Category Archives: Me

Sober Catholic re-launches!

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Not that it was offline, but this post announces that starting today, this address is the new “official” home of “Sober Catholic.”

I will still post concurrently at the old site, but only through the end of the month, if that long.

If you subscribed via email or through a feed service, you should find those functions along the righthand sidebar. Pretty much any way you subscribed before is available here. Also, if you have a blog which listed the old site, please change it to this address at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your support. If I have not reciprocated by linking your blog, send me an email.

This site contains all of the original site’s blogposts and maybe 90% of the comments. It also has all of the links of the old, minus a few defunct ones.

There are a few more things that I have to complete here, namely registering this site with blog directories and so forth, but in essence whatever was at the old site is now here. I have yet to figure out how to upload photos and videos, but I’ll figure that out eventually. I know people who can assist. They know who they are. 🙂

So, with that said, welcome, and I should be here for years and years, God willing.

An attitude of gratitude is greatly extended to BroJer, of Bro Jer’s Blog for his kindness and generosity in helping out this endeavor. I know I’m cramping his style by saying such nice things about him, so: “Mwuahahahahahahahahaha!!!!”

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!!)

Sober Catholic has moved here!

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Note: this is just a copy of the post from the original blog, I included it here just because I wanted to.

Quick on the heels of Catholic Recovery relocating to its own domain at Recovery for Christ I am announcing that Sober Catholic will be moving to a new location too.

After using Blogger and being hosted by Google on their Blogspot servers for over 3 1/2 years, I finally got my own domain name and a new host. I will also be using WordPress for templates and some blog administration.

I have no issues with Blogger or even Google. The opportunity arose for me to get a web address for this blog and I took it. Therefore I decided to use a different blogging service that fits in well with my new host. There is a steeper learner curve (for me, at least) with WordPress, but they offer more flexibility for site design and functions. Having my own host and my own domain frees me from the fear that someone can “flag” my blog for spam or “offensiveness” if they don’t like what I write. It has never happened to me, but there is always a first time. From what I’ve heard from other bloggers, it can be difficult (as in time-consuming) to convince a free hoster that your blog isn’t a spam or a porn site.

I will give all readers plenty of notice before ceasing to post to this blog. All posts and most comments have already been exported to the new blog. All I have to do is work on getting the blogrolls and link lists up and running.

I will continue to post both here and at the new location, which is here, or if the link isn’t viewable, go to https://www.sobercatholic.com . With my Mac’s blog editor I can post to both sites almost at once. I will keep doing this until I am certain that most readers know of the new web address.

So, please change your bookmarks to this, or https://www.sobercatholic.com . You can already subscribe to new posts and comments at the new site (upper right corner). I hope that by the end of the month the transition will be complete and I can stop posting here.

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

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

Catholic Recovery will move the week of July 25, 2010

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Just a message to all that Catholic Recovery will be moving to its new location during the week of July 25th.

I will actually try and transfer everything on Tuesday, July 27th. I have Tuesday through Saturday off from work, and except for some out-of-town guests visiting, I can devote those 5 days to making the move and doing whatever follow-up is necessary. This is just in case anything goes wrong or members need someone around to answer questions.

I also have planned another 5 days off the week of August 1st (again, Tuesday through Saturday). My vacation for that week hasn’t been approved as of yet, but probably will. So there will be another almost full week to devote to tending to the new home.

Hope to see you all there next week!

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!!)

More on Mercy

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In a previous post on Mercy I wrote about the devotion known as Divine Mercy. Although I had written about it before (see the “Divine Mercy” labels in the right-hand sidebar) it serves as a sort of formal introduction to a definitive theme for this blog.

This post relates my personal introduction to Divine Mercy, and why I think it is critical to Catholic alcoholics and addicts.

I had drifted away from the Catholic Church in 1987 thinking that religion was just human nonsense designed by the powerful to control people. I never doubted or disbelieved in God’s existence, as I’ve always regarded atheism as a supremely irrational and stupid human notion. I did feel nevertheless that religion was pointless. Anyway, to make a long story short, I drank to excess, abused it, and ended up returning to live with my Mom for 10 years. Originally I was to be her caregiver (my alcoholism was manageable), but for a while I was the person being cared for. (See also Drunkalogue.) My Mom watched EWTN a lot. Aside from the Daily Mass, from which I got a daily injection of Truth and sensibility from the sermons) she also watched the “Chaplet of Divine Mercy” each morning. She eventually taught it to me, particularly around Divine Mercy Sunday.

I think it was her daily praying of the Chaplet that brought me back into the Church. It also was, and continues through this day, to be a source of healing and mercy.

This is important to us Catholic alcoholics and addicts. We are so broken and wounded from our past. For many the past is just too much and they never fully escape the its hauntings.

The all-encompassing nature of Divine Mercy heals our souls and enables us to draw upon the endless reservoir of God’s Mercy. It is a tremendous aid in our spiritual growth and progress. It led me back into the Catholic Church, with Her fullness of the Gospel Truth and the sacramental life and graces. It helps you to achieve a more fuller life.

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!!)

Back Online!

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My Mac is back, and better than ever. Blogging shall return probably tomorrow, after I find stuff I hope is somewhere on my external hard drive.

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!!)

Offline temporarily

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I will be offline for an indefinite period. My Mac is down and in need of some repair. I hope to be back up and running within a week, God willing.

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!!)

Divine Mercy

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Off and on during the past year or so I had been considering beginning another blogging venture writing about Divine Mercy at work in my life and in the world about me. I would post personal observations and excerpts from St. Faustina’s Diary with meditations in addition to examples of Divine Mercy in the Bible. I was also going to write about the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.

I am not going to do that as I am afraid that I will be spreading myself too thin. Also, much of what I would be writing can be applied to this blog, as recovery from addictions is most definitely an example of Divine Mercy, as well as my personal response to its workings in my soul. And so I will be doing that, writing about Divine Mercy, especially during Lent as the Feast of Divine Mercy is the Sunday after Easter.

If you do not know what I am talking about or why I capitalize “Divine Mercy”, please check out the links under the sidebar header under… “Divine Mercy”.

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

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

Discontinuing most advertising on Sober Catholic

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No one has ever commented or emailed displeasure with the Google AdSense advertising that I had been running on this blog, but nevertheless I have decided to discontinue it for a variety of reasons.

One: I wasn’t making any money off of it. Less than $20 in the past year. There is a correlation between traffic and ad clicking, and while I have decent readership, I guess hardly anyone was clicking on the ads. This is fine as I rarely do that myself on other people’s blogs.

Two: the ads may have been misleading or offensive. Quite often they were about alcohol and addiction treatment program (obviously, they were generated based on post content) or on something “Catholic-y”. The misleading aspect is that the ads may have offered information opposed to the goals of this blog, and the offensive aspect may be that some of the “Catholic-y” ads may have been created by anti-Catholic bigots. Quite often this is done by bigots masquerading as Catholics to draw people away from the True Faith.

Anyway, I in general dislike advertising. I will not get rid of it entirely, but will only run ads that I know are not contrary to the Faith and therefore I have more control of.

I may get some sort of PayPal thingy where readers can donate money if they like what they read, but that will be later on when I think about it more.

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!!)

Our Lady of Victory

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On October 7th the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Here is a post written a few years ago on its background (it also has a great litany prayer for your use):

Our Lady of the Rosary

The old name for this feast day is Our Lady of Victory. We can beseech Our Lady of Victory to be our own special intercessor in Heaven for us alcoholics and addicts. We can ask for the Blessed Virgin Mary’s maternal help in keeping us safe from our weakness over our addictions. She can aid us in turning our weakness into a strength. She has worked miracles in my life and can be a major intercessor for you as well.

As a personal historical sidenote: this is a copy-and-paste of a post from last year:

Today was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. That link is a post I wrote last year.

It has been quite a year for me since that post. In that year I relocated to a new city to be closer to my then-girlfriend (after commuting weekly 360 miles/580 km round-trip for nearly 2 months), took a low-paying part-time job just to be near her, got a new job a few months later – just before the actual wedding, and endured a lot of change and trials on that job these past 8 months on it. I proposed to her 10 months ago today on the Vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Rose said “Yes” but made me propose again the next day as she felt it was more proper to do so on the day of the feast instead. Women… (!!!). ) All in all, a new life, and a year that most people would have taken several years to live out. No boasting, just a lot of life development and such all packed in to one year, that others would have experienced over a longer period.

A strong faith and strong sobriety was key in my surviving this past year. There was much that could have undermined my sobriety, ask any long-term member of a 12 Step group and they would have said something about too much change too soon. Change, or big change and a lot of it, isn’t good for any recovered/recovering alcoholic. Having something worthwhile to achieve (like a great lady) helps.

From Romans 12:12: “Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.”

(Via USCCB.)

 

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!!)

September 5, 1995. My father died.

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On this date in 1995 my father died.

He and I weren’t very close, (“fathers and sons …”) generational and attitudinal differences separated us.

As a result, I didn’t really grieve over his death. I mean, I was saddened and did feel the loss, but I wasn’t ripped apart by his death like I was over my Mom’s 10 years later.

This relative lack of impact was aided by the fact that I was 2,500 miles away and hadn’t seen him in 4 years.

I went home for his funeral, and reconnected with the family, but when I returned home to California I continued life as usual. I had started drinking heavily to cope with life’s problems a year before (failed romance) and my drinking picked up a little more upon my return, so that may have softened the need to grieve in a sober manner.

The point of this is that although I wasn’t too close to Dad during his life, I am much closer to him now. That would seem strange to non-Catholics, but for believers with a knowledge of the Communion of Saints, that shouldn’t seem strange at all.

Death doesn’t end a life. Death is just a passage from this life to another. This life is temporary, everything “is”, and then passes away to dust and a dim memory. The life after is eternal. Whether that life is spent in Heaven or Hell depends on what you do in your Earthly life.

There is a connection between those of us still here on Earth and those deceased. It is called, as I referenced in a previous paragraph, the Communion of Saints . (Via New Advent.) This is comprised of the “Church Militant” (those still on Earth), the “Church Suffering” (those in Purgatory) and the “Church Triumphant” (those in Heaven). Only the souls that have damned themselves to Hell are excluded.

“Communion” implies a community, wherein the members still can relate to one another. This relation is conducted by the means of prayer. We pray to the Church Triumphant and the Church Suffering for their intercessory power with God. We can somehow sense their presence (although admittedly that “sensing” may be wishful thinking).

They are there to help, comfort and console us. We are separated from them by the chasm of death, but that chasm can be crossed eventually by our own deathly passage.

I said earlier in this post that I am much closer to Dad now than while he was alive. I have grown to be much like him, at least with regard to the practice of my Catholic Faith. (I still haven’t taken up woodworking as a hobby, nor returned to fishing as a pastime, but may in time. I do enjoy yardwork, like he did, and love baseball, too.) I understand him better as the years progress and as I grow older.

To anyone who has lost a parent (or anyone beloved) to death, fear not. They are not gone from you permanently. Consider them as just having moved far away, and the distance you need to travel to meet with them again will take the rest of your life.

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!!)