Soberversary! Seventeen years sober, today.

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

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

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

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

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

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola are online!

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola are online! You can find them here:

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

These are important for a host or reasons, one of which is that it has been said that the Twelve Steps are very similar to them in nature.

Having them online is useful for those who might not have the book, or who may wish to have online access to them, readily available on any device.

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!!)

My 2015 Resolutions

I don’t make resolutions, namely because I’ll never keep them. Except for some fundamental basic convictions, I do not “resolve” to do anything just to start off the year. I also think that making resolutions on January 1st elevates the secular year above the Church’s Liturgical year, which began a month ago with Advent.

If I were to make any, I’d resolve to clean up “unresolved” projects I wanted to do for this blog. In no particular order: blog my way throught Paslm 119, blog my way through the Wisdom Books (a tall order, at least maybe I can make a beginning), finish up the Works of Mercy posts I started in (I think) 2012. If I remember correctly, I mentioned way back in 2007 when I began this blog that I’d write about connecting the Twelve Steps to the Liturgical year. I have notes on that somewhere. Also, some major posts on Confession as encompassing the Twelve Steps. Maybe, just maybe, one post a month on each of the Steps, perhaps “Catholicizing” each. Oh, and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatious of Loyola. I started something on those a few years ago, but like the rest, never finished as the Exercise are difficult to do on one’s own. I am going to try them again, solo, but based on how my life is currently organized, I may be able to complete them. It has been said that the Twelve Steps are rooted in the Exercises, if so, and if I can complete them, I can focus on them for the future rather than the actual Steps.

But all that is only if I did resolutions. 😉

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!!)

Living with No Regrets

One of the coping mechanisms that we alcoholics quite often use when dealing with the past is living with “no regrets” about it. Page 83 of AA’s “Big Book” has as one of the “Twelve Promises”: “We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.”

We do not let the past and our emotional connections to it govern us, but we do not ignore it or disconnect from it either. In our “not regretting the past” we also remember it so as to learn from it and not repeat its mistakes.

Mary Beth Bonacci, a wonderful Catholic writer and speaker, has written an article that speaks very much to this.

She makes two points among many that I want to bring to your attention. The first one in which she says that wallowing around in the past is “self-defeating and, in the spiritual realm, I believe it’s a real temptation of the devil that holds us down and keeps us from accomplishing great things.”

This is something I have been mulling over recently, especially when reading other bloggers or Facebook friends talk about negative situations going on in their lives and how it is a struggle to overcome them. The temptation is there to just give up. In my own struggles I have arrived at the belief that Satan is keenly intent on preventing us from realizing our full potential, and that by encouraging doubt and obsession with the past he is hindering us from growing into the people we can be.

The second point is:

But the “no regrets” philosophy often goes one step further. It says “If I had it to do over again, I’d do exactly the same thing, because that’s what made me the person I am today.”

Now this point struck home because in AA meetings I have heard it said by a member that if they had to choose a disease, alcoholism would have been it, due to the changes that recovery has wrought in their life. I have also felt this way, that my addiction and recovery have made me the person I am today, and in doing so they have enabled me to see the flaws in my life and correct them. There is still work to be done, but the willingness is there. I was dealt certain cards, I turned them back in and I played a new hand after a fair amount of re-shuffling. I think I would have preferred to have been dealt the hand that lacked the cards for “I want what I want, and I want it NOW!” and the lack of drive and determination to struggle and sacrifice to obtain what I wanted.

Mary Beth however points out that there was a whole lot of pain and suffering involved in many people’s pasts and that those who would chose to do it all over again the same way are being selfish and defiant of God’s will.

The questions that arose in my mind as I read her thesis are:

Do we then mean that we are willing to subject others to the pain we caused them in order for us to be the people we are today?

Are others willing to be subjected to it?

What right do we have to sacrifice their serenity and sanity for us to become the fabulously wonderful people we are today?

My conscience had difficulty with the notion that who I am today is because of alcoholism and my recovery from it. Granted this is true but it touches upon why certain people are addicts and what God’s plan is in all of that.

Why are some people addicts and others are not? It is beyond the scope of this post to debate this, but I may tackle it in the future after more research. One can always rely on the Catholic belief, going back to either St. Francis DeSales or St. Ignatius Loyola, that things like “alcoholism” or “addiction” are “inordinate attractions.”

For whatever the reason or cause, be it genetic, environmental, upbringing or inability to cope with things that can be habitual, some people have a difficult time with alcohol, drugs and other things. Successfully overcoming them and relegating them to their proper place in life is important, but we must also be humbly aware that perhaps we may or may not have been “meant to be” alcoholics and addicts, and that we have only been given a second chance.

Mary Beth makes numerous other points about God’s place in our lives and our relationship with Him, all hinging upon our wills and how humble we are in submitting them to God.

Read the entire article here:

See: No Regrets

All links are via Real 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!!)

More on St. Ignatius, including an online retreat

Adrienne, over at Adrienne’s Catholic Corner has a post on St.Ignatius: “St. Ignatius and Some Linky Love…”

(Via Adrienne’s Catholic Corner.)

One of her lovely links is to Creighton University’s Collaborative Ministry. They have an online version of the Spiritual Exercises. This retreat can take 34 weeks, at your own pace. Please see: Online Retreat in Everyday Life.

(Via Creighton University.)

I may try that at some point after the 30+ day version I shall attempt. Or sooner, if the attempt fails. 😉

Adrienne also points out that Jean, over at Catholic Fire has an excellent post on St. Ignatius of Loyola “Brief Biography, Favorite Quotes, Prayers, and Works.”

(Via Catholic Fire.)

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. Ignatius of Loyola and the Spiritual Exercises

Today, July 31st, is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (also known as the Jesuits).

(Via Catholic Online.)

For our purposes here at Sober Catholic he is best known as the author of the “Spiritual Exercises”, a classic text on ridding yourself of character defects and sinful behavior through prayer, meditation, examination of conscience and the use of the Mass and the sacraments. When Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous wrote the Twelve Steps, it was remarked that they bore a striking similarity to St.Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises.

I shall be starting the Spiritual Exercise myself this weekend. There are various methods of doing this, I will be using the classic English translation published by Tan Books. It takes about 30 days to complete, but with allowances for the state of life one is in, and your progress, it’ll probably take longer.

I shall blog about the experience while doing them. The reason for that is that the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius should form the cornerstone of any program of recovery for a Catholic. The application of the Spiritual Exercises along with a good sacramental life may be all that one needs to maintain sobriety. Not having done these until now, and making them a part of this blog is long overdue.

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!!)