Category Archives: Rosary

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!!)

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!!)

Repent, and believe in the gospel

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At the close of yesterday’s Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Lent, Jesus proclaims: (Mark 1:15)

“For the time has been fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

Courtesy: Sacred Bible: Catholic Public Domain Version

Repent means to be sorrowful of your sins and make a change of heart; you were a certain way and now you will change. The Gospel, as you should know, is the “Good News” of Jesus, that He is the “Way, the Truth and the Life,” and no one else is.

Lent is the time when do this, from the penitential practices that we adopt, the devotions we undertake, sacraments we participate in and the overall increased focus on who we are in relation to Jesus.

We use this time to transform ourselves into Christ. The Blessed Virgin Mary was the best at doing this; observing and being with Him all His life, she was His greatest disciple. Grab a Rosary and ask her to lead you to Him.

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 heart turns away…

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Continuing along with the theme of yesterday’s post, we read in this excerpt from the First Reading of today’s Mass for Thursday after Ash Wednesday “…But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them…” (Deuteronomy 30:17)

Keep God in the center of your heart. Place Him there and you will be attracted more to Him with every prayer, every sacrifice, even those “swords that pierce” your own heart. The still, small voice from the divinity dwelling within calls to you. Like an object that orbits another much larger object, you will be drawn closer to Him who is or first beginning and last end. But as the passage from Deuteronomy warns, if your heart turns away, it will no longer hear that call of God, and will be attracted to others…

Displaced from with you, He will appear to have gone, creating a hole in your heart where He had dwelt. That hole needs to be filled….

A common phrase you frequently see in recovery readings is that of a “hole in your soul” that needs filling. And so we fill that hole with all sorts of things, the worst being our addictions.

Step away from them, even if you’ve been clean and sober for years there is still the risk of relapsing. Calm and secure in your recovery, you slacken and begin to turn away…

If you’re still drinking and using, accelerate your quest for God. Seek Him and allow Him to fill that hole…

Mary can help lead you to Him. Traditional Catholic teaching holds that we go through Mary to get to Jesus. Grab your Rosary and start praying! (Incidentally, if you’re a 12 Stepper, praying the Rosary is an excellent application of the 11th Step.)

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 Fatima Message is ongoing

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The Centennial of Our Lady’s Apparitions at Fatima concluded this past Friday, October 13th. On that day in 1917, Our Lady appeared with a promised miracle, the “Miracle of the Sun” witnessed by over 70,000 people.

Because of this and other things I had thought that “something interesting” was going to occur of the 13th, something of a supernatural event. Nothing did, which is fine as my faith is not based upon prophetic events and the like. I was a little disappointed, but I got over it and “moved on.”

And so should we. The Fatima Message is not over with the centennial. I doubt anyone seriously thought that, but with all the postings in the Catholic blogosphere concerning 2017 being the anniversaries of several events (Fatima and the founding of the Militia of the Immaculata, the Bolshevik Revolution, the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Revolt, the 300th Anniversary of the founding of Freemasonry), I have a feeling that there was an expectation of something supernatural and with that a change in the world. Anyway…

God’s timing is not ours. We cannot will prophetic events. We can, however live Gospel lives and incorporate the Fatima Message into them. Prayer, penance, reparation for our sins and especially for those of others, saying the daily Rosary… all these point to living out our vocations as Catholics and hopefully making some positive impact on the world.

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!!)

Daily Prayer routine

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Thanks to an email conversation with a reader, I thought it might be useful to divulge what I do concerning my prayer life, especially as it is central to my recovery within the Faith.

After I awaken each morning (waking up is key 😉 ) and get a mug of coffee firmly placed on a coaster on my prayer table, I begin my morning prayer and devotional routine.

First up: The Liturgy of the Hours. Also known as the Divine Office, this is the Official Prayer of the Catholic Church and involves Psalms, Canticles and Readings (Scriptural, Patristic and saint’s writings and such). If you wish to learn more, there’s the excellent “Coffee and Canticles” blog by Daria Sockey.

Next: the Chaplet of St. Maximilian Kolbe. I have been a member of his Militia of the Immaculata since 7 October 2002 (links in the sidebar) and over the past couple of years have seriously increased my devotion aand study of his life and writings.

Immediately afterwards is the Rosary.

About now is a second mug of coffee.

Then I use another prayer book: Prayers from the Heart: The Prayer Book of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Militia of the Immaculata. Quote: “This booklet contains formal prayers dear to members of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s movement of Marian Consecration, the Militia of the Immaculata, but is a spiritual help for all Christians.” I use this for traditional prayers such as the Morning Offering, Acts of Faith, Hope and Charity, as well as some other Marian prayers and the like.

Then comes some readings from the Gospel or the Old Testament Wisdom books and then the classic “Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis.

Following this is a few minutes with some daily devotionals. These change over the years and therefore I won’t bother telling what I’m using now (perhaps in a separate blogpost?).

My morning routine usually takes 75 minutes. Evening is typically shorter, perhaps 15-20 minutes or so. Evening devotionals include the Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, and whatever I may have neglected in the morning due to running out of time.

There, that’s how i keep my head on straight each day. (Which reminds me, I had some blogposts with that phrase in the title. They’re an earlier description of my prayer life from about when I began SoberCatholic. Here: Keeping Your Head on Straight, Part 1 (Regular Daily Prayer) and here: Keeping Your Head on Straight, Part 2 (Regular Daily Prayer)

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 prepping for Fatima and 2017 UPDATED (AGAIN!)

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NOTE: Post updated AGAIN with a corrected link and additional items.

Calling Catholic men (and ladies, too!)

Fr. Richard Heilman of the Roman Catholic Man site has a challenge for you!

Quote: “Inspired by the excellent program, “Exodus 90,” and all of the research that reveals it takes 90 days to replace bad habits (even addictions) with good habits, I am calling upon all of us to enter into a 90 day period of humility and transformation I call “Nineveh 90,” leading up to the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, 2017.

Nineveh 90 is all about freedom. The goal is to achieve the freedom necessary to fully engage the love of God and the love of neighbor. Nineveh 90 is based on a challenging 90-day period of purification, a dying to self, which is supported by fellow soldiers in Christ for greater interior freedom and, eventually, a more purified and selfless love.”

Found here: Nineveh90 and the 100th Anniversary of Fatima

UPDATE: The plan now has its own site, see Nineveh90

The challenge begins February 13, 2017. I am considering doing this, with some personal modifications. I already do a number of the things listed. I may not bother with Items 9 and 10 (33 Days prep for Consecration and the actual Consecration) as I’ve already done that with my wife in 2008; also, I’m a member of the Militia of the Immaculata of St. Maximilian Kolbe, through which I consecrated myself to Mary on 7 Oct 2002. As an MI I renew my consecration daily, so I think that’s covered. I can perhaps substitute something else, such as studying St. Max’s writings and MI literature or Fatima books (both of which I have oodles of). I probably won’t do Item 5 (joining the Angelic Warfare Confraternity) as I may not be able to fulfill some of the requirements (logistics).

The basis for this lies in Fr. Heilman’s first paragraph: “We have now entered the 100th year since Our Lady appeared in Fatima, Portugal. The anniversary is May 13, 2017. Many people are wondering if God may do (or allow) something soon to “shake us up” (I wrote about it HERE – this is the most “shared” article I have ever written).”

Please read the article linked to with the word “HERE” in the previous paragraph. That explains more about the basis for this challenge and the need to become “Spiritual Preppers” soon. I’ve also hinted at year’s end that 2017 might be “interesting.” The roots of Western Civilization are becoming poisoned, the branches are cracking and things might becoming rougher for Christians, especially Catholics. This “Nineveh90” just might assist with your prepping…

Speaking of “prepping,” there’s this: PREPARING FOR NINEVEH 90.

Additional note, Fr. Heilman named St. Maximilian Kolbe as the patron saint of the Nineveh90! See: ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE – PATRON OF LAST DAYS BEFORE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF FATIMA

There are additional posts at both the Nineveh90 and Roman Catholic Man sites
on the effort. Read them! Keep informed!

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. Maximilian Kolbe: martyr, patron of addicts, died 75 years ago today

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NOTE: This is an edited version of a post previously published to “Paul Sofranko’s Blog”

St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe was executed in the Nazi German concentration camp at Auschwitz seventy-five years ago today for being a Catholic priest.

He was a Conventual Franciscan friar and Guardian (leader, administrator) of Niepokalanow, then the world’s largest friary and a major Catholic media center. It is located some distance west of Warsaw, Poland.

He was canonized a saint by the Church in October 1982.

In late July 1941 a prisoner escaped and as was Nazi policy, ten men from that cell block were randomly selected to be sentenced to a starvation bunker until the escapee was found (dead or alive.) In reality, the ten condemned wouldn’t be released at all, regardless of the escapee’s status.

Death by starvation and dehydration is a very slow and very painful way to die. The ten were stripped naked and placed in a cell that measured three meters by three meters (that about 9 feet on a side.)

One of the ten was a Polish Army sergeant by the name of Franciszek Gajowniczek, who, upon being selected, wailed that he was a husband and father and bemoaned the fate of his family. Upon hearing this, Fr. Kolbe stepped out of line, went forward to the commander and offered to take the sergeant’s place.

The Nazi officer was duly astounded. Perhaps taken aback and confused by this act of selfless sacrifice, he accepted Kolbe’s offer and the Gajowniczek was excused. He survived the war.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the ten died, one-by-one. Every day an attendant would go into the cell to retrieve the dead.

Prison guards and camp survivors reported that while there would typically be sounds or rage and anger, of wailing and crying and begging, during the two weeks that Fr. Kolbe was imprisoned in the cell with the others, the sounds were quite different. Hymns were sung. Rosaries said. It was as if Fr. Kolbe had turned the bunker into a chapel. On August 14th, seeing that he was still alive, the Nazis got impatient that he wasn’t dying fast enough and had him injected with carbolic acid. For this reason, he is considered a patron saint of addicts.

When he volunteered to take the sergeant’s place, the Nazi asked Fr. Kolbe who he was. His answer?

“I am a Catholic priest.”

This was his identity, it was who he was. He died for being a priest; he died being a priest, ministering to his fellow condemned.

Week48IAmACatholicPriest

(Image via MI Canada)

Being a priest was enough to have him targeted by the Nazis; however there was more to him than that. For nearly twenty years he published “Knight of the Immaculata,” a monthly magazine dedicated to being the voice of the Militia of the Immaculata movement he founded in 1917 (more on that, later.) This publishing venture, begun in 1922, gradually expanded over the 1920s and ‘30s to include other periodicals and a daily newspaper. Circulation was amongst the largest in pre-WW2 Poland (and significant amongst global circulations, too.) Fr. Kolbe had already launched a shortwave radio station, although it was limited at first to just being on the Amateur bands. He also had plans for a TV station. Expansion of the radio station to non-amateur broadcasting and the TV enterprise were halted by the Nazi and Soviet invasion of September 1939. Fr. Kolbe also had plans for a motion picture studio.

He was “New Evangelization” before anyone else thought of it. If you wish to get the gist of what he did and also what he planned, what Mother Angelica did in Alabama 50 years later is essentially that.

I have also blogged about him before, numerous times (he has become my favorite saint.) Read more of my stuff about him here: St. Maximilian Kolbe post archives.

There is a special group of links for St. Maximilian Kolbe and his Militia of the Immaculata in the sidebar.
But for starters:

Militia of the Immaculata in the USA
The global Militia
“Niepokalanow”
another official Niepokalanow site

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 am the Lady of the Rosary, I am your Mother

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70,000 people witnessed the last public Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Cova da Iria, near Fatima, Portugal on October 13, 1917.

Why am I blogging about this now? To fulfill a commitment I made when I started blogging about Fatima last year, that up through 2017 I would blog on the Fatima Apparitions on or about their anniversary because I think the Fatima message is very important for Catholics, including those in whatever stages of addiction recovery they are in. (NOTE: even though the publication date should read “October 13, 2015,” the post was actually written in late November 2015.). Due to a variety of circumstances, including sloth and this and that and the other thing, I’m late with this piece.)

Why did this Apparition take place? The “Miracle of the Sun” happened, as promised, to prove the Apparition’s authenticity. The sun started dancing in the sky, defying all known laws of physics, and was seen many miles away (so it wasn’t a localized event.)

Perhaps it is fortuitous that I am late with this post. Why? “Aren’t you just grasping at straws, Paulcoholic, so it would seem as if you can fall down and still come up smelling like roses?” It seems I did the same thing last year: Last year’s late post on the Solar Miracle. Well, maybe. BUT, think about some of the events that have happened in the world these past few weeks, after this post should originally have come out. The terror attacks in Paris, Lebanon and Nigeria. World War III probably getting warmed up in the Middle East. An increasingly insane US Presidential election campaign season. These are all frightening and worrisome things.

What happens when you are scared, at least when you were a child? You’d go running to your Mom!

Mary is our Mother. She cares for us and since we are the adopted children of God, we are Christ’s brothers and sisters, and thus we are her children, too.

Pope St. John Paul II greeted the world upon his appearance to the world as Pope with the words, “Be not afraid.” It is said that those words in various forms appear 365 times in the Bible, thus letting us know that we are not to fear whatever is going on.

The Miracle of the Sun was frightening. Imagine if you were there, you see the sun dance and whirl about, seemingly plummeting to the Earth. But no one was hurt. No humans were harmed in the occurrence of this apparition. The fact that it happened was a reassurance to all of the reality of the apparition and of Mary. (Satan would NOT ahave had the power to do this.)

And so some words to all: “Be not afraid.” It is hard. But having Faith is. No matter what is going to be happening in the upcoming years, have Faith. Hold fast to the Church, grab your rosaries and USE THEM! pray the Rosary daily. Get the Diary of St. Faustina (see: St. Faustina and Divine Mercy. Make use of the upcoming “Year of Mercy”.

Easy? No, especially if we rely on our own resources. This is why we also need God’s graces, which are there for the asking. Pray. Go to Mass. Go to Confession. Read Scripture (a good CATHOLIC Bible.) Pray some more.

Be not afraid…

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!!)