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. 

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!!)

Sheep and Goats

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A passage from the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Matthew, from today’s Mass for the Monday of the First Week of Lent:

Matthew 25: 31-46

“But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty. And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’

Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink? And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’ And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’

Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink; I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’

Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.””

You’re still living, and thus can still choose. Sheep or goats? Eternity: Smoking or non-smoking? Lent is that time of the year where you can be focused on “self-improvement,” if by that abused term you mean casting off the character defects that dominates your life and “put on Christ,” to become more like Him. Will you succeed? Maybe not as well as you hope to, but no matter how well you try, you’ll be that much closer to the Lord in how you live.

Today’s Gospel provides a list of tings one can do to attain Heaven. It is quite clear, no ambiguities. Do certain things and it will be as if you did them for Christ. Don’t do them, and…

And as the passage from Matthew’s Gospel says, there are things that you can do to ensure your salvation.

For as Jesus said in another part of Matthew’s Gospel:

Matthew 7: 21-23

“Not all who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does the will of my Father, who is in heaven, the same shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and perform many powerful deeds in your name?’ And then will I disclose to them: ‘I have never known you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.’”

So, faith alone does not save. Even the demons believe. Your faith has to distinguish you from those without faith in Jesus. You have to do something, something that tell the World “I am a Christian, and by these works you know this!”

And in doing these works, you are doing the work of God.

Scripture passages via:
via Catholic Public Domain Version of the Sacred Bible.

NOTE: This is an edited version of a post published a few years ago.

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 pleasing nature of temptations

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The First Reading for the Mass of the First Sunday of Lent is about the Temptation of Eve.

In it we read that the object of the temptation is pleasing to the eye, and that partaking of it will open the eyes to wisdom and knowledge. Just eating of the Tree of Life, one can transcend the limitations of knowledge and awareness and gain insights into things like God.

Kind of like the false promise of alcohol. We’ve all been there and had that feeling: after a few drinks of vodka, rum, tequila or whatever, we seem to gain deep and profound insights into inner truths and realities. The effect is transformative: we feel more than human, perhaps god-like.

Of course it’s false. It is just the effect of alcohol on the brain and the releasing of mental inhibitions; perhaps digging deep into the subconscious and dragging into light submerged ideas and such. Perhaps this is why many writers drink. I think Hemingway said something like “Write drunk, edit sober.”

I fell for that trap and couldn’t get enough; probably you can relate.

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!!)

Follow me! (It’s that easy?)

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In the Gospel reading for the Mass for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday we read of Jesus calling a tax collector (Levi, also known as Matthew) to become one of His disciples. 

Luke 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.

He said to him, “Follow me.”

And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,

and a large crowd of tax collectors

and others were at table with them.

The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,

“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus said to them in reply,

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.

I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

And that was that. Levi was doing his job one day, one that paid him well not counting the typical graft tax collectors padded their purses with. He was hated by the people he collected taxes from, because of who he collected taxes for (the occupying Roman forces.) This made him a traitor in the eyes of his fellow Jews.

So you might think that there was a confluence of factors at work here. He was hated, and no one likes that, no matter how good the pay is. Perhaps he was already hating his job to the point of quitting it soon. We don’t know. This is all conjecture on my part, but it makes for a good ‘spiritual growth’ and ‘conversion’ post. So, perhaps Jesus’ timing was perfect. He knew just when to approach Levi and get while the getting was good.

Jesus always knows when the timing is right to ‘get us.’ I was a hard-heading pig brain when He got me. I had left the Church years before and then I was ready for His abduction about the same time I sobered up. I needed to be brought low to be receptive to His call.

What about 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!!)

‘Meta Business Suite ‘Facebook Page Manager is judgemental

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I just downloaded something called “Meta Business Suite.” It’s like having another Facebook app on your smartphone but just to manage your Page (not your personal account.)

I just invited 20 people to ‘like’ my SoberCatholic Blog Page, but I couldn’t pick which 20. Facebook did. So, if you’re on my friend’s list and received an invitation, it was FACEBOOK’S algorithms who thinks you’re a Catholic who drinks too much.

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!!)

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The Apostle of the Sacred Heart

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It’s Sacred Heart Friday! St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is known as the Apostle of the Sacred Heart Devotion. Her feast day is October 16 and I’ll probably write something more then, but this will provide an introduction.

She was born at Lhautecour, France, 22 July, 1647; and died at Paray-le-Monial, 17 October, 1690. From her childhood she was given to a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and underwent severe personal mortifications, many of which would seem like self-torture today. She suffered from a paralysis for about four years until she made a vow to the Blessed Virgin Mary to consecrate herself to religious life. She was healed and recovered completely.

Her childhood and young adulthood continued to be marked by austerity and devotion. She entered the Visitation Order at the age of 24. It was not long after she took her final perpetual vows when Our Lord appeared to her in private revelations, teaching her about His Sacred Heart and establishing the principles of devotion to it. He wanted His love for the human race to be made known to all, since the Church had become unduly influenced by Jansenism (not to mention the related heresy of Calvinism running rampant in Reformation circles.) By encouraging devotion to “the heart that so loved mankind” and how acts of reparation to it on behalf of sinners, many souls will be saved.

You can read more about her in the book I’ve recommended numerous times, found in this post: “The Manual on the Sacred Heart Devotion.”

In March, 1824, Leo XII pronounced her Venerable, and on 18 September, 1864, Pius IX declared her Blessed. St. Margaret Mary was canonized by Benedict XV in 1920. 

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!!)

Crying out full-throated and unsparingly!!

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An excerpt from the First Reading of the Mass for Friday after Ash Wednesday:

Isaiah 58:1

Thus says the Lord GOD:

Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,

lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;

Tell my people their wickedness,

and the house of Jacob their sins.

OK! So I will! 

We are a culture that prides itself on paganism and creeping Satanism. We contracept and when that doesn’t work, abort our young. This is nothing more than a demonic opposition to the will of God regarding life. God is the Author of Life. Satan cannot create so he thwarts God’s will in this and too many people are only too willing to cooperate, using euphemisms like ‘population control,’ ‘economic necessity,’ ‘women’s  rights,’ and the Orwellian phrase ‘reproductive rights.’ 

And literal Satanism. Satan-worship is going mainstream. 

We objectify people. People are cogs in the economic realities. Capitalism or socialism, it doesn’t matter; both are two sides of the same coin: the concentration of economic power into the hands of a few. And the workers are screwed. “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” 

Institutions dehumanize. Technology dehumanizes. The world is increasingly devoid of humanity. I’m not talking about the species, but rather the humane treatment of others. It goes back to contraception and abortion: if we can decide who lives and dies, if we can kill babies in the womb, then there’s nothing stopping from that inhumane perspective from seeping into how we consider those living around us. We are desensitized to the humanity of the people we see every day. The are objects, not persons.

And don’t talk to me about the increasingly messianistic worship of politicians, from Obama, to Trump, with this phenomenon existing in other countries. It’s isn’t new, either. 

I’ve given you enough to go on; I’m sure you can come up with stuff I missed. 

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!!)

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.

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!!)

Ash Wednesday 2023

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Since this blog is about “Conversion, Prayer, Fasting, Repentance, and Penance,” amongst other things, Lent is a natural time to blog a lot since those ‘abouts’ correspond to the season. I have often in previous Lents blogged daily, or at least a few times a week, taking inspiration from the daily Mass readings or the Divine Office. I might try that this year, but don’t hold your breath. I know I’ve done it throughout the season several times, tried and fell short a few other times, and didn’t even make the attempt in many years. 2023? Who can say? Anyway, here goes this one for today, Ash Wednesday.

In this excerpt from the First Reading for the Mass for today, the Old Testament prophet Joel says:

(Joel 2:12-14)

Even now, says the LORD,

return to me with your whole heart,

with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;

Rend your hearts, not your garments,

and return to the LORD, your God.

For gracious and merciful is he,

slow to anger, rich in kindness,

and relenting in punishment.

Perhaps he will again relent

and leave behind him a blessing,

Offerings and libations

for the LORD, your God.

That’s the blueprint for Lent. Wherever you are, return to the Lord. Fasting, sorrow, and mourning for your sins are the method by which you do that.

Rending your hearts means true contrition and repentance. Always be mindful of the mercy of God, how gracious He is to those who come back to Him.

He is merciful, meaning He knows your weaknesses and knows the deep down reasons for your sinning. His grace flows into strengthening you for the battle.

Make this a good Lent. Go to Confession often. Maybe it’ll become a habit that you’ll keep for the rest of the year. Somewhere Pope St. John Paul II said that Catholics who wish to grow in holiness should go to Confession at least once a month. 

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 Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus

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Today is Fat Tuesday, or Carnival. It is the day prior to Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent.) It is also the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus. There is a Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. I discovered it a few years ago at a talk given after a Latin Mass I used to attend. I was taken by the devotion, and introduced it to you in this post. I expanded upon it here. If you read those articles (please do so soon!) you’ll understand why I referred to it in one of them as the ‘devotion for our times.’ It seems tailor-made to specifically counter the madness of the contemporary political and culture milieu. And, if you want to know more about it, I recommended a few books here.

The Feast Day for the Holy Face of Jesus is not celebrated in the Ordinary Form of the Mass, and in the Extraordinary Form (‘Latin Mass’) is is an optional votive Mass. But in years past the day before Ash Wednesday is dedicated to the ‘work of reparation,’ which is interesting given that the same day in secular cultures is dedicated to getting the last bit of debauchery out of your system before Lent begins the next day.

Want to know more? In this post I mention that you can get a clear insight into the Holy Face Devotion by contemplating the Propers of the Latin Mass. I urge you to prayerfully read them, they’re linked to in it (includes a PDF download.)

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!!)