Category Archives: Me

I will be on EWTN Radio in January!

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A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by Bear Woznick, of “Bear’s School of Manliness,” at Spirit of Adventure Ministries. His show, “The Bear Woznick Adventure,” airs on EWTN Radio on Saturday evenings (please refer to your local listings for any changes). I received an email from him today confirming that EWTN approved the interview for their network, and so I will be appearing on EWTN Radio sometime in January! The exact date has not yet been finalized. I will keep you updated with further details as they become available. 

His show also appears on YouTube: Bear Woznick Spirit of Adventure.  Please take a look at it, it’s a good source of Catholic spirituality and his show is particularly good for men 9and the women who love them.)

The interview was regarding my new book, “The Sober Catholic Way.”

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“The Sober Catholic Way” helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety. Drawn from nearly two decades of blogging at SoberCatholic.com, “The Sober Catholic Way” shows the importance of the sacraments, the Bible, the Catechism and other books. It continues on with the various ways one can “live” out Catholicism by nurturing devotions to the Sacred Heart, Blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints. All of these contribute to sobriety as well as one’s spiritual progression!

“The Sober Catholic Way” is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. This book does not guarantee anything, but doing these things have helped keep my sobriety intact since May 22, 2002. 

It is currently available through Amazon on Amazon Kindle, as well as a paperback: click here to buy as a paperback.

It is also available as a paperback through Barnes and Noble: Order The Sober Catholic Way as a B&N paperback! as well as an ebook for your Nook!

It is also now available at numerous other ebook retailers like Apple Books and Smashwords.

It’s also available as an ebook through:

Kobo

Everand

Fable

Palace Marketplace

Aussie’s can go here: Angus & Robertson

…and you might try this Universal link: here and click on the logo of your fave online bookshop.  Some of the logos have trackers in them and these may be blocked by browser extensions. That’s why I listed them individually right above this.

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!!)

Misfit

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Today I have been sober for 22 1/2 years. 

#sobrietyhumoralert But some time ago the thought occurred to me that as a writer, (I am one as I do write stuff) I may be at odds with the stereotype of writers being drunken sots. Writing is a lonely profession; being solitary, one is apt to become depressed or otherwise feel a need to offset the lack of professional companionship. Thus writers develop a drinking habit to compensate for all that isolation. Despite the existence of social networks and thus connecting with others, it is still an isolated endeavor. Social networks can also distract you.

Or you drink to get inspiration. I think Hemingway said “Write drunk, edit sober.”

Nevertheless, I defy the stereotype. When I was attempting to become a writer #backintheday pre-Internet and computer, I didn’t drink. When I began drinking, I gave up the idea of writing. When I sobered up, I revisited the whole writing thing.

I can’t even do the “writer as a drunken sot” thing correctly. Just as well. I am a misfit.

On the subject of “misfits,” I did join AA but I never quite fit in there, either. You can read about my AA adventures in some links on this page. A supposed “Fellowship” of like-minded people who are all united in keeping each other sober, I never quite got the hang of it. I attended zillions of meetings, adopted the language and worked the 12 Steps, did service work (make coffee, set up/clean up), participated in the “meeting before the meetings” and hung out afterwards. Never developed that wonderful “Fellowship” that is discussed so glowingly in the pages of AA literature. I tried, not being overbearing, of course (not my style), but still never saw people away from meetings, never got involved in their lives, nor they in mine. It was as if we didn’t exist outside of the rooms.

Oh, well. Leave it to me to be a misfit in a society of misfits.

NOTE: This is a ‘retropost,’ I am in the process of moving posts from Paul Sofranko Space (in order to make that a static site promoting my books) to here, as well as my Catholic365 column. 

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 Sober Catholic Way” is available!

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I have a new book out: The Sober Catholic Way is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life and helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety. Drawn from nearly two decades of blogging at SoberCatholic, “The Sober Catholic Way” shows the importance of the sacraments, the Bible, the Catechism and other books. It continues on with the various ways one can “live” out Catholicism by nurturing devotions to the Sacred Heart, Blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints. All of these contribute to sobriety as well as one’s spiritual progression! 

Discover the importance of the Real Presence, the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, St. Joseph, St. Therese (the “Little Flower”) and Matt Talbot. You’ll get ideas on how to apply the Beatitudes, the Divine Mercy Message, as well as learning about the Apparitions of Our Lady at Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima and how they can guide one’s life.00000 TSCWBookCover.jpg.It is currently available through Amazon on Amazon Kindle, as well as a paperback: click here to buy as a paperback. It is also available as a paperback through Barnes and Noble: Order The Sober Catholic Way as a B&N paperback! as well as an ebook for your Nook! It is also now available at numerous other ebook retailers like Apple Books and Smashwords.

 

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!!)

St. Jude Thaddeus: the Forgotten

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OK, so in my previous post I had written a prayer based on a traditional one that claimed St. Jude was confused with the traitor Judas due to the similarity in names. I didn’t have the prayer handy but was certain that’s how it read. I was wrong. It read that he was forgotten by many. Oh, well. I’m keeping it because I do think people got them confused. I wrote a new one based on this corrected context:

I think that this is further evidence that St. Jude is a leading advocate and intercessor for us. In the throes of our addiction, we were often shunned by family and friends and others. Perhaps rightfully so, given our behavior. Nevertheless, this contributed to our dehumanization. Numbering among the lost, the lonely, being hopeless and desparing of ever having a normal and complete life, we entered the realm of the forgotten. Matt Talbot experienced this; he had no money to buy beer at his favorite Dublin pub and his friends turned him away. This caused him to turn his life around, to ‘take the pledge.’ 

The emotions experienced when you feel this way, that you are a non-person, may be the bottom oft-spoken of. That “jumping off place,” where you know that if you continue to drink you will die, but if you stop drinking, you may onky wish for death. And so a glimmer of hope begins to glow…

You’ve been there. Take for a moment and think back to those dark times when you were caught in the grips of loneliness and despair. 

I wish I had developed a devotion to St. Jude long before this week. There have been countless times where I had felt so alone, llost and forgotten. Granted, we can always turn to Jesus and Mary (and I did,) but to have a specific saint,an apostle no less, who is the advocate of the despairing and alone. (Dear Paulcoholic: May I remind you of your devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows? No one’s feeling of sorrow and hurt was as great as Our Blessed Mother’s as she contemplated her Son’s eventual Passion and death. Not to mention what she went through as she actually experienced it. Dear Conscience: OK, yeah, I know  all that. But what I love about Catholic devotional spirituality is that it is designed for everyone in whatever state they’re in, “where they’re at,” so to speak. Reaching out to the Blessed Mother may be difficult for some. But there’s this other guy, see…. Dear Paulcoholic: Point taken. Carry on.)

By the way, if you like the image I added to this post, it, and others like it are (or soon will be) available at my Shop Sober Catholic storefront over on Sober Catholic Pixels site. There are a few products there already, more will be added tonight through this weekend. I would love it if you’d patronize it. I can use the funds. If you’d like to donate through PayPal, the link is here: PayPal Paul Sofranko. This is the third in an ongoing series of solicitaions to help my wife and I get through some financial stresses. Between a  combination of underemployment, health issues, sales of one book not being very good, and other factors, we are in a tight money crunch. I have been praying to St. Jude very intensely this week for the alleviation of these issues. If PayPal isn’t your thing, you can also mail a check, payable to: Paul Sofranko; and send it to: P.O. Box 358; North Boston, NY 14110.

Another way to help is by purchasing my books and online products. You can purchase for yourself or multiple copies for others that might be interested. My new book, “The Sober Catholic Way” comes as an ebook for Amazon Kindle, or as a paperback from Amazon. If you prefer Barnes and Noble, then here is the link for a paperback; and if you have a B&N Nook, here is the Nook purchase link. 

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It is also now available at numerous other ebook retailers like Apple Books and Smashwords. You might also try this Universal Book Link: click and then select the logo of your fave online bookshop.

Click on this page to discover where you can buy The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts. 

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It’s available through Amazon, B&N and Apple, as well as Smashwords and other retailers. 

The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics is also available; that page tells you all the places you can buy it!

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Are you creative-minded? Know people who are? Then Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better! (This is the book I referred to above as not selling very well.)

 

“Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics” is a call to arms, or rather, a call to pens, paintbrushes, and video cameras, for creative Catholics to take up St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe’s call to infiltrate pop culture and help alleviate the ills that pervade contemporary society. St. Maximilian saw back in the 1920s how the use of cinema, radio, and mass-market books was corrupting society. He thought that those same tools could be used as a countercultural force to overcome this corruption. 

Furthermore, it explains through the example of three critical apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima how she herself suggested strategies and alternatives to the dehumanizing and increasingly pagan contemporary culture we have today.

“Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics” concludes by showing how the Catholic Faith can be used to provide a road map out of our current morass and a blueprint to build a more just and fair society constructed according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and other elements of traditional Catholic Social Teachings.

Get it for your Amazon Kindle through this link!

Prefer the paperback? Get it through this link!

Thank you for reading this far, as well as for whatever assistance you can provide. It is greatly appreciated and I will add you to my prayers. St. Jude may also appreciate your cooperating with him in this…

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!!)

St. Jude Thaddeus, Apostle and patron saint of alcoholics and addicts

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Today (Oct. 28) is the feast day of St. Jude Thaddeus (it’s also shared with St. Simon the Zealot, but St. Jude is the subject of this post.)

St. Jude was one of the Apostles of Our Lord and is the author of the Epistle of Jude in the New Testament. He is often called the “brother of Our Lord,” but this is an extended meaning of the term “brother,” in reality Jude was the cousin of Jesus as Semitic languages lack the word for “cousin.” He is often depicted with having a flame about his head; this symbolizes his presence at the first Pentecost and also distinguishes him from Judas Iscariot, the traitor of Jesus, who is quite likely covered in flames of a different sort. St. Jude is also often depicted with a plate or shield with Jesus’ image on it; legend has that he carried this with him and it healed people.

He was martyred by beheading circa 65AD.

I’ve never had all that much of a devotion to St. Jude, mainly because there is so much pop Catholic cultural “stuff” about him. Prayer cards and booklets and so on readily available in parishes, items in the classified sections of newspapers in response to favors granted (and that you are guaranteed a favorable response to your St. Jude novena if you promise to publish the novena for nine consecutive days. This is borderline superstitious as prayer doesn’t really work that way.) All this served to be a little “off-putting” for me, and despite having tons of these prayer cards stashed in a wooden box where I keep excess pious items, I never gave him much thought. 

Until yesterday and today. I have been trying to recruit more saints and blesseds to intercede for us alcoholics. For that reason, as well as that I am compiling a prayer book for sober Catholics and I want it to exceed expectations by having numerous saints in there that people do not know about (or who are not typically associated with ex-drunks; St. Dismas is one. ) While I was pondering him yesterday, St. Rita of Cascia also came to mind as she’s important to me (there is a point to this, please bear with me.) She is known as the patronness of impossible cases, just like St. Jude. (Maybe that’s another reason why I never developed much of a devotion to him?) But yesterday I got to thinking about St. Jude, and decided that another saint dedicated to helping hopeless cases could work. He and St. Rita could team up. Based on where I’m at right now (more on that later) I decided to think about cultivating a relationship with him. And I let that slide until today. 

And so I looked through that wooden box where I’ve kept all those “excess pious items” and found a bunch of prayer cards. I read them over and they hit me. Yes, I need his help. AND I can begin blogging about him now and then and perhaps those of you who do not have a devotion to him can see the value in it. 

And so I just recruited St. Jude to be an advocate and patron saint of alcoholics and addicts. The thought occurred to me that what with all the devotions surrounding him regarding being the patron saint of hopeless and desperate cases, he’d be a perfect intercessor for us. Now we alcoholics and addicts have TWO Apostles in our corner, the other being St. Matthias.

I mentioned a few paragraphs above about “where I’m at.” Due to a variety of circumstances, things are a bit stressed financially at the moment, although they should improve come Springtime when Social Security begins for me and my wife and I begin the process of relocating to a more affordable residence. If you’d like to help out by assisting in bridging the gap between now and then, you can do that in two ways:

One, by paypalling me whatever you can spare at: PayPal Paul Sofranko. Thank you! (It is NOT tax-deductible. It wouldn’t be an act of charity, then.) You can also mail a check, payable to: Paul Sofranko; and send it to: P.O. Box 358; North Boston, NY 14110.

Two: by purchasing my books and online products. You can purchase for yourself or multiple copies for others that might be interested. My new book, “The Sober Catholic Way” comes as an ebook for Amazon Kindle, or as a paperback from Amazon. If you prefer Barnes and Noble, then here is the link for a paperback; and if you have a B&N Nook, here is the Nook purchase link. 

00000 TSCWBookCover 1 scaled e1727404661851.

It is also now available at numerous other ebook retailers like Apple Books and Smashwords. You might also try this Universal Book Link: click and then select the logo of your fave online bookshop.

Click on this page to discover where you can buy The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts. 

UntitledImage 7.

It’s available through Amazon, B&N and Apple, as well as Smashwords and other retailers. 

The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics is also available; that page tells you all the places you can buy it!

UntitledImage 8.

Are you creative-minded? Know people who are? Then Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

 

“Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics” is a call to arms, or rather, a call to pens, paintbrushes, and video cameras, for creative Catholics to take up St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe’s call to infiltrate pop culture and help alleviate the ills that pervade contemporary society. St. Maximilian saw back in the 1920s how the use of cinema, radio, and mass-market books was corrupting society. He thought that those same tools could be used as a countercultural force to overcome this corruption. 

Furthermore, it explains through the example of three critical apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima how she herself suggested strategies and alternatives to the dehumanizing and increasingly pagan contemporary culture we have today.

“Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics” concludes by showing how the Catholic Faith can be used to provide a road map out of our current morass and a blueprint to build a more just and fair society constructed according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and other elements of traditional Catholic Social Teachings.

Get it for your Amazon Kindle through this link!

Prefer the paperback? Get it through this link!

Are you a happy Sober Catholic? Then Shop Sober Catholic! That page offers a selction from the many other products, such as T-shirts, mugs, rosary cases and zippered book cases, stickers for your laptop, smartphone cases, and much more! You can see the entire product line at The Sober Catholic Pixels Shop!

I just added some new products, including some featureing St. Jude and a prayer I wrote for alcoholcs and addicts! (It may not be available, yet, so please check back later. Actually, I will probably blog about it when it hits the general public.)

Thank you for reading this far, as well as for whatever assistance you can provide. It is greatly appreciated and I will add you to my prayers.

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

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

I went on a retreat this weekend and didn’t even realize it

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I went on a retreat this weekend and didn’t even realize it.

I’ve been feeling a combination of being ‘sorry for myself’ and dealing with recurring stress and anxiety (who isn’t these days?) Much of my stress is over chronic pain (fibromyalgia, arthritis, osteoarthritis… if it’s a muscle or a joint, it hurts. And hurts really bad, too. Plus I’ve had two tooth extractions over the past month. Can anyone say “Broken down, crotchety old man?” Not to mention that I’ve been plagued for the past few months by a voice in my head that has been repeatedly putting me down.

When this happens and I want to remain at home, I often select one of Mother Angelica’s books. I’ve written about this before .

And so I opened Mother Angelica’s Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality and read a few passages on pain, meaning accepting it and the benefits of offering it up. I knew all this as I continually ‘offer it up’ for the usual devotional suggestions (reparation for sins – mine, yours, other people’s; reparations for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary; for the conversion of sinners; for saving souls…….)

And so I felt better. But I could feel even more better. So I watched a few of her classic programs on EWTN On-Demand. I caught one on using the scraps of your life. “Scraps,” according to Mother, are those things in your past that you cannot let go of. All the mistakes, the stupid, rotten, bad things you’ve done or were done to you,  traumas perpetrated against you, and so forth that still haunt you. I know all about scraps; they are the fuel for my fiction writing. I am a firm believer that writing is a form a therapy. Even if you don’t publish a word, creating stories in which you dump all the dumb things you’ve ever done or traumas you’ve experienced to flesh out characters and backstory helps your perspective on them. It also objectifies the pain. But she went on about how the scraps can be used to sanctify yourself. That the scraps of you past life can make you sensitive other people who also are carrying bags of scraps. People who are hurt often are more sensitive to other people who are hurt. 

That latter sentence is where I have some difficulty at times. I’ve seen social media memes that say something like “Hurt people hurt other people.” Meaning that hurt people often lash out at others. Their pain causes them to make others feel pain. (This is often the reason why the ‘bad guys’ in fiction often become bad guys. Something bad happened to them long ago, they never got help or justice and so their pain festered and transformed them into a ‘bad guy’ and they kill a lot of people, or rampage across the galaxy enslaving entire species or go around blowing up planets or are just truly wicked. I wrote about that on my other blog. 

The “where I have some difficulty ‘at times’” is the feeling that lashing out at others can be justified if the ‘bad guy’ never got justice, help or some kind of moral satisfaction against whoever perpetrated the evil done to him. Of course that’s wrong. The ‘bad guy’ is just creating more victims from innocent people; he is extending to others the evil done to him. It is easy to fall prey to the idea of being justified in one’s victimhood; hey, if no one helped me when I was being driven to suicide by my family long ago, why should I be considerate of others?   

OK, I went off on this topic longer that I thought I should, but I’m leaving it in. The thing is, and this is what struck me out of the blue as I was watching Mother talk about sensitivity to others and the marginalized seeking solace in one another due to the accumulated scraps from their past, is that although I didn’t really have an ally or advocate during the many times in my life when I was bullied, mocked and ridiculed or made an outcast, (or driven to consider suicide,) I really did (though I didn’t realize it until later, but that’s OK.) This may sound trite, but my allies were Jesus and His Blessed Mother. I may have mentioned this in a much earlier post (I can’t find it) but I often go to my nearby Adoration Chapel… because I felt summoned to go there. Or to attend a Daily Mass when I didn’t feel like it….because I felt summoned to go there. Same for prayers, at time…. I am just ‘not up to it’ but feel that call to pray a rosary or whatever. 

To me, that means that Jesus and Mary want me around them. Therefore, there is no need for me to ever feel like I’ve never had an advocate or an ally. Yes, it would have been nice for God to have ‘done something’ back when I was going through trials, but we all know, but often forget, that trials are there for a reason. (Mother Angelica has lots to say about that in the book I mentioned way up above. In short, they are there to prune us of our pride, self-will, self-love, and teach humility.) In God’s time, justice will be served, and not earlier. I can, right now, just take some comfort in the fact that I am not alone; besides my wife (who also seems to enjoy having me around, go figure) there is Jesus and Mary asking me to spend some extra time with them every so often. They know about the bad things that have happened to me in the past, all the scraps of my life that still haunt me and mutter in the recesses of my mind that “I’m a loser.” But in their own fashion, they will deal with the people who’ve hurt me. And what they can do about them  is far better than whatever I could have done. By some divine combination of Mercy and Justice, all will come out in the end. I just have to remain cognizant that my pains and agonies can be companions on the journey and not tormenters. I can convert them into assistants to help me to be kinder and more compassionate.

Incidentally, I watched more than just a few of Mother Angelica’s classics on EWTN On-Demand, but the other shows are beyond the scope of this post. But they all contributed to the feeling that I went on a retreat this weekend for a few hours and my head got rescrewed back on. The little negative voices that have been tormenting me these past few months have fallen silent, today. I hope they stay quiet as it may have been a case of demonic oppression, but I hesitate to give extra credit to Satan to what may have merely been low self-esteem. But on the other hand, given the voice’s persistence….

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!!)

In memory of a tooth.

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When I was living in Washington, DC, way back in the olden times of the late 1980s, I ordered a lot of Chinese delivery from the Blue Diamond restaurant. They were a few blocks away from my Dupont Circle studio apartment and had great food. 

One day I ordered Kung Pao chicken. Mistake. Oh, it tasted great. Only thing is, the peanuts broke a tooth. I had no dentist or dental coverage, but I found a dentist a few blocks away (I think he was on the corner of Farragut and some state avenue) and I paid out of pocket (I was a poor graduate student so the Bank of Mom and Dad actally paid.) 

Why am I blogging about a dental proedure? Because yesterday I had that tooth pulled. OK, so, why is that worthy of a blog post? Aside from the fact that this is my blog and I can write whatever I please, it’s that after the tooth originally broke, it needed a root canal and a crown. It needed additional work done just before; the dentist had used a then ‘revolutionary’ tooth reconstruction substance he called ‘build up’ to hold it all together. Safe to say that after that, plus the root canal and crowning, the tooth looked like a franken-tooth. 

But it had held together since 1986. Almost everytime I did a personal inspection of my teeth, or eat nuts, I’d worry about it. I’d look in and still see it there, in all its dental weirdness. 

But my new dentist where I live now said a wall had fallen off and its days were numbered. The tooth seemed to have a different opinion as the extraction was difficult. I swear the dentist (she’s little) almost had to climb on my chest to get a better perspective and angle on the thing (it had broken during the extraction and she had little to grab onto.)

I feel a part of me is missing. OK, that IS literally true, but I meant more in a mystical, metaphysical sense. Something that I worried about for 38 years, and was a visible connection to an earlier time in my life, is now gone. Good Golly, Miss Molly, am I sentimental or what?

My old dentist also gave me a free dental cleaning as a going away present in the Summer of 1991 (I was moving to California.) I just thought I’d throw that in there.  

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 end of an era in compassion and healing

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I received an email this morning from Marty Tousley who ran the wonderful Grief Healing Discussion Groups. Due to lack of funding and donations, as well as the increasing difficulty in running it (Marty is 81! I’m feeling the pain of running a couple of blogs and the associated social media promotions and I’m only 61!) she announced that on January 1, 2025 the discussion groups will fold.  

I am saddened by the news that these forums will be going away in three month. That place helped me survive the death of my Mom in late 2005 (was it that long ago?) From shortly after her death through all of 2006 and pretty well into 2007, those discussion groups were my online home; the place was an oasis in the churning turmoil of the psychological abuse directed at me by my family and the hole in my soul wrought by my Mom’s death. 

Although I largely stopped visiting the goups after I had achieved my ‘new normal,’ somehow I thought the place would ‘always be here’ in the event I’d need it again.

I do regret not making it a more permanent online home for me. Nevertheless, I shall cherish the memories of the people I met there. Although we’ve parted ways since the deaths of those that brought us together to discuss our pain and sorrow, everyone that touched my heart from ’05-’07 and helped to heal my soul are still in my daily prayers (even if I forgot some names, God knows who theyy were.) I hope to meet and be reunited with all of them in Heaven, even those that briefly were in the community but whose emotions and pain burned brightly in their posts. And of course, I’d love to meet those dear, departed loved ones whose loss brought them here. (I also hope this for the Syracuse (NY) Hospice and Hope for Bereaved, places where I went for face-to-face grief healing and counselling.)

Thank you Marty, and all those whose wisdom and knowledge and compassion helped and healed so many people. The Grief Healing Discussion Groups will be missed.

NOTE: Marty posted quite a lot of resources for grief healing on the site; I will pore through all of them and add many to the resources pages of Sober 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!!)

Test to make sure blog is working

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I did some updates to the blog and now I cannot post to it from the desktop blog editor I use. I have been on chat for 90 minutes with a BlueHost tech to resolve the issue. BlueHost is the webhosting company that I use. This particular problem has happened before, and despite my supplying the tech with the error messages and what happened in the past, he couldn’t fix things. (Don’t worry about what the issue is, this is merely an attempt on my part to see if I can at least post while directly logged in. If you can read this, then I was successful.

Now is NOT the time for me to be unable to write!

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!!)

Introducing the Sober Catholic Coffee mug and Rosary case!

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In an effort to increase revenue and support my overall Sober Catholic apostolate, I have opened a Fine Arts America shop on their Pixels website.

What is “Fine Arts America (FAA)” and “Pixels?” FAA is an online place where graphic artists can upload images which are then placed upon products. Anything from coffee mugs, stickers, phone covers, wall tapestries, and so forth. Pixels is an FAA storefront; most purchases are done through there. My wife has been doing this for years and I finally am getting involved. I am learning some graphics software (Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. I’ve already used them in making those yellow and blue social media posts promoting my new book, “The Sober Catholic Way” that you’ve hopefully seen on my various social media channels. As I become more proficient with the Affinity software, I will create more stuff.)

And here it is! Introducing the official Sober Catholic Coffee Mug! Imagine drinking your hot, deelish coffee (or tea or hot chocolate!) in a mug with the logo of your favorite Catholic sobriety and spirituality blog!!! Just click on the words or the image below! You can even customze the color! Blue, brown, yellow, green, whatever you prefer! It also comes in two sizes: “Small” is 11 oz, while “Large” is 15oz! 

Sober catholic logo sobercatholic transparent.png.

 

Next up is the and the official Sober Catholic Rosary Case! At 6”x4” this is perfect to keep your Rosary and even Divine Mercy Chaplet handy! And like the mug, you can customize the color! Click on the image below of the words in the first sentence of this paragraph. White is the default…

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..but you can also order it in blue (Mama Mary’s favorite color!)

 

 

I do hope you patronize my store and buy a mug or two (or three) and to rosary case (which is technically a “zippered pouch.”) Christmas is on its way and these would make nice gifts! There are more products that these two, but I thought I’d lead off with posting about these. There is also a Sober Catholic Throw Pillow and a Sober Catholic Tote Bag, for example. But I’ll “go on about those” on other social media.

Thank you and may God Bless 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!!)