Ladder of Humility posting update

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Due to some circumstances, I won’t be posting on the 7th Step of St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility today until at least after midnite, my time (it’s 0630, now. ) I have to work all day.

Nothing sudden or unforeseen. But I didn’t get a chance to write on the 7th step yesterday and postdate it for today.

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. Benedict's Ladder of Humility: Step 6

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The Sixth Step on the Ladder of Humility is that a person be content with the lowest and most menial treatment, and regards themselves as a poor and worthless worker in whatever task given.

This seemingly goes contrary to modern psychobabble regarding self-esteem and empowerment and such. So getting away from the apparent harshness and “anti-feel good” nature of this Step, what value can we gain from this?
We all, hopefully, think that we are good at what we do. Sometimes however this belief gets ahold of us and we become arrogant. We feel that we are “God’s gift” to whatever it is that we do. If we regard ourselves as “poor and worthless” then we retain a level of humility when it’s balanced with a reasonable assessment of ourselves.

With much of Catholicism, there is a balance between two things. Faith and reason for example. We need both to be good Catholics. Faith without Reason runs the risk of neurosis and superstition. Reason without Faith devalues the supernatural, or explains it away. Another is a balance between the moral and the social teachings of the Church. Using the secular definitions, too much of an emphasis on the moral teachings runs the risk of becoming too politically right-wing, whereas too much emphasis on the social teachings runs the opposite risk of becoming too politically left-wing. There needs to be a balance between two perspectives.

Another risk is the difference between true and false humility. With true humility you accept that you are good at what you do, but recognize that you are still a flawed, imperfect human being, and a sinner. Your skills do not make you better than other people, you just recognize that God gave you these skills and you are honoring Him by using them to the best of your ability. You readily acknowledge your faults and mistakes.

Being content with the lowest and menial treatment is “merely” going back to the notion of accepting whatever suffering that comes along as being necessary for your salvation, as acceptance of suffering is key to being Christian. It is an antidote to pride, another form of false humility. True humility deflects attention from ourselves, or at least we are uncomfortable with the attention; false humility attracts attention and enjoys the attention our work brings us.

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. Benedict's Ladder of Humility: Step 5

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The Fifth Step on St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility is that a person does not conceal any sinful thoughts, or any wrongs committed in secret, but humbly confesses them.

The Step was intended for monks to do this in respect to his abbot (man who is in charge of the monastery), but we also can do this with our priests in Confession.

Psalm 32:5;

Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,” and you took away the guilt of my sin.

It is out of pride that we refuse to confess. From the blasphemous mortal sin of presuming that God cannot forgive a serious sin, to just concealing something out of embarrassment, pride is the agent here. We must confess our sins to a priest for absolution and penance, this at least humbles us by bringing our misdeeds to the light of day.

From Step 5 of various 12 Step movements:

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

So even a non-religious group feels that it is of great importance to reveal to another one’s wrongdoings. There is a certain catharsis in doing so, a definite change is felt within by the act of confessing, either in sacramental Confession or in “doing the Fifth Step” with someone.

Feeling that you can just confess sins straight to God is just a cop-out. Explore your feelings deep within, and if you’re honest, you’ll discover that you’re not being “pious” in talking to God, you’re running away from the sins and embarrassment they cause.

Confessing to another introduces you to the concept of “honesty”, another humility-inducing act.

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. Benedict's Ladder of Humility: Step 4

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Yesterday I mentioned that the Third Step on St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility is about obedience and that the next step tells you how to deal with it as “obedience” is alien to today’s worldly people bent on personal self-determination.

OK, the Fourth Step is that if this obedience is difficult, unfavorable, or even unjust, one must embrace suffering, and endure it without weakening or seeking escape from it.

Granted, this might not be seen as an acceptable or particularly easy method to deal with the difficulties of “obedience” to legitimate authority. Sort of seems like those drugs advertised on television with a list of side-effects that seem worse than the malady the drug is supposed to cure.

But remember, we are Catholic and as Christians we are supposed to imitate Christ. And as I have said numerous times here, acceptance of suffering is essential to being Christian. That is something lost to many modern-day Christians as they seem to not differ too much from worldly types who seek to avoid suffering at all costs.

Christ suffered and died for our sins. We can imitate Him by accepting whatever suffering that comes into our lives as something permitted by God for our salvation. By enduring suffering we can offer it up in reparation for our sins and also for the sins of others. We can also offer it as an example to others of the contrary path that we Christians take in the world, a path that is essentially counter-cultural in fundamental ways that secular counter-culture isn’t.

Lest anyone think that this is merely a Christian thing, something similar is mentioned in a basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the text, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., New York, 1981) states on page 90:

Few people have been victimized by resentments than have we alcoholics. It mattered little whether our resentments were justified or not. A burst of temper could spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably ineffective. Nor were we ever skillful in separating justified from unjustified anger. As we saw it, our wrath was always justified. Anger, that occasional luxury of more balanced people, could keep us on an emotional jag indefinitely. These emotional “dry benders” often led straight to the bottle. Other kinds of disturbances – jealousy, envy, self-pity, or hurt pride, often did the same thing.

There is a Gospel passage:

Matt 10:22;

You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.

And so we endure. We say the Serenity Prayer to help us “deal with it”, too, for those times when we might be compelled to do more. But whatever the case, we must never resort to the false humility of justifying a course of action because of any apparent “injustice” when it is really just a personal affront to our own pride and self-will. Too many angry people seek to redress “injustices”, when merely they are seeking to justify their own self-indulgences.

The difference between false humility and true humility is the difference between who is aggrieved, you or 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!!)

St. Benedict's Ladder of Humility: Step 3

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The 3rd step on St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility may be especially troublesome to those not prone to humility, or who are too rooted in the ways of the world.

It says that a person should submit to their superior in all obedience for the love of God, in imitation of Jesus.

From St. Paul’s Letter to the Phillipians:

Phil 2:8;

He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

This is hard to tolerate, as “obedience” is rather contrary to modern Western thinking, and connotes weakness and slavery.

Benedict’s Rule is primarily for monks living in monasteries of the Benedictine Order. But as I said in the post that introduced this subject, many laity (people who are not priests, nuns or religious brothers) also follow the Rule of St. Benedict. So, how might we find value in this 3rd Step?

It is especially humbling, or humility-inducing, to subject yourself to another’s authority. So, to what authority would we willingly subject ourselves for the love of God?

Well, let’s think about that. What did God do for the love of us? He incarnated Himself in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, who while fully human, also retained the fullness of His divinity. And Jesus died for His love of us, to pay back to God the Father the sin of Adam and Eve which had ruptured our relationship with God (read Genesis 3).

After Jesus died, and rose again, what did He do? He established the Catholic Church, protected by the Holy Spirit from teaching error (i.e. the Pope and Bishops in union with him, all of whom are direct lineal successors to the Apostles and who carry out their mission of teaching the Gospel).

The Church is by no means perfect, composed as it is of humans, but it has survived 2,000 years of history created by it’s human members. It has never changed a teaching to be the opposite of what it was originally, and guided by the Spirit, it has developed teachings as we come to more fully understand the Bible and discern God.

This is what we can be obedient to. The Church can guide our conscience to follow and do God’s will. It has the consistency needed to build trust to follow it’s authority in matters of Gospel faith and morals.

Obedience is not slavish submission. It is a willful act of agreeing to follow legitimate authority and consent to its leadership. Authority that has merited trust and acquiescence.

If you have trouble with Step Three of the Ladder of Humility, Step Four tells you how to deal with it.

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. Benedict's Ladder of Humility: Step 2

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The second step on the Ladder of Humility is that a person should not love his own will nor take pleasure in satisfying their own desires.

This is very similar to the Third Step of 12 Step recovery movements: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

The Rule of St. Benedict quotes the Gospel According to John:

John 6:38;

I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

If we are Christian, then we imitate Christ.

If we follow our own will, to the exclusion of allowing the work and will of God to lead us, then we are being selfish. We are declaring that we are our own god and that our will is the master of our own lives.

This is what got us into trouble when we were drinking. Granted that our wills were somewhat compromised by our addiction, nevertheless our drinking enabled us to place ourselves at the center of our existence as we needed to feed our self-indulgences that were running wild. This hurt ourselves and most especially others. This is a black-and-white example of the dangers of putting our wills first, rather than seeking to do God’s will. In a selfish world, we see violence against each other and against nature, we see broken homes and families, we see discord and strife.

Satisfying one’s self-indulgent pleasures (usually of the physical or carnal variety) merely warps your relationships others. More discord.

Seek the will of the One who formed you in your mother’s womb.

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. Benedict's Ladder of Humility: Step 1

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In St. Benedict’s Rule, the first step on his ladder of humility is that one must always keep the fear of God before one’s eyes.

As I have said earlier, “fear” isn’t raw, naked terror, but more along the lines of respect. After all, who is God? He is the One who made you: you owe your whole, entire and compete existence to Him. You didn’t create yourself and you shouldn’t end that creation. You do not “own” yourself and have full rights over your body, you owe a certain responsibility to God for your life.

St. Benedict was referring to sin. From the Psalms:

Psalm 36:2;

Sin directs the heart of the wicked; their eyes are closed to the fear of God.

Leading to:

Psalm 7:10;

Bring the malice of the wicked to an end; uphold the innocent, O God of justice, who tries hearts and minds.

God knows what is in your heart and your mind, it can never be concealed from Him. So much of our sinning we do in the dark, or think we do there, but nothing is hidden in the dark from the Lord.

You need only read Psalm 139 to get tremendous, and comforting, insights:

O LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.
My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all.
Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach.
Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.
If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea,
Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light”
Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one.
You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works!
My very self you knew; my bones were not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.
How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!
Were I to count, they would outnumber the sands; to finish, I would need eternity…
…Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns.
See if my way is crooked, then lead me in the ancient paths.

God knows where you are, every step of the way, from the moment He formed you in your momma’s womb, and thereafter onward. There is no hiding.

Humility has a definition from the meeting rooms of AA that goes something like “humility is accepting reality for what it is, adjusting your life to that reality, and being content with the result.” Take out the word “reality” and put in its place the word “God” and you get:

“Humility is accepting God for what He is, adjusting your life to God, and being content with the result.”

A pretty fair summation of the first step of the Ladder of Humility.

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!!)

Keeping the faith, finishing the race

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It is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and the Second Reading from the Mass for today is from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy:

2 Tim 4:6-8,17-18;

I, Paul, am already being poured out like a libation,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,
which the Lord, the just judge,
will award to me on that day, and not only to me,
but to all who have longed for his appearance.

The Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.
And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat
and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.
To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Despite all the trials, troubles and tribulations that Paul went through, he never took his eyes off the prize: persevering in the faith that is the pursuit of Jesus Christ and finishing that pursuit having done the job he was born to do, and did well.

Paul was tenacious in his zeal for Jesus, and that paid off: in preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles today 1/3 of this planet is now Christian. Perhaps not very good ones, but that’s for God to judge.

How zealous and dedicated are we? (I’m asking this of myself, too.) Will we let the opinions and attitudes and behaviors of other people affect how we live our Christian vocation? Or do we set it aside when it gets inconvenient and difficult?

Paul’s perseverance was aided by God. The Lord helped him through his pain and suffering so as to enable Paul to accomplish his mission. Just as the Lord will assist us when we seek to do His will in all things, Paul got it done despite everything only because God helped him.

Paul’s comment about keeping the faith and finishing the race reminded me of statements in AA meetings when some member dies, it is usually remarked that “so-and-so died sober,” as if that is all that mattered. Most often it does as drunk we can hardly accomplish anything.

But as I’ve written before, “Not drinking” is only the start. “Not drinking” is not the goal in itself, it is the basis by which we move out into the world and transform it by our sobriety and Catholic Christianity.

We clean and sober Catholics, as well as anyone else no longer practicing their addiction, have been given a new lease on life. We are in our second lives, so to speak. The first one was wasted by our alcoholism and addictions. Our new start, regardless of how long we’ve been clean and sober, is a second chance at doing whatever we were placed on the Earth to do. Even if that mission was based on our prior addiction (as in we were made addicts for a reason) we must make the most of it. We find that out through prayer and meditation (Step 11 for people in a 12 Step movement).

Go to Mass or read the Mass readings prayerfully today. Peter and Paul started a conquest of the world that is still going on now. Join them.

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. Benedict's Ladder of Humility

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This is just a heads-up to announce another days-long project for this blog. I am going to start a 12 day long meditation on St. Benedict’s “12 Step Ladder of Humility”. I think I mentioned this back in my first post in January 2007 as something I was going to do, and well, it’s better late than never. 🙂

Who was St. Benedict? The Online Guide to St. Benedict has an excellent biography of him, as well as a lot of useful resources on his life.

He was born about the year 480, and died around 547. His feast day is July 11, and that factors into why I’m starting this project about now. But more on that later.

He wrote a “Rule”, a sort of governing document for monasteries and the lives of the monks living in them. Many people who are not monks also study and live by this Rule as it is an excellent guide to living the Gospel. It was this Rule of St. Benedict that earned him the titles of “the Patriarch of Western Monasticism” and “Co-Patron of Europe”. Most monastic rules are influenced by his Rule.

Anyway, as stated earlier, his feast day is July 11th. I will begin this series on St. Benedict’s 12 Step Ladder of Humility on June 30, so one step per day will take us to his feast day. It is not a novena, nor another prayer, just a series of meditations.

The only similarity between St. Benedict’s 12 Step Ladder of Humility and the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is the number “12” and the word “Step”. Well, there is the “humility” factor, too.

Anyway, visit the Online Guide mentioned above. His religious Order, the Order of St. Benedict has a great online directory and guide.

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!!)

Twelve Steps for Catholics

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John, from the Venerable Matt Talbot Resource Center emailed me a link to an interesting series of blogposts on AA’s Twelve Steps, this time with a Catholic perspective.

Adrienne, of Adrienne’s Catholic Corner has written 12 Steps for Catholics from March through June of this year. That last link in the previous sentence is a link to her 12 Steps label, containing all the articles. If that doesn’t work, all are archived in her left sidebar.

They make for very good reading for those of you not attending AA meetings, or feel that AA may be too “New Agey”. With a proper, well-formed and guided perspective, the Steps are no threat to one’s Catholic Faith.

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!!)