Where have they taken my Lord?

I’m off to morning Mass in a half hour or so, and then I will stay afterwards in our parish’s Adoration Chapel and adore Jesus, truly Present in the host exposed in the monstrance. He had been reposed since last Wednesday evening, so I have been unable to visit and see Him.

I feel a touch of separation anxiety; although I went to the Good Friday services and received Him in Communion, as well as on Easter Sunday, just spending time with His presence for as long as you want has a special feeling. I can go essentially whenever I want and stay as long as I need.

But I have been unable to do that. I was a bit annoyed that He was reposed until today; I figured He’d be exposed once again come Easter Sunday afternoon, but alas He wasn’t. I kind of got the feeling the Eleven Apostles and the women felt over the course of the days since His death until His Resurrection.

“Where is He? Where have you taken my Lord? Tell me, and I will go get Him,” said Mary Magdalene upon seeing the open tomb and no body there.

You really know how much you miss and need something when you can’t get 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!!)

Second Anniversary of Mother Angelica’s Death

Today, March 27, 2018 is the second anniversary of the death of Mother Angelica. She is best known as the foundress of EWTN.

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She has grown in importance for me. I have read both of her biographies written by Raymond Arroyo and have read (and studied) several of her books. I highly recommend getting Mother Angelica’s Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality; Mother Angelica’s Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures; and The Prayers and Personal Devotions of Mother Angelica. All are available through EWTN Publishing. They are a wealth of spiritual wisdom. The treasures contained within are gems you can mine for years to come. Mother Angelica was a soul who connected with those who were on the margins, downtrodden, beaten by life. In general, people who were broken, wounded, hurt and lost. Sound familiar? The spiritual guidance contained in those three books can greatly help you get through anything. (I should do an individual book review on each. Hmmm…)

I would place them on a par with the Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, “Divine Mercy in My Soul” for your deep spiritual enrichment.

More on Mother at EWTN’s Mother Angelica Page.

The Church has a regulation that people have to be deceased for 5 years before their process for beatification and canonization can begin. We have just three years now to wait! Hopefully it won’t take too long after…

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!!)

Divine Mercy Novena begins on Good Friday

Just giving all my readers a heads up that the Divine Mercy Novena begins on Good Friday.

Information on how to pray it is in the link in the first sentence.

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 bruised reed

One of my favorite passages in Scripture popped up today in the First Reading for the Mass for Monday of Holy Week: Isaiah 42:3 “The bruised reed he will not break, and the smoldering wick he will not extinguish.”

Courtesy: Sacred Bible: Catholic Public Domain Version

We alcoholics are bruised reeds, and remain so long after recovery. I don’t ever think we achieve the same level of “normality” that people not afflicted with addiction possess. I think that along the way, as we make our decisions, we have to constantly consider factors that “normals” don’t. Why? Because almost any person, place or thing can lead us back into the drink if we’re not vigilant and maintain our daily reprieve.

Perhaps that is why I like the passage; it reminds me that as I trudge the road towards my true home I will not be overwhelmed by things to great for me to handle. Oftentimes the opposite seems true, but then faith takes hold, the still, small voice of God whispers quietly, “Easy, I am here.”

Another post on this: Bruised reeds…

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!!)

Unruly, emotional crowd

During the Gospel reading for today’s Mass for Palm Sunday, we hear large, emotional crowds calling for Jesus to be crucified, as well as their preference for another to be released in His place.

“Crucify him! Crucify him!!” the crowd shouts.

“We want Barabbas,” they had screamed before.

Barabbas was a criminal, an insurrectionist by some accounts. The chief priests of the Temple had exhorted the crowd to demand his release instead of the Way, the Truth and the Life.

This serves as a reminder of the evil effects of basing decisions on raw, naked emotion. An emotional mob, easily manipulated by their leaders, selects a criminal over the Savior.

The crowd in Jerusalem in Jesus’ time sacrificed the Savior, one that they had just welcomed emotionally as the Messiah just days before.

Emotions are never a basis for making decisions, ever. This is something that should be discovered in early recovery, when our emotions are new and untested, sensitive and confused.

Just something to ponder in these days when emotions are running wild over a whole host of issues.

Nothing good will come of 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!!)

Confession and examen

Lent is obviously a popular time for going to Confession. What with all the penitential acts going on, NOT going would be odd. Most parishes have penance services where the sacrament is offered at a time when it usually isn’t, to enable and encourage people to go.

There are two great examination of consciences you can use. The first one is from the Vatican’s website; it is a link to the Ten Commandments. I suggest that you read over them all and assess how you stack up. If you have your own copy, they begin at paragraph 2052.

This is a direct link to a downloadable PDF file which contains a nice examination of conscience: Downloadable Confession Guide (PDF)

There is another great opportunity for confession right after Easter; Divine Mercy Sunday is the Second Sunday of Easter. (See the link in the previous sentence for information on celebrating it.) There is a plenary indulgence attached to going to Confession and celebrating the Divine Mercy devotions on that day. See also: Divine Mercy Sunday.

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!!)

Lenten blogging check-in

Quickie Lenten blogging check-in: I’ve been busy with a lot of reading recently. I have at long last finished reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church. By this I mean having a completed a run-through from start to finish; prior to this I’ve read sections of it when I needed to know something. I don’t know how much of it I had read in that manner, but I wanted to make sure that the entire volume had been ingested by me and thus the reading from beginning to end. If you haven’t done this, I urge you to. Even if it is just as a daily devotional: the CCC is an awesome book, we all need a daily dose of Truth and it has it, along with your Catholic Bible.

I feel like an item has been checked off my “bucket list.”

I’ve also been getting continuing with reading some of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s writings; partly because it’s a long-term reading project I had set aside and I missed them, and I have to look up stuff to help a buddy get over a “stumbling block” about some of St. Max’s teachings.

Speaking of reading: I have also finally finished the complete, unabridged version of “The Mystical City of God,” by Ven. Mary of Jesus of Agreda. It is a 2,700 page (+/- ~100ish pages) history or biography of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s epic. I may blog about it sometime.

Anyway, I just wanted to post this as a sort of “check-in;” I pray daily about blogging and since Sunday I’ve been told to read 😉 I do have a number of posts in draft form and hope to push a few of them out over the next week, including reviews of two books on spiritual growth and development that I really think you all should get…

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!!)

Forgiveness and the Adversary

The concept of “forgiveness” has been on my mind recently, especially after this post. Obviously it is something that I’ve struggled with. The following comprises a summation of my recent internal debates.

OK, forgiveness… what does that mean? In the context of this blog, it will be in connection with the Catholic Faith. And thus we think of “Confession.” So, what takes place then? We go to Confession to confess our sins to a priest who, acting in the power vested in him by the Church absolves us of our sins. God forgives us and absolves us through the office of the priest.

So, the slate is wiped clean. We had offended God in some manner; we have abused our natural gifts in a way contrary to God’s will and intentions and we caused a disruption in our relationship with Him. A deadly rupture if the sins were mortal, less so if venial. In utilizing the Sacrament of Confession the wounds are healed and we move on in our relationship with God.

How does this apply to relationships with humans? Someone hurts me, I am wounded and the relationship suffers. How much depends on the extent of the offense. If little, it is easy to forgive; if not, forgiveness takes some effort.

Is the slate wiped clean? Perhaps. If the offense is great and the wound is deep, I interpret forgiveness to mean that I put the hurt and pain behind me, it is back there and I no longer dwell on it and nurture a resentment. I no longer ask “Why did it happen?” or seek any answers. If the action is recalled, the pain may return but I can dismiss it (with varying degrees of success dependent upon my state of mind.)

Forgiveness doesn’t imply reconciliation will follow; ideally it should as that would mirror our relationship with God and that is the model we seek in our dealings with others. However, other people are not God and thus reconciliation may not follow. In fact, oftentimes it shouldn’t if the protagonist has not repented and atoned for their offense.

OK. So we have established that forgiveness means the event is “back there,” and not emotionally connected to the present. You do not nurture the hurt by resenting the action. You no longer want to know “Why?” You no longer seek answers. Forgiveness has been made; if possible directly with the individual(s) so the relationship can be patched up or just unilaterally if you cannot deal with the other.

The problem I was having is that I thought that “forgiveness” didn’t “take hold” if the hurt keeps coming back. Perhaps it is natural for memories of the hurt to resurface from time to time. Much depends upon our ability to exercise self-control and discipline over our thought-life, but even then we are only human and if the pain was really deep it may never go away. I am referring to pain that was so intense that you yearned for death to end it and therefore contemplated suicide.

Nevertheless, perhaps the act of forgiveness needs to be done again. In some way, either by prayer and meditation, you contemplate the event and just turn it over to God. Let it become subject to His Justice and Mercy and try to leave it there. Praying to the Blessed Virgin and entrusting the whole matter to her is a part of this; Mary is our tender Mother and understands sorrow all too well.

And then another thought came to me: that recurring memories of a past hurt may just be intrusions of Satan into our inner life. The Adversary is observant; It knows very well what has hurt us. Perhaps It had even been the instrument behind the other peoples’ hurting of us. Satan does not want us to make progress spiritually; It desires our continued dwelling in the World and our adoption of the Worlds’ morals and ethics (which are clearly NOT conducive to getting you to Heaven). And so It oppresses us. Satan knows our weaknesses and propagates them as often as It can. If It is aware that a past hurt can distract us and weaken our path towards God, then who’s to say that Satan isn’t sometimes behind the development of resentments? That obsessing about a past event and having strong feelings about the whole matter isn’t Its way of causing us more harm to our souls? Imagining confrontations with the perpetrators and “getting even” in some way?

Whether it is demonic oppression (as distinct from demonic possession) or something less grave may not matter. It just means that we have more work to do in trusting in God’s Providence and Mercy. By ourselves we can do nothing; as they say in Twelve Step movements, “Let Go and Let God” so that He can establish His peace in our lives.

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!!)

490 times!

In this excerpt of the Gospel from the Mass for Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent (Matthew 18:21-22) we learn the importance Jesus places upon forgiveness:

Then Peter, drawing near to him, said: “Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Even seven times?”

Jesus said to him: “I do not say to you, even seven times, but even seventy times seven times.”

Courtesy: Sacred Bible: Catholic Public Domain Version

If you pair this off with the petition near the end of the “Lord’s Prayer,” that part that goes: “…and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” and we have a real major issues if we hold on to grievances and resentments.

Getting rid of them is indeed hard. I’ve got some that are persistent and at times I think I’m over them. But a wandering mind at times seeks something to grab onto and it gravitates towards and old hurt. And them doesn’t let go.

I like to think that I’ve forgiven the original offense, and that it’s just the emotional pain that persists in memory, but I’m not sure. I’ve read countless things on forgiveness; that it doesn’t mean forgetting or reconciliation, it just means that you’ve disconnected from the original event and no longer expect or want an apology or explanation. It no longer has that hold on you. The hurt happened, it’s way back there in the past and let it go. The pain may return from time to time, but that’s just being human. If you quickly run some spiritual techniques to quell the memory, perhaps you can move on again.

I suppose it’s time to dwell on forgiveness, for if we cannot forgive, we cannot expect it ourselves.

(I just checked, this post is the 100th post in the Forgiveness Category and 67th in the Resentment one! Maybe I should spend some time reading these…)

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 wounded prodigal

Today’s Gospel Reading for the Saturday of the Second Week of Lent is a popular one involving mercy and forgiveness. It is the story of “The Prodigal Son.”

I wrote about it before: Prodigal Alcoholics.

In that post I focused on mercy and forgiveness. There is also another point: the longing to belong and rejoin what you once had, even if in a more humble state. The Prodigal was intent on just being a hired hand for his father; he never expected to be readmitted to the family. Perhaps this is what we all hope for in our recovery: that our families and employers would just “forget” our sins and problems and move forward in life with us, just happy that we’re back and healthy. This does not always happen. Perhaps for some, and even then probably over time. We all mess up and wish for a “do over,” like nothing ever happened. This is not realistic, as our addiction did happen. Since God has this knack for bringing good out of evil, we can use this to our advantage. Use the experience of our addiction and recovery and help others in some way. Perhaps not by starting a blog about recovery process 😉 but at least by using the humbling experience of our own suffering to be understanding of others’ suffering and “screwed-upness.” We who were screwed up can have empathy towards others. We should be better able to connect and understand other people’s brokenness and wounded nature.

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!!)