Following the Lead Wolf

Posted on June 28, 2008 by paulcoholic

There is another Catholic blog that may be of interest to some readers. It was recently started by a friend of mine with the screen name of “Colorado Ben”, and his blog is Leidolfr, the Leader Wolf .

It is new, only 2 posts so far, but shows some great promise in the area of dedicated Catholicism and spiritual growth. To quote from his header: This blog is dedicated to fearlessly investing the talents God has given me and loving God, others, and myself with my whole being. Life is not for those who wish to lay down and die. It is for those who wish to live! For years, I had been running from true, abundant life. Now I hunt it with all my strength. Share it with me! We are the ones to blame for our own failure. In God, there is no failure. Ever. Root Scripture of Inspiration: Genesis 49:27; St. Matthew 22:36-40

Colorado Ben is a Catholic man, one who is uncompromisingly faithful to the Church and Her teachings, regardless of how unpopular it is. He is a great slayer of internal demons.

Read him, he’s good.

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 Devout Life

Posted on January 26, 2008 by paulcoholic

There is a Saint that should become familiar to Sober Catholic readers. This is St. Francis DeSales. He wrote a classic text on spiritual development entitled “The Introduction to the Devout Life”. I admit to not having read it (yet) and therefore only know it by its eminent reputation.

An excerpt on this text and St. Francis from “The Catholic Encyclopedia” in the New Advent website:

We may give here a brief résumé of the spiritual teaching contained in these works, of which the Church has said: “The writings of Francis de Sales, filled with celestial doctrine are a bright light in the Church, pointing out to souls an easy and safe way to arrive at the perfection of a Christian life.” (Breviarium Romanum, 29 January, lect. VI.)

There are two elements in the spiritual life: first, a struggle against our lower nature; secondly, union of our wills with God, in other words, penance and love. St. Francis de Sales looks chiefly to love. Not that he neglects penance, which is absolutely necessary, but he wishes it to be practised from a motive of love. He requires mortification of the senses, but he relies first on mortification of the mind, the will, and the heart. This interior mortification he requires to be unceasing and always accompanied by love. The end to be realized is a life of loving, simple, generous, and constant fidelity to the will of God, which is nothing else than our present duty. The model proposed is Christ, whom we must ever keep before our eyes. “You will study His countenance, and perform your actions as He did” (Introd., 2nd part, ch. i). The practical means of arriving at this perfection are: remembrance of the presence of God, filial prayer, a right intention in all our actions, and frequent recourse to God by pious and confiding ejaculations and interior aspirations.

St. Francis DeSales‘ feast day is celebrated on January 24th (I know, I’m 2 days late in writing about it, so what else is new).

Additional material can be found here and here

The classic text can be read for free, online here . More modern translations can be found in bookstores.

I’ve included “Daily With DeSales“ a daily meditation using excerpts from his writings and the “Devout Life” sites in the Catholic Resources for Alcoholics links section in the sidebar.

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!!)

Alcoholism and Temperance (the Virtue)

Posted on January 14, 2008 by paulcoholic

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (“CCC”) has this to say in the subject of alcoholism:

Paragraph 2290;

The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.

The virtue of temperance is explained here:

Paragraph 1805:

Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called “cardinal”; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. “If anyone loves righteousness, [Wisdom’s] labors are virtues; for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice, and courage.” These virtues are praised under other names in many passages of Scripture.

Paragraph 1809:

Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will’s mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: “Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart.” Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: “Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites.” In the New Testament it is called “moderation” or “sobriety.” We ought “to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world.”

To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul and with all one’s efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only [God] (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence).

One can see by studying Paragraph 1809 that the addiction of alcoholism makes it impossible to have a moderate attraction or use of certain pleasures. In some Catholic writings, particularly older ones, the phrase “inordinate attraction” is quite often used to describe something we would now use the word “addiction” for. Through temperance, our love for God is kept “whole and uncorrupted”, therefore, with the ability to develop the virtue (if that’s the correct phraseology, what I mean is to practice or make use of it) our love for God is absent. This may be the “hole in the soul” that I and plenty of other addicts and alcoholics have experienced while drinking or using.

This “hole” was only able to be filled with drinking and drugging. Obviously, the addiction just worsened the inability to employ temperance and the other virtues. Those other virtues as mention in the CCC text: prudence, or wisdom; justice or maybe a sense of fairness and moral certitude and direction; and fortitude, or strength. One can easily see these lacking in a well-developed untreated alcoholic. Finally things come crashing down and we are left with nothing. The “hole in the soul”, which was filled with a false spiritual feeling, is ever larger and threatened to consume us entirely. The betrayal of what we thought was saving us was complete. We hit bottom.

And so we arrive at some place. And we reach for either death or hope. If you’re reading this you either are or have grasped onto hope. Jesus is our only hope, without Him there is nothing.

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!!)