The roots of disturbance

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Earlier this week there appeared in the Office of Readings portion of the Liturgy of the Hours an excerpt from the teachings of St. Dorotheus, abbot.

(Via Idaho Lay Dominicans.)

Every year when I read this I am struck by how useful and relevant to alcoholics and addicts this saints writing are.

Disturbance over something is often at the core of our addictions. We are not satisfied with ourselves, with others or with the world at large. And therefore we seek to quell that disturbance by alcohol. Even when that disturbance is “positive”, such as an unusually nice day, or good companionship, we seek to heighten our appreciation by drinking. But there is usually something wrong with ourselves. We seek to take attention away from ourselves and problems and falsely satisfy them. (I had written something about this before: A Spiritual Axiom: a Disturbance of the Spirit

If you read St. Dorotheus from the link in the first paragraph, he recounts the many ways in which a person may or may not be disturbed or take offense at a rebuke. From what we may call “considering the source” of the rebuke, to being in a calm state because one is prayerful and reflective, when one is disturbed there is a reason for it. The disturbance is what is wrong, but it points to a deeper problem.

St. Dorotheus puts forth the notion that: “Yet the reason for all disturbance, if we look to its roots, is that no one finds fault with himself.”

We cease to be reflective, and stop examining our conscience. We no longer look inward to ourselves and clean up our faults and defects.

Read over the excerpt from St. Dorotheus’s writings. Reflect on them. I’ll post a few more thoughts on them over the next few days.

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!!)

"What to do kit for addictions"

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John W. Garcia, a member of Catholics in Recovery offers this video on basic Catholic tools to aid in your recovery from addictions.

It does answer one common objection that comes up when people state that you cannot rely solely on religion, and that you need the support of a group, the “slogans” and other tools that you develop in recovery meeting rooms. Those are nice, but not needed.

The “What to do kit for addictions” offers all sorts of things the Catholic Faith has that can help you recover, and maintain that recovery. In addition, and this is key, it offers the tools needed to retrain yourself in how you react to things. This seems a central point in any addict’slife.We need to relearn how to react to things in a non-addictive way.

John is also the person behind the excellent Sober for Christ resource.

Watch the video and visit his 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!!)

Living Gracefully

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There is a new website on “daily inspiration for Catholic living” at: Living Gracefully .

A nice site for living a good Catholic life and growing closer to God by inviting His graces into it.

Check it out!

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 in the "now" and letting go

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There is another excellent article from Spirit Daily

,this time on “getting past” the mistakes of your life. Read and ponder!

(Via Spirit Daily.)

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!!)

Mother's Day

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My Mom died just over 3 1/2 years ago (November 7, 2005). It’s been one heckuva ride since, from desires for death (suicidal or just praying for God to take me) through economic and financial instability to relocating to a new area for a cute lady and a new job, to marrying that cute lady and finding a better job.

Through it all has been my Faith. It has been the one constant and has kept me together.

I’d like to think that my Mom is among those watching over me. (Dad and a sister, too.)

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

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!!)

Recovering lost time

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There is an article on Spirit Daily about how through prayer and trusting in God you can “recover” lost time, and turn mistakes in your past into some sort gain and merit.

(Via Spirit Daily.)

With God, all things are possible.

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 Happy Destiny and the Road it's Trudged upon

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We are occasionally reminded that life is a journey. In sober circles it is referred to as “Trudging the Road of Happy Destiny”. We regard our recovery as a continual process leading all the way to our death, with the hope that we will reach whatever afterlife we believe in. In our case, it is Heaven, an eternal union with God and His Truth and Beauty. Oh, and our loved ones are there, too!

From a homily on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great, pope, and this is excerpted from the Second Reading in the Office of Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter: “Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us. To love thus is to be already on our way. No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must not allow them to turn us aside from the joy of that heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it. Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us, or we shall be like a foolish traveller who is so distracted by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing that he forgets where he is going.”

(Via Universalis.)

Pope Gregory the Great exhorts us to not be scared off by the difficulty of our journey. We must persevere, for the rewards are most definitely worth it. Too often we struggle and stumble along the way, misdirected by the weakness of our flesh with the promise of fleeting pleasure and joy. We discover too late the emptiness of that pleasure. We repent and return to the Lord. We resume our journey, hopefully learning from our fall.

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!!)

Incarnation, Transubstantiation and Faith

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Today’s blogpost, Bread from Heaven, reminded me of an earlier one I had written covering the same Gospel passage:

“Does this Shock You?”

The great stumbling block to the disbelieving Jews in the passage, along with skeptics of Catholic teaching on the Eucharist today, is that how can the Eucharist be really Jesus, and not merely a symbol.

It seems to me that if you have a hard time believing that the Eucharist is really and truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the simple form of bread and wine, then you should have an equally hard time believing that God in His immaterial transcendence would become man. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and is also God, then you have accepted the idea that God would manifest (or incarnate) Himself in human form. If that can be accepted, then why stop there and not accept that this same God can carry it a bit further and continue to manifest Himself in another form, such as bread and wine? What is the stumbling block? Why is this so hard and unacceptable?

One needn’t fully understand all that. As mere humans with our limited intelligence we cannot fully understand a divine mystery. One can just accept it on Faith and believe.

Truth isn’t easy. God’s Truth only more so. To accept the Truth may cause too much discomfort. Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. He’s been doing that for 2,000 years.

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!!)

Bread from Heaven

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Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and without Him there can be hardly any true sustenance for you to get through the meanness of daily life and the offerings of the secular world. The Gospel Reading from today’s Daily Mass says so:

John 6:30-35: “The crowd said to Jesus:
‘What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:

He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’

So Jesus said to them,
‘Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.’

So they said to Jesus,
‘Sir, give us this bread always.’
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.’“

(Via USCCB.)

Place your faith in Jesus, He will fill up the “hole in your soul” that is filled with the empty and unsatisfying promises of the world. In the past that hole might have been filled with alcohol. Have you fully turned towards Jesus and offered Him your life? He had died for you because you were meant for more than what the world says you have value for.

You were meant for more than your job and how much money you make and what you spend it on. You were meant for more than casual recreational sex and the emptiness it often leads to, once you morally examen that area of your life.

Faith in Jesus is a living daily affirmation:

…Give us this day our daily bread...

Everything else is a distraction.

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!!)

When He was insulted, He returned no insult; when He suffered, He did not threaten

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The following passage from the First Letter of St. Peter speaks of a difficult, challenging but ultimately liberating attitude towards authority. Particarly if you’re having a bad time with it (authority) and have suffered justly or unjustly at the hands of it.

Alcoholics have a particular need for this passage as there is a residual sense of selfishness and pride in early recovery while the whole “humility thing” is being worked out. Non-alcoholics can use this as it will help them endure coping with authority, the legitimate and just, and the unfair and unjust.

Note: take out the word “slaves” and substitute “employees” or “children”. And for the word “masters” substitute “bosses”, “managers” or “parents”.

1 Peter 2:18-25: “Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and equitable but also to those who are perverse.

For whenever anyone bears the pain of unjust suffering because of consciousness of God, that is a grace.

But what credit is there if you are patient when beaten for doing wrong? But if you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God.

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.

‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’

When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. “

(Via USCCB.)

As I have stated countless times before, as Christians we are to emulate Christ. We must take up our crosses and follow Him, as He commanded.

Matthew 16:24: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

(Via USCCB.)

It is self-righteous pride when we cry out against real or perceived unjust treatment of ourselves. “Why me?” Perhaps it is connected to our instinct for self-preservation, but our faith in God should be strong enough to consider that He has a plan in store for us and if things are not going our way, then maybe He has something different in mind for our lives. If we are suffering through this, then somehow that suffering is a part of His plan of salvation for us. And as Jesus accepted His cross for humanity’s salvation, so then must we take up our individual crosses for our discipleship.

Being a Christian isn’t easy. And it was never intended to be.

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!!)