidebar more particular to the purpose of this blog, peruse those as well. You never know what you might find of interest.

We are all in this together. We also need to pray for one another in these times; Satan will attack those fighting him. I know I will be under some manner of spiritual attack (it happens quite often.) So, if you’re a regular reader of Sober Catholic, please pray for me and this blog. Even if you’re not, please pray for me! 😉

As I said up above somewhere, there will be more posts in this category; I will bring up prayers and devotions, sacramentals, point out other websites that are fighting in the trenches, too.

We’ve got this, we will win.

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!!)

How are the four daily Rosaries coming along?

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About a month ago I posted about reciting Four Daily Rosaries so that the Blessed Virgin Mary can assist with your needs. I state the intention in the following manner: “Blessed Mother (or Momma Mary or some other affectionate reference) this is the (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,) Rosary I’m saying today so that your intentions regarding my intentions and needs come true.”

It has been awesome. For one thing, it hasn’t been difficult. Prayer manipulates time; time seems to expand to accommodate prayer life, I always seem to have the time to say them. The Rosary only takes 15-20 minutes, saying all four then takes maybe an hour to an hour and a quarter. You needn’t say them all in a row, you can break them up over the day. Twenty minutes here, twenty minutes there. You waste that much with mindless crap all the time, fill it up with a Rosary instead!

I won’t say that I am perfect as a result; that I walk around all serene and holy and whatnot. I do feel different, though. More strength and fortitude to deal with life’s junk. More faith in Divine Providence. I feel closer to Our Lord and Lady.

This is just after a month; I can only imagine the cumulative effect over time!

By the way, I haven’t missed a day, either! (Not boasting, just stating facts.)

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!!)

Four Daily Rosaries for your needs

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Last Friday, August 10, 2018, I chanced to watch the Daily Mass on EWTN. There was a very interesting homily given by a parish priest, the Rev. Msgr. Beaubrun Ardouin, from St. Leo’s Parish in Irvington, New Jersey. He was leading his parishioners, mostly the members of the parish’s Rosary Society, on a pilgrimage to the EWTN campus.

He suggested that we say four Rosaries, a complete set of the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries, every day. Why? So that Our Blessed Mother can answer our needs. (NOT our wants, but our needs. One has to be able to discern the difference between the two. So few nowadays do.) He got the idea from a fellow priest while on pilgrimage to Fatima, honoring the 100th Anniversary of the October 13 apparition (the Miracle of the Sun event.)

He had told this other priest about his efforts to reopen St. Leo’s closed parish school. The priest suggested the practice of praying Four Daily Rosaries to obtain the Blessed Mother’s intercession. Do this, and she will take care of your needs. I have to repeat what I said above: “NOT our wants, but our needs. One has to be able to discern the difference between the two.” Our needs are always provided for by the Lord. And since Mary’s will is identical to God’s will, her intercessory abilities are most powerful. (“Our needs are always provider for…” is even declared somewhere towards the end of AA’s “Big Book.”)

I do not know if he has been successful in reopening the school; given that he began the Four Daily Rosaries just last October 2017, and it is now only ten months later, probably not. I think he would have said so. But…. all things in God’s time.

I’m trying this; I’ve managed two days so far (yesterday and today.) It isn’t that difficult, once you think of it. You don’t have to say them all consecutively; you can distribute the times across the day. Some suggestions: Pray the first one during your morning prayer devotions. The second maybe en route to work. A third perhaps during your lunch hour, or on the way home. The fourth in the evening. Another time is at bedtime. There, that’s six possible time periods. I wouldn’t get upset if this can’t be done everyday. I typically say one Rosary daily, sometimes two. Once in a while I forget, for some dumb reason. So, don’t get all flustered if you miss a day, or only get to three!

Many people pray multiple times a day; there is the official prayer of the Church known as the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours. That is said morning, during the day, evening and night. If you can’t do that, saying multiple rosaries is a fantastic substitute, especially if you take the time to meditate and dwell on the mysteries (like you’re supposed to.)

The link to the homily is here: EWTN Daily Mass 10 Aug 2018.

The homily itself starts at about the 7:10 mark, the relevant part about the Four Daily Rosaries is at about the 12:50 mark.

Grab your Rosaries! Start praying! 😉

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 wonderful book suggestion for you: My Ideal, Jesus, Son of Mary

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I am going to recommend a book for my Sober Catholic readers; I’ve read it as a daily devotional several times already, especially during January, May and October.

It is My Ideal, Jesus, Son of Mary by Fr. Emile Neubert.

Written in the style of “The Imitation of Christ,” with a dialogue between Jesus and later Mary with the reader, the book contains 31 chapters, perfect for a month-long devotional (Fr. Neubert suggests which chapters to be combined for a 30-day month.) The book guides you along a path towards a closer union with Jesus by developing a relationship with His greatest disciple, His Mother Mary. Along the way you are instructed by Jesus at first about how to imitate His relationship with Mary, from learning how to adopt His filial love of Mary and then offering methods to devote yourself to her. Then Mary takes over and teaches you her methods of becoming a disciple of Jesus.

As you read along during the month, you gain invaluable knowledge of your relationship with Mary, seen in light of her Divine Maternity and her maternal intercession for each of us with her Son. You learn many devotional practices that assist you in growing closer to the Blessed Virgin, which, in turn, makes you a better disciple of Jesus. Since Mary was His greatest disciple, and we all go through her to get to Jesus (whether we know it or not), this book is indispensable in developing a closer relationship with Him as Our Lady teaches us the best methods of being a true follower of Christ. You learn various ways to help you make your apostolate (how you live out your vocation as a Christian due to your having been Confirmed.

All true, authentic devotions to Mary lead you to Jesus.

This book is not a product of a private revelation; the author, Fr. Emile Neubert, disseminates the teachings of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, the founder of the Sodalities of Mary, which today exist as the Society of Mary and the Daughters of Mary. See: Marianists.

Click here to order. (I do not get any compensation. I just think this is a great book and would like for you to get it.)

I said in the first paragraph that I’ve read it during January, May and October. The latter two months are great as they’re devoted to Mary. (May is Mary’s month and October is dedicated to the Rosary.) I also studied it during January since the 1st is the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, and the 31st is my birthday. 🙂

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!!)

Mother’s Day!

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In the United States, today is Mother’s Day. It’s also the 101st anniversary of the first apparition of the Blessed Mother at Fatima, Portugal. It’s nice that the two days coincide for a change, a secular and religious holiday.

Just a reminder that if you haven’t called her yet, Mom is waiting to hear from you. Say your 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!!)

Pray for us sinners

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A thought had popped into my mind while praying the Rosary today…

The line in the second verse, “…pray for us sinners…” struck me.

It reads “pray for us sinners,” not “pray for me, a sinner.”

The Rosary is the devotional prayer most closely associated with Catholics. And rightly so, with the prayer’s popularity over the centuries and given that at any one time, there are probably hundreds of thousands (or more!) Catholics praying it around the clock, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Someone, somewhere, right now, is praying a Rosary. Which mean that given the “pray for us sinners,” wording, there are thousands of people asking the Blessed Mother’s intercession for everyone and for each other, including you, right now.

A sobering thought, especially if you’re going through a bad time. You are not alone. Someone, actually, a whole massive number of someones, are praying for you right now.

Maybe you should pick up a Rosary and pray for them in return.

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!!)