Category Archives: Suffering

What is good and pleasing and perfect

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The Evening Prayer for today (Monday, First Week of Lent) has one of my favorite passages from Scripture and the first one I ever attempted to memorize.

To me, it is at the heart of being a person in recovery: Romans 12:2 “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

In recovery, we are essentially becoming transformed. We live by the principles of our recovery program (be it Twelve Step or something else) and if we are Christian, we seek out what the Church has to offer people struggling with their addictions. And one key thing, and this is something I’ve stressed from time to time: you don’t conform to this age, you do not seek value in the so-called “morals” of the World. They do not offer anything of substance and certainly they do not offer anything good for your salvation. In this “transformation” and our “renewal” we gain the capacity to discern what is the will of God, “what is good and pleasing and perfect.” How to discern the Will of God? Reading Sacred Scripture is one way. In another Gospel passage Jesus tells His disciples: Matthew 16:24-27 “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.” Again, “taking up the Cross” is essential to our recovery. We do not seek to run away from our troubles, all of the problems, big or small, that life throws at us daily. That is what we did while drinking. Everyone has troubles, it is a fact of human existence. We now have to tools to effectively deal with them, and perhaps even people around us who can assist us. But it’s more than that. It’s building a new life in recovery, and becoming a better follower of Jesus Christ! Our lives today are better than when drinking. And even better than before we first picked up a drink due to our “renewal” and “transformation.”

Mass Readings via USCCB.

So, “renewing your mind” is a recovery theme. We drop our old ways of thinking, acting, reacting and feeling and so on, and adopt new ones assisted by God’s grace. “Taking up the cross” is what all Christians are supposed to do, we cannot be followers of Christ unless we willingly embrace the Cross.

NOTE: This post is an edited version of two older posts. 

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Take up your cross

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In the Gospel for today’s Mass for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Jesus exhorts us to come and follow Him. However, there’s a catch. The road isn’t easy.

Luke 9:22-25

Jesus said to his disciples:

“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected

by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,

and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

 

Then he said to all,

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself

and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

What profit is there for one to gain the whole world

yet lose or forfeit himself?

The path to following Jesus isn’t always strewn with flower petals with birds singing and butterflies fluttering. It is a hard one since in following Christ, you are essentially telling the World with its transitory and vain ways that, “Sorry! I’m rejecting you! You may claim that the World’s ways are just and true and so forth; I know different! The World’s path leads to despair and emptiness. Many are aware of this but know not what to do except to fill that emptiness with immorality. Again, sorry! I will not comply!”

And so the World reacts by persecuting you. If not outrightly, then by mockery and other means of tearing you down.

You must reject your baser instincts that desire the World and its falsehoods and take up the counter-cultural path of following Jesus. It doing that you will save your life.

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Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows

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I said in this post that I’d write on devotions to Our Lady of Sorrows. 

The devotion to the sorrows of Our Lady dates at least from the Middle Ages, if not all the way back to the Early Church. This is likely, given that Mary was around for a few decades after Christ Ascended and taught the apostles and disciples and others much of Jesus’ life and teachings. (From where else did we get information on the Annunciation, Nativity and other details of His life?) The recipients of Our Lady’s teachings must have learned about her sorrows over the crucifixion of her Son, and in sympathy must have kept this in memory and passed it on to future Christians.

In recent years, it has seen an increase due to the approved apparition of Our Lady in Kibeho, Rwanda. During that apparition, Our Lady told the seers to pray the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows. You can read more about that here.

Tan Books offers a nice little devotional booklet on “Devotion to the Sorrowful Mother.” That introduced me to the devotion twenty years ago. EWTN Religious Catalogue offers the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, (which I say almost every day) as well as the excellent (and in my opinion, the BEST book on Mary after the Mystical City of God, the Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonse’s Liguori. 

The Glories of Mary is five complete books in one volume. The first book examines the words of the Salve Regina and shows how God has given Mary to mankind to be the Gate of Heaven. The second book explains Our Lady’s principal feasts and reveals fresh truths about these mysteries. The third book explains the Seven Sorrows of Mary and why Our Lady’s martyrdom was longer and greater than that of all other martyrs. The fourth book describes ten different virtues of Our Lady, and the fifth book provides dozens of famous prayers, meditations, and devotions to her.

Included are the theological proofs for the Immaculate Conception, explanations of the invocations in the Litany of Loreto, and a description of Our Lady’s death. The Glories of Mary is the greatest compendium of nearly eighteen centuries of teaching on Our Lady and seeks to lead many souls to a greater love of Jesus through a more intimate knowledge of Mary and her exalted role in our salvation.

Source: Tan Books 

Developing a devotion to Our Lady’s Sorrows comforts her. Yes, she is now in Heaven and doesn’t experience sorrow or pain as we know it. But she still recalls her Son’s sufferings and she observes our sufferings here in the vale of tears, our exile. So, in some way unique to Heaven, she still ‘is sorrowful,’ I suppose. Empathizing with her sorrows whilst she was still on Earth only endears you ever more to her Son, if you get my drift. 

This post included links to online shops where you can buy stuff, but I do not make any money from those sales. (If you wish to donate to me, you can PayPal me – my real name is on that link. Or buy a lot of my books, linked in the s paragraph below this! Either way, I appreciate it! Thank 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!!)

Our Lady of Sorrows

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September 15th is the the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. It honors the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which are:

First Sorrow: The Prophecy of Simeon

Our Lady and St. Joseph took the child Jesus as was customary under Mosaic Law after her 40 days of purification were over. They were to offer their first born to God, as was also in accordance with the Law. They really did not need to do this, given Our Lady’s perpetual virginity as was as that Jesus is God; nevertheless they did so out of Holy Obedience. This is an interesting lesson for today’s Christians who feel they can flout religious observance, dogmas, and doctrines.

While there, Simeon, a holy man and prophet was was foretold by the Holy Spirit that he will not die until he saw the Messiah, for witness that Jesus was this Messiah. 

Luke 2:34-35 And Simeon blessed them, and he said to his mother Mary: “Behold, this one has been set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and as a sign which will be contradicted. And a sword will pass through your own soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” 

Second Sorrow: The Flight into Egypt

Joseph is warned in a dream that Jesus’ life is in danger from Herod, who is intent on killing all males under the age of two based upon the testimony of the Magi from the East who were seeking the Messiah of the Jews. Threatened by this, he orders the murder of children in the area the holy Family is residing. Herod is an example of politicians and other elites who champion the cause of the pro-choice movement, i.e. the murder of unborn children through abortion. In many states of the USA this now includes ‘partial birth abortion’ and even the abortion of delivered babies. There’s a word for this: infanticide.

Matthew 2:13-18 And after they had gone away, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: “Rise up, and take the boy and his mother, and flee into Egypt. And remain there until I tell you. For it will happen that Herod will seek the boy to destroy him.”
And getting up, he took the boy and his mother by night, and withdrew into Egypt.
And he remained there, until the death of Herod, in order to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Out of Egypt, I called my son.”
Then Herod, seeing that he had been fooled by the Magi, was very angry. And so he sent to kill all the boys who were in Bethlehem, and in all its borders, from two years of age and under, according to the time that he had learned by questioning the Magi.
 Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, saying:
“A voice has been heard in Ramah, great weeping and wailing: Rachel crying for her sons. And she was not willing to be consoled, because they were no more.”

Another lesson from thins the plight of refugees and migrants. Today there are tens of millions of people who are displaced from their native lands because of war, poverty and oppression. Often they are unwelcome in the lands they end up in. Rather than ‘extending the table’ or ‘making room for guests,’ people propose to ‘build a wall!’ or otherwise spread hateful, ignorant lies about their character an intentions. But the globalist economic order and rising populist movements victimize and shun them.  The populists in Europe and North America are unfortunately ‘nativist’ in outlook, which is odd given that the migrants and refugees are the victims of the globalist order the populists object to; so these people should be allies.

Third Sorrow: The Loss of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem

The Holy Family went off to Jerusalem for religious celebrations and on the way back home they lost their son, who happens to be the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God the Father, and King of the Universe. I know this was a massive trauma for the Holy Family. You’re the Virgin Mother of God, you love your son more than anything in the universe; private revelations such as The Mystical City of God by the Venerable Mary of Agreda tell us that Mary knew who Jesus was from the moment of the Annunciation; that He had full use of His faculties and powers of reason from His conception; and they were intimately united in thought and feeling from that moment onward. Furthermore, she knew the type of death He was to experience. Her love for Him was so intense that she was literally a lifelong martyr for Him. And she lost this kid. Imagine her thoughts throughout all of this.

Now think of St. Joseph. He also knew who Jesus was. And you’re the guy God the Father picked to be the guardian and protector of the Lady bore His Son, as well as that Son. And you lost this kid.

There have been no parents alive before or since who were as freaked out as Mary and Joseph. You are a parent? You had issues with your children? Dysfunctional? The Holy Family can be your guide. While obviously not dysfunctional in the slightest, nevertheless they knew of the trials of family life., even if it were for just three trauma-filled days. 

Luke 2:41-49  And his parents went every year to Jerusalem, at the time of the solemnity of Passover.
And when he had become twelve years old, they ascended to Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast day.
 And having completed the days, when they returned, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem. And his parents did not realize this.
But, supposing that he was in the company, they went a day’s journey, seeking him among their relatives and acquaintances.
 And not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him.
 And it happened that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, listening to them and questioning them.
 But all who listened to him were astonished over his prudence and his responses.
 And upon seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: “Son, why have you acted this way toward us? Behold, your father and I were seeking you in sorrow.”
And he said to them: “How is it that you were seeking me? For did you not know that it is necessary for me to be in these things which are of my Father?”

Fourth Sorrow: Jesus Meets His Afflicted Mother on His Way to the Cross

Recall what I had just written about the intimate union Mary and Jesus had. You suffer as He suffers, is happy as He is happy…. And now you see Him, the love of your life carrying a crucifix upon which He will be nailed to for the sins of the World. He is innocent, but is being offered as a propitiatory sacrifice to atone for the sins of others because the magnitude of the crime is so great the guilty cannot possibly pay it. 

You seen Him broken and bloodied, humiliated, with the crowds mindlessly shouting cruel epithets at Him. All these tear at your Immaculate Heart. You want to comfort Him but cannot. Your eyes meet His… you gaze at each other and wordlessly an understanding passes between you and Him. Love. Sympathy. The overwhelming love of a Mother so kind and tender…. And she cannot help Him. Then pagan soldiers whip him onward and insult you…

Fifth Sorrow: Mary Stands at the Foot of the Cross

John 19:25 And standing beside the cross of Jesus were his mother…

… and some time later after you’ve made your way to the place of His execution, a hill called Golgotha (where thousands of years before Abraham was prevented from sacrificing his son Isaac, as a test of his faith) you see Him again, dying. His condition is horrible in the extreme. You kneel before Him and gaze up, tears flood your eyes and cascade down your face. This is empathy at its most intense: the love and sorrow of a mother towards her son as life ebbs from Him.

John 19:26-27 Therefore, when Jesus had seen his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son.” Next, he said to the disciple, “Behold your mother.” And from that hour, the disciple accepted her as his own.

This woman is now your Mother. After you were baptized you became His brother or sister; adopted children of God the Father. And therefore at your baptism, when you became a member of the Mystical Body of her Son, Jesus Christ, you became a child of Mary as well. You follow? Jesus is Mary’s Son; after baptism you become a member of His Mystical Body, therefore Mary is your mother, too. Mary is your Mother in a way even more so than your earthly mother is, for the latter only gave birth to your life in this transitory, temporal world. Mary ‘gave birth to you’ in the supernatural life through your baptism.

If you attain Heaven, it’s because of Mary. For since Mary is your Mother, her maternal instincts cover you as well. And she is the best of mothers and wants you in Heaven with her. The saints teach that all graces come to us from God through Mary (with the Church teaching this as well, but stopping short of declaring it a revealed dogma. So far.) So if you know any better, cultivate a relationship with Mary. Ask her in your prayers that her intentions regarding your life and intentions come true. Entrust yourself to her. All good mothers dote on their children. You think Mary would be any less of a doting Mom? Most Earthly mothers boast if their sons and daughters become doctors or lawyers or some such thing. Mary wants you in Heaven, with her, for ever. 

How loving is that?

Sixth Sorrow: The Crucifixion and Mary Receives the Dead Body of Jesus from the Cross

John 19:38 Then, after these things, Joseph from Arimathea, (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews) petitioned Pilate so that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave permission. Therefore, he went and took away the body of Jesus.

Jesus is dead. His body is taken down from the cross and placed in Mary’s arms. She looks upon Him who they have killed, his tortured body practically unrecognizable. But she is His Mother, she know this body. The same one she gave birth to 33 years before, the same one she nursed at her breasts, the same one she clothed and fed and loved all these years. 

And now He is gone. Taken so cruelly. And all because of the sins of others, from the beginning to the end of time. Death is the most painful of separations because of its finality. Mary knew her Son would rise again on the third day; He had said so. Nevertheless, the pain of His death and loss was more real to her than for any other. Even knowing He’d return. This gives us some perspective on grief and how sensitive we must be towards ourselves and towards others when death takes someone away. 

Seventh Sorrow: Jesus is Placed in the Tomb

Luke 23:53 …and he placed him in a tomb hewn from rock, in which no one had ever been placed.

And with that, he was taken from sight and buried; now physically separated from Him. It bears repeating that although Mary knew her Son would rise again, the pain of His death and now separation by burial was a grief most intense. This told to us by the writings of countless saints and mystics; which means the original source of this information must have been passed down in part by an oral tradition they picked up as well as through private revelation. Some may feel this is silly, because if she knew He’d be back in a few days, why the grief? To love deeply means to grieve deeply. The greater the love, the greater the sorrow of loss; regardless of how temporary the loss is. That explains it. And that is why Mary is the best of all possible mothers. For she loves you, too, with a love greater than you could know. 

Mary’s love for you and her maternal interest in your salvation, could make up for a multitude of ‘issues’ you have with your own mother, or even the loss of your mother because she died. Mary’s love is eternal; and she desires your happiness with her in Heaven.

This post is long enough! Tomorrow, if I can, I’ll mention the Chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows. It’s a wonderful devotion, a part of the whole devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows (The Sorrowful Mother devotion, Devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady…it has several names, it’s all the same.)

All Scripture quotes courtesy: The Sacred Bible: Catholic Public Domain Version

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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!!)

Exaltation of the Cross

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Today, September 14th, marks the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (sometimes called the “Triumph of the Cross.”) It marks the day in 326 when St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, discovered the True Cross in Palestine. It also celebrates the dedication of Constantine’s two churches, that of the Anastasis and that of Golgotha Ad Crucem, both upon Calvary, within the precincts of the present church of the Holy Sepulchre. (Source: New Advent.org)  

Part of me prefers the ‘Triumph of the Cross’ name. To me it symbolizes our triumph over our addiction; since we ‘nailed it to the Cross’ of Our Lord who raised us up into a new and sober life. ‘Exaltation’ kind of works in this way, too; inasmuch as dying on the Cross marked Jesus as a ‘failure,’ given the ignominy of that type of death. And since He obviously wasn’t a ‘failure,’ but rose again after three days, so we, too, ‘rise again’ from our failure into a (hopefully) new and responsible life.

On a side note, the Feast is also known in some areas as “Holy Rood Day,” the tern “rood” coming from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘rod’ or ‘rode,’ which means ‘cross.’

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 things to help you get through difficult times

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I am going through some ‘stuff’ right now; some personal issues as well as the usual anxieties about world and national events. The latter are bothersome, but I’ve gotten to realize that there’s not much I can do about them apart from prayer. The personal stuff is very worrying and those worries intrude on my limited personal time (evenings and a short weekend.) 

This post is on “Four things to help you get through difficult times” and although they are not new to me nor probably to you, I have been reacquainted with them in my recent spiritual readings and recollections. They are beginning to help me cope with the difficulties that are besetting me.

I have a two-hour Holy Hour on Friday evenings and the one on February 18th spurred much of this. I read a lot of what St. Maximillian Kolbe wrote on ‘suffering’ during that Holy Hour and it summarized or synthesized the entirety of traditional Catholic teachings on it. So here is the first thing:

Suffering. It shows that God is pruning you of pride and self-love; that bearing up with suffering in the spirit of ‘taking up your Cross’ will give you greater glory in Heaven; in a related note, that God is preparing your soul for special graces and this will mark you in a special way when your Earthly exile is over. Now, I had known this, and have even blogged this before, but I needed a reminder. St. Maximilian’s simple and unadorned way of writing helped to knock some sense into me and in presenting these time-honored truths in his simple style, brought them to me as if I was being introduced to them for the first time! That was an amazing Holy Hour. It was as if Jesus knew I needed a primer on suffering and got St. Max to teach me.

The next three things grew from that Friday.

The Present Moment is the second. St. Max didn’t write about this (or at least I can’t recall at this time,) but Mother Angelica of EWTN did write and talk about it a lot, and since I closely associate St. Maximilian with Mother Angelica (there are a lot of parallels in the development of their evangelical ministries), reading St. Max made me think of her and naturally her doctrine of the Present Moment. To describe it briefly, all we have is now. The past is left to God’s Divine Mercy, the future to His Divine Providence; leaving only the here and now to His Divine Grace. God does not give you His special helps (graces) for the past. Nor does He give it to you for the future. His graces are given to you for what is going on right now. This may help with things done in the past, such as healing from trauma and addiction and such, and He may give you a grace now that will develop into something for a future issue, but it is still given to you for where you are now. (The ‘Now’ could be regarded as the intersection of the past with the future; so that may help with understanding the previous sentence.) Anyway, being too worried about the future may cause you to not receive and cooperate with the graces being given to you now. In a way, it’s like you’re driving down a road, craning your neck out the window of your car to see something going on farther down, and a truck coming up from the right that you didn’t see collides with you. You would have seen it had you been paying attention. Ok, a little graphic, but it paints the picture. Naturally, since thinking about St. Max’s writings lead me to think about Mother Angelica, she got me to think about St. Faustina Kowalska, the “Apostle of Divine Mercy,” since Mother’s EWTN is the major promoter of the Divine Mercy devotion. St. Faustina wrote in her diary about the Present Moment:

2 “When I look into the future, I am frightened, But why plunge into the future?

Only the present moment is precious to me, As the future may never enter my soul at all.
It is no longer in my power,
To change, correct or add to the past;
For neither sages nor prophets could do that.

And so, what the past has embraced I must entrust to God.

O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire.
I desire to use you as best I can.
And although I am weak and small,
You grant me the grace of your omnipotence.

And so, trusting in Your mercy,
I walk through life like a little child,
Offering You each day this heart Burning with love for Your greater glory.

Trust in Jesus is the third thing. Since Max lead me to Angelica, and she lead me to Faustina, the big thing about the latter is the whole ‘Jesus I Trust in You’ theology of the Divine Mercy message. Trust in Jesus. He’s got your back, so to speak. He knows more than you do what’s going on with you, and why. Trusting in Him gives Him great delight; it allows Him to operate more freely within your soul, granting you the graces needed to help you get through ‘stuff.’ And it is a soothing balm to comfort you in trying times. All that is within your reach you can deal with; beyond that (the past, the future, and contemporary trials that are beyond your control) is in God’s hands. If your relationship with God has developed where you believe it’s now a personal one, then this should not be too hard. You love God, you know He loves you, it’s not hard to trust in the ones you love. I know, (trust me, I know!) that it is difficult at times to take that ‘leap of faith’ and believe that Jesus will ‘take care of the matter,’ but when this happens, think about all the times in the past when Jesus rescues you from a situation. Why would He abandon you now?

Trust in the Blessed Mother is the fourth thing. You have to have a pretty good devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary to get this. But it does bring things to a full circle; Maximilian took me to Angelica, who took me to Faustina who took me back to Maximilian. Not surprising since Faustina and Max were Polish contemporaries and their teachings parallel each other. St. Maximilian wrote that “Whatever does not depend upon our will is surely the will of the Immaculata.” This takes some meditation to get. In essence, he means that whatever is beyond the grasp of our will, falls within the grasp of Mary’s. It is his teaching, as well as that of many other great Marian saints, that Mary’s will is identical to that of God’s. Since Our Lady was conceived with Original Sin, she didn’t suffer concupiscence. She never sinned. Sin is essentially turning your will away from God’s. Therefore, her will was always united to God’s. So, we can conclude that since Our Lady is in Heaven watching over us and interceding on our behalf, what she wants for us is the same as what God wants. Trusting in the Blessed Mother and her maternal intercession is complementary to trusting in Divine Providence and Jesus. Our basic trust in Our Lady is evident in the Hail Mary prayer:

Hail Mary, Full of Grace; 
the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners, 
now, and at the hour of our death.

AMEN

There, she is praying for us now, and at some future time when we die. If you are consecrated to her in some manner, such as by the method of St. Louis de Montfort or St. Maximilian Kolbe, then you belong to her and are under her special protection as well as guidance. Entrust your problems, your ‘stuff’ to her and her Son. Using inspiration, graces, including perhaps signal graces, Jesus and Mary will lead, guide, console, and intervene. Patience is necessary since Heaven’s Time is not ours. But then we go back to the first thing, suffering, which we can offer up in redemption for our sins, those of others, and for the general intercessory powers of Heaven.

Now, regarding that quotation from St. Maximilian, “Whatever does not depend upon our will is surely the will of the Immaculata.” There is a tricky thing about that. Our will is that tricky thing. If our will is united to God’s will, to the best of our ability to discern that, then anything beyond that is the will of the Virgin Mary. And what depends upon our will is helped by God’s grace. That’s great. Solutions to the ‘stuff’ are in the works. But, if our will is mostly self-willed pride, and therefore divorced from God’s will, then there lies a problem. What depends upon our will is going to be a great struggle, a tremendous burden, and a trial. We may begin to doubt ourselves, our pride is wounded or we get angry and aggressive. Perhaps the ‘stuff’ that you are going through is the result of your self-willed pride. Perhaps not. (This is what I am attempting to discern about my ‘stuff.’ Am I doing God’s will? Or I’m not and I’m suffering as a result? Or I am and His will is for me to suffer the ‘stuff’ right now? Who knows? (And neither do you since I haven’t identified the ‘stuff’ I’m going through 😉 )

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!!)

Are You Prepared to Die?

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Someday you will die. Me, too. No one is exempt. It will happen, guaranteed. If you have been recently exposed to death because a loved one has passed away, the possibility was brought to your attention. Most everyone is uncomfortable with it and will routinely brush it off. 

An article from long ago asks us this: Are You Prepared to Die? Quote: “The Scripture often emphasizes the suddenness of death and judgment.”

(Via Archdiocese of Washington Blog.)

Well, are you? The reality of death is something many people avoid until it confronts them full on. And even then, some people attempt to shun it.

The inconvenient truth is that we are better prepared to face death when we do not wait to prepare ourselves for it when we are facing it.

The article gives some sobering consideration on preparing for death. November is an opportune time to contemplate it. 

I posted this because yesterday was the anniversary of my Mother’s death in 2005. I was subjected to some serious psychological abuse from members of my family. One in particular, the rest were guilty of ‘sins of omission,’ as in their failure to come to my aid given my vulnerable position. A few did, and for those I am grateful. Nevertheless, the consequences of the antagonist’s actions lead me to contemplate suicide. So, I approached death. I have since been keeping in mind preparations for it (frequent confession, and meditating on if ‘I am ready’ for when it’s time.

NOTE: This is a “retropost,” a post from an old blog I wrote on “The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven (& Purgatory) and Hell” that I shuttered a few years ago. Individual posts are very slowly being transferred to either In Exile or Sober Catholic, whichever seems appropriate. Some are backdated, others postdated, in case you’re confused as to why you never saw a particular post if you’re a diligent reader. The process should be completed by early 2022.

 

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!!)

This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers

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The First Reading for the Mass for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) is from 1st Book of  Kings Chapter 19, verses 4-8;

Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert,
until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. 
He prayed for death saying:
“This is enough, O LORD! 
Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,
but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. 
Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake
and a jug of water. 
After he ate and drank, he lay down again,
but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,
touched him, and ordered,
“Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” 
He got up, ate, and drank;
then strengthened by that food,
he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

 

I attended the Vigil Mass last night to fulfill one of the requirements for the First Saturday Devotion (receiving Holy Communion) and the First Reading from 1 Kings struck me. Elijah is depressed after having slain the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel. Jezebel took issue with this and has threatened Elijah’s life if she ever caught him, and so now he is on the run. 

Despite his success in defeating the false prophets and showing Israel just Who the True God is, he is at a loss as to what to do next. He feels defeated as he has no support amongst anyone in Israel. This, despite the obvious support of God, by Whom Elijah wrought his victory over the false prophets of Jezebel.

I think many of us can relate; despite obvious signs of Divine Providence in the past, we may be now going through difficult times and are at the end of our proverbial rope. We may even yearn for death; not in any suicidal manner, but just as a release from the uncertainties and transitory ways of our secular life and the joy of hopefully getting to Heaven. There, we find eternal peace, happiness and freedom form anxiety, fear and the need for material support like income and food as well as no longer having to suffer from our own character defects. But we don’t get that; it’s not God’s will that we join Him yet.

But, as Elijah discovers, from within the depths of despair or loneliness comes a sudden reversal of fortune and circumstance. God suddenly has something for him to do and He supplies Elijah with the means to do it. 

I hope we all have had similar experiences. I know one time in late 1993, I was unemployed and facing eviction and on the same day, just in time, I landed a decent job and an apartment. Despair was gone and I felt pretty good about myself for having faced down those threats and survived. (A side note: although I believed in God, this happened during a period when I was not practicing any religion.) 

There is a word for this: Eucatastrophe – Wikipedia:

A eucatastrophe is a sudden turn of events at the end of a story which ensures that the protagonist does not meet some terrible, impending, and very plausible and probable doom. The writer J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good, to catastrophe, the word traditionally used in classically inspired literary criticism to refer to the “unraveling” or conclusion of a drama’s plot.

So, Elijah experienced a ‘eucatastrophe,’ as did I in November 1993. The biggest eucatastrophe is of course, the Resurrection. Eucatastrophes I think happen when things get out of control, either by external circumstances or our own neglect, and God will that He intervenes before we perish. This means He still has plans for us in some way. Perhaps He intervenes despite our past neglect and complacency; perhaps He Wills it to happen so as to show His might and power. Ultimately, all things work to glorify God. My life experience glorifies Him because although at the time I attributed it to my sudden newfound ‘street smarts,’ in retrospect it was done for me by Him in spite of myself. (And I wasn’t even a Catholic, or any kind of Christian!) 

I need a eucatastrophe within a month. I know ‘something’ will happen, but there is the anxiety driven by not knowing when relief will come. But, Faith assures us when Fear tries to tell us the worst will happen. 

We just have to Trust in 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!!)

Help a Babcia in need: A Work of Mercy

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I first learned about Markie Works in the introduction to the Mother Angelica book that Raymond Arroyo edited entitled “Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality.” I’m retelling from memory but Markie was in despair in a hotel room in Chicago in the early 1990s when she chanced upon the “Mother Angelica Live” show on EWTN. She was about to change the channel as a nun show was not on her TV watching agenda, not with her life.  Someone had called in with issues concerning their mother (the mother in question had rejected and mistreated the caller all her life.) Mother Angelica looked directly into the camera and told the caller that “I’ll be your mother, now.” That was all Markie needed. Her own mother was murdered in cold blood by an uncle when Markie was about two; afterwards her life became one of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Always living on the margins, Markie found some solace in drugs and alcohol. But that night in Chicago, watching Mother Angelica, she hit bottom and began to crawl back up. Becoming  a faithful viewer of  Mother Angelica, her life turned around.

It has not always remained so. Given the start she had, it would never really be butterflies and sunshine. Markie now lives in Florida and has reached a point where she needs assistance. Multiple things have happened that when combined, have become overwhelming and financially unsustainable. Markie need help and has established a GoFundMe drive. You can read her complete story here: The Help Heal #BabciasBraindown Emergency Fund.

Quote: “My name is Markiemarie aka ( Babcia )

I’m here to ask for help , not something I’m used to but this is a situation in which I find that I must. 

 My life has never been easy due to circumstances I had no control over.

 In 1963 when I was only 2 years old, my drunken uncle, a Chicago Cop shot my mom in the head dead. That same man robbed me of my mother and my innocence.

( So did other men in my family ) I was routinely sexually abused and beaten for years by countless predators.

 I  carried that pain and shame with me my entire life.I prayed and cried and wondered why no one came to rescue me.I learned early that not many care to get involved and I had to fend for myself.”

 Furthermore, quote: “I recently moved from Ill. to Florida .

Last year and I started to experience panic attacks, debilitating anxiety and suicidal depression and agoraphobia. I attributed it all to lack of hormones from a Total Hysterectomy that was required from my uterine Cancer.

That wasn’t it.

 It was from being a trauma survivor , all that buried pain came to the surface and it parlayed me emotionally….

 …In addition to that, Several years ago I broke my foot when I slipped on some ice. MRSA  infections prevented it from healing right. I had to live in a non walking cast for 3 Years! Now it feels like I’m stepping on glass.  

 It kills me not to be able to function like I used to because I’ve always had a strong work ethic. I always tried to put on a happy face and positive attitude despite what I’ve lived through.

 I have been diagnosed with PTSD, Bipolar disorder and Severe Anxiety and Major Depressive disorder. I have to see a psychiatrist and take 4 different psychotropic medications to thwart the suicidal thoughts that keep intruding in my head….

...I’m a 59 year old woman that lives alone in a  trailer park who has no family to turn to and no income to pay for basic necessities. My estranged husband helps when he can but he has his own life ,bills & challenges to deal with.

(Anger Management)

 My prayer is that my GoFundMe campaign #BabciasBraindown 

inspires you to help me to be able to heal my soul and circumstances.

 I hope to be able to get some school and training to get a computer job but that’s not an option now , I can’t afford to pay living expenses let alone a computer or internet.The threat of homelessness is very real. I’m asking for a hand up not a hand out.”

 There’s more amongst the excerpts I quoted. But the story is there.

 I’ve donated to her fund. I do not know Markie personally and cannot guarantee anything; she is a Facebook friend after I discovered her name on a list of “People you may know” and I recognized it from the Arroyo book. I messaged her asking if she was that Markie Works and she said ‘Yes” and went on to tell me more of her life story.

 I thought about it, meditated and prayed about it and decided that I should donate. I took a leap of faith that it is the right thing to do. I am suggesting that you do likewise. Go to the GoFundMe link I posted above, read Markie’s story and pray about it. The spiritual life is always active, but this is the Easter Triduum and prayers are scorching the hotlines to Heaven. Graces are pouring down from Heaven as we participate in the liturgies concerning Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. Now is a good time to ask for intercessory prayers. And now is a good time to pray about offering help to another soul in need.

God rewards those who help others. We are all in need of help from time to time. I, myself, was the beneficiary from the charity and kindness of others five years ago when I was laid up at home recovering from hospitalization. My pride was humbled at the response to my wife’s pleas. We are not isolated, rugged individuals existing by our own efforts; although it seems that many people, including Catholics, think we should be. We are actually members of the Mystical Body of Christ; where one suffers, all of us suffer. When one rejoices, all rejoice. In giving to others, we help ourselves. The poor and needy are God’s representatives. Remember Matthew 25: 31-46

 So, consider helping Babcia. I consider her to be one of my ‘tribe,’ she’s a Polish-American, in recovery and a devotee of Mother Angelica. Donate what you can! Thank you! (Although I donated, I don’t remember if there was a place to write a note to the beneficiary of the fund. If there is, and you’d like to, kindly mention that you heard about the fund on SoberCatholic. If you can’t or don’t want to, that’s OK. I’m just curious as to how many readers of mine do donate.)

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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!!)

Holy Saturday and the Harrowing of Hell

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Today is Holy Saturday and I hope that your Lent has been a fine and fruitful one. I didn’t blog except for a few times (I was ‘around’ but taken up with things.) The seasons come and they go; we as Catholics learn to live with the Liturgical Year as it helps us with the rhythms of the spiritual life. Many people decide to vanish from being online during Lent; while I don’t do that I did spend it in a somewhat reflective mood. I had my daily routine: awaken and grab a cuppa coffee, do my morning prayers and devotions and then watch a Daily Latin Mass on YouTube. Then on to the days’ activities: garden prepping, or miscellaneous household duties. Sometimes exploring income opportunities (which I do have to expand upon.) See this post: Bathtub Blogging, on my other blog.

But the days passed, I pondered Lent, and took things one day at a time. And now we have all arrived at the end. Today is Holy Saturday, a day which I always viewed, even as a child, as a day to spend in meditative prayer or pondering. Despite the Easter Vigil Mass in the evening, it always seemed to be a day to ‘pause,’ sandwiched in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the two ‘big’ liturgical days. While the Good Friday services are not obligatory (they should be) it still feels ‘odd’ to consider not attending. And the Easter Vigil Mass is also not an obligation (if you do not go, then you must attend an Easter Sunday Mass.) So, there are things one can definitely do on Friday and Sunday, but Holy Saturday? Where was Jesus, even? “He descended to the Dead” the Creed informs us.

Called the Harrowing of Hell, it is referred to in 1 Peter 4:6 “For because of this, the Gospel was also preached to the dead, so that they might be judged, certainly, just like men in the flesh, yet also, so that they might live according to God, in the Spirit.” and in Ephesians 4:9 “…what is left except for him also to descend, first to the lower parts of the earth?’

Courtesy Sacred Bible: Catholic Public Domain Version

What did he do there? He preached to all the Righteous who had died since the times of Adam and Eve. All of the Just who died before Heaven was reopened at His Ascension were gathered and received the Gospel. From Adam and Eve, to St. John the Baptist and his own foster father, St. Joseph, as well as countless others who died in God’s friendship but were banned from Heaven due to Adam’s sin.

He appeared to them, fresh from His Passion on the streets of Jerusalem and Calvary. He showed them His wounds, all the stripes He had suffered for the sins of all…. and they knew that the time of the banishment was over.

Who knows how much longer we have. We could die at any moment. Heaven is no longer barred to us, but Purgatory is a possibility for those who died in God’s graces but are not sufficiently cleansed from the impurities of sin. (NOTE: I do not wish to debate the doctrine of Purgatory. I have found that debating is quite pointless in these times and I lack the temperament required. I rarely do it and then only when I am moved to. But Purgatory is logical, and fits in with God’s mercy. The idea that a person could live a life of sinful depravity, and convert on their deathbed and go straight to Heaven just like a person who has died after living a life of heroic virtue, piety and sacrifice, is ridiculous. Both die in God’s graces, and upon death see God during their individual judgment, and yearn to be united to Him. Both burn with the desire for God and the latter (the holy person) enters into Heaven whereas the former (the sinner) still retaining the sins of their life, is prevented from admission because ‘nothing impure can enter the Kingdom  of Heaven.’ (Rev 21:27)  Their burning desire for God becomes like unto a fire of purgation, burning away the impurities  of their soul for as long as they are attached to the sins. This is an imprecise and simplistic recounting of what could occur, but it gets the idea across. Purgatory is the ‘entrance’ into Heaven. Some pass into Heaven without feeling the purgation because they offered their sufferings here in Earth; they essentially did their Purgatory already. Others need cleaning up.

So, Holy Saturday could be a day to ponder your afterlife. Where do you think you’ll be heading to? Lent was all about growing closer to the Lord by embracing His Passion and Death, by learning to accept the crosses that come into our life in hopes of becoming a better disciple. We suffered enough as alcoholics and addicts. And we caused enough suffering to others. Have you atoned and repented of these? Made amends? Get going while there’s still time. For we know not the day or the hour when the time allotted to us is over and we are summoned to our destiny.

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!!)