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Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 6)
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, or Part 5 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. We come to the second to last stage of humility, discretion. According to Saint Benedict, “The eleventh step of humility is that a monk speaks...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 5)
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. The fruit of the fear of God, self-denial, obedience, perseverance, and repentance is the gift of serenity, where we truly begin to live in detachment...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 4)
Read Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. Humility, like recovery, begins with a healthy fear of God—the awareness, as Saint Benedict puts it, that we are “always seen by God in heaven” (Rule). There is...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 3)
Read Part 1 or Part 2 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. In recovery, we seek freedom from addiction by following the Twelve Steps. But the true effectiveness of 12-step recovery is found in the fact that, at its heart, it is...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 2)
Read Part 1 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. We turn to what I believe to be the most important and common denominator present at the origin, escalation, and outright enslavement of any addiction, and that which certainly...
How Can I Be Self-Supporting in My Lust-Affected Marriage?
When I first started attending secular 12-step meetings for the loved ones of lust addicts, I noticed that the facilitator of each meeting made sure to read information about the Seventh Tradition, which usually sounded something like this: “Our Seventh Tradition...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 1)
“To get completely away from our aversion to the idea of being humble, to gain a vision of humility as the avenue to true freedom of the human spirit, to be willing to work for humility as something to be desired for itself, takes most of us a long, long time” (Twelve...
4 Ways Addiction Creates Insanity in Our Lives
Addiction and unhealthy attachments can be powerful drivers in our lives—drivers that put us on a course of destruction, pain, and insanity. Below are four ways that addiction and unhealthy attachments create insanity in our lives. A Repetitive Cycle of Suffering...
Step Eleven Reminds Us Never to Stop Seeking God
Step Eleven reads: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” Many old-timers will say this step is vital for achieving...
What Are the Traditions & How Do They Help Food Addicts Heal?
When I first came to recovery, I was in a lot of pain, and I was doing everything I could to avoid feeling more. In my first foray through the Twelve Steps, my sponsor helped open my eyes to how all of my attempts to avoid pain weren’t actually getting me out of it...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 6)
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, or Part 5 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. We come to the second to last stage of humility, discretion. According to Saint Benedict, “The eleventh step of humility is that a monk speaks...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 5)
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. The fruit of the fear of God, self-denial, obedience, perseverance, and repentance is the gift of serenity, where we truly begin to live in detachment...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 4)
Read Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. Humility, like recovery, begins with a healthy fear of God—the awareness, as Saint Benedict puts it, that we are “always seen by God in heaven” (Rule). There is...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 3)
Read Part 1 or Part 2 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. In recovery, we seek freedom from addiction by following the Twelve Steps. But the true effectiveness of 12-step recovery is found in the fact that, at its heart, it is...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 2)
Read Part 1 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. We turn to what I believe to be the most important and common denominator present at the origin, escalation, and outright enslavement of any addiction, and that which certainly...
How Can I Be Self-Supporting in My Lust-Affected Marriage?
When I first started attending secular 12-step meetings for the loved ones of lust addicts, I noticed that the facilitator of each meeting made sure to read information about the Seventh Tradition, which usually sounded something like this: “Our Seventh Tradition...
Pride, Addiction, & Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility: A Working Theology of Recovery (Part 1)
“To get completely away from our aversion to the idea of being humble, to gain a vision of humility as the avenue to true freedom of the human spirit, to be willing to work for humility as something to be desired for itself, takes most of us a long, long time” (Twelve...
4 Ways Addiction Creates Insanity in Our Lives
Addiction and unhealthy attachments can be powerful drivers in our lives—drivers that put us on a course of destruction, pain, and insanity. Below are four ways that addiction and unhealthy attachments create insanity in our lives. A Repetitive Cycle of Suffering...
Step Eleven Reminds Us Never to Stop Seeking God
Step Eleven reads: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” Many old-timers will say this step is vital for achieving...
What Are the Traditions & How Do They Help Food Addicts Heal?
When I first came to recovery, I was in a lot of pain, and I was doing everything I could to avoid feeling more. In my first foray through the Twelve Steps, my sponsor helped open my eyes to how all of my attempts to avoid pain weren’t actually getting me out of it...