Category Archives: Sacraments

Symbolism and Spirituality of Cleaning

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There is an inherent symbolic and spiritual aspect of cleaning.

Think about it.

Whether it’s dishes or laundry, you have a stack or pile of stuff that’s dirty. You submit them to a cleansing process and afterwards they are clean, free of anything and everything that soiled or dirtied them before.

Sort of like our souls before and after sacramental Confession. The graces of God that flow to us through the priest cleanse our souls, and make us as new as the day of our baptism.

There is also a therapeutic side to cleaning. You can mentally force a symbolism onto things laying about in a messy residence, weeds in a garden, or the pile of dirty clothes and stack of dishes. Each item that needs to be removed or cleaned off can represent a resentment, an envy or anger, or something bad that disconnects us from God and others. Imagine the resentment going away as things get more organized. As you forgive.

Thinking of cleaning in this manner is somewhat better than regarding it as a chore or drudgery.

Anyone that knows me is aware of a connection between my state of life and how well the apartment looks.

I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing lately.

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!!)

Remember your mercies, Lord

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As recovering (or recovered) alcoholics, we embark upon a new way of living. We are learning to live according to new principles, whether they be 12 Step or Christian. But we still have our old lives to contend with.

From the Reponsorial Psalm of today’s Mass:

Psalm 25:4-9

Make known to me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.
For you I wait all the long day, because of your goodness, LORD.
Remember your compassion and love, O LORD; for they are ages old.
Remember no more the sins of my youth; remember me only in light of your love.
Good and upright is the LORD, who shows sinners the way,
Guides the humble rightly, and teaches the humble the way.

This excerpt from Psalm 25 can serve as a prayer for those of us in transition from the old ways of drinking to the new ways of sobriety. We need a new way of living, a new path to chart our lives. We implore God to teach us the way, and if we incline our ears to listen to Him, we can discern the meanings and teachings in our heart. We learn to trod the new path.

The old path needs to be cleaned up. We have sinned against God and against others. We also implore God to forgive us for our past wrongdoings. We ask Him to blot out from memory our past misdeeds and to look upon us through a Father’s loving eyes. For a loving God He indeed is, as He sent us His only Son to die for our species’ past transgressions in the beginning of our history. Only Jesus, fully human and fully divine, could pay the price for our Original Sin. Jesus, in His human-ness, accepted our guilt (though He committed no sin), and in His divinity, He redeemed us. We would otherwise should have died as a species were it not for His compassion and love. He allowed us to live despite Original Sin, and instead had His Son pay the price for us.

This is the God that we implore to remember us in the light of His love.

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

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

The healthy do not need a physician

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From the Gospel Reading for Saturday after Ash Wednesday:

Luke 5:27-32

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let the healing begin. Go to Confession.

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

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

New wine

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Mark 2:21-22 “No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

This is a call to conversion. And for recovered or recovering alcoholics an interesting one to consider what with the wine metaphor.

Nevertheless, as alcoholics who seek out the message of Christ as revealed through the Bible and His Church, we are the new wineskins. We now receive the message of Christ that we didn’t hear before, or heard somewhat disconnectedly. We cannot receive as our old selves, we have to cast off that old cloak, that old wineskin if we are to receive.

We may initially use the 12 Steps of AA to identify what was wrong or flawed before, and then rid ourselves of our defects, either through prayer and meditation or through effective work with the Steps and with other alcoholics. Nevertheless, after a fashion we stand ready to take the Gospel and live it as we did not previously.

Whereas before we loved alcohol and sought its charms in relieving us of our troubles, we now turn instead to Christ and His Church and use them as our refuge. We no longer run from our troubles and towards the bottle to feel better, we instead run to Jesus and the sacraments with our troubles to find relief.

We react to things as Christians, and not as frightened beings, unable to deal effectively with our lives. The new wine transforms us.

This takes time, but the journey helps us to know ourselves much more intimately than we otherwise could.

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!!)

Grace

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In short, “Grace” is a supernatural gift from God. One may call it divine assistance or blessings, but in essence it is a supernatural gift made freely available to all by the Will of God. As Catholic Christians we have direct access to it by using our own free will in seeking out the sacraments (particularly the Eucharist and Confession).

Sacraments are outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ. The Church confers them on us, they are imprinted on our soul and through them we achieve our sanctification.

Sacraments are the avenues of grace administered by His Church through which we grow stronger in our spiritual lives and as a result become closer to God.

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!!)

Reconciliation

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From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1422 Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God’s mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion.”


1423 It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.
It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.


1424 It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a “confession” – acknowledgment and praise – of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.
It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest’s sacramental absolution God grants the penitent “pardon and peace.” It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the live of God who reconciles: “Be reconciled to God.” He who lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: “Go; first be reconciled to your brother.”


We sin. We turn away from God. We use things intended for good in a bad way, or in a manner for which they were not prescribed. Whether it is a person, a place, or a thing, the way in which we use them can be for good or for ill. In choosing to do ill, we sin.

A relationship has been harmed. Our relationship with God, because we turned away from Him; with His Church because we violated Her precepts and rules, and with others because when we sin, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, when one part is sick, the Body is wounded.

As alcoholics we have harmed ourselves by abusing our bodies and minds with liquor. We have harmed ourselves spiritually, mentally and physically. There is nothing moral or immoral about alcohol, it is a substance that can be used for pleasure and conviviality if not abused. The use of it can be immoral if that use is contrary to the intent. Something which can be pleasurable in the company of others becomes an exercise in selfishness when used in excess. Because in excess we are seeking to pleasure ourselves in a manner that is irresponsible.

In our drinking we have harmed others, whether family, friends, co-workers and employers. Relationships need to be healed and that will take time. Trust cannot be built quickly, it has to be earned over time. But the primary relationship that needs to be healed is with God.

In coming to Confession we acknowledge our sinful nature, our sins, and our humility. We go to a priest not just because it is required, but because the priest, acting in the person of Christ, is the only person that God can work through in the remission of the harmful effects of the sin to one’s self.

One can confess directly to God, but inasmuch that is a prayer, there is no guarantee that the prayer is answered to the penitent’s satisfaction. No absolution of sins is given with surety, and no penance is granted. It is much like committing a crime, then confessing one’s guilt to the judge, and then sentencing oneself. Only through the priest will one receive absolution and penance, and the sacramental graces that heals the soul harmed by sin.

Even 12 Step Programs acknowledge the need to go to another in confessing the misdeeds of the past. Step Five is “We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs”. Perhaps in admitting to another person our sins or misdeeds we are not just facing someone else with our wrongs, but facing our wrongs themselves, and acknowledging the harm they’ve done. Once we admit and recognize that, we are on the road to our healing. The sacramental graces strengthen our conversion and assist us in getting closer to God, and to others. Where were were spiritually sick, we are now healing.

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!!)