I’m a member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Al-Anon, and Catholic in Recovery (CIR). As a Catholic, my recovery is inseparable from my faith, the sacraments, prayer, and the life of the Church. CIR has been a tremendous gift, allowing me to integrate the spiritual...
Stepping over the threshold into the rooms of recovery is one of the hardest things many of us will ever do. By God's grace, we muster up the courage to admit our powerlessness and surrender ourselves and life to a fellowship of recovery. By living sober, we realize...
I’ve heard it said that “Home is the place where you have to go, and they have to take you.” For many of us in addiction recovery, whether as addicts or their loved ones, there’s a lot of baggage around “having” to go home and “having” to be accepted there. So when we...
I remember the moment I came to terms with my addiction: the moment I stepped out of denial and into God’s healing light. I had no idea what would happen. I was scared and overwhelmed with guilt and shame. I had gone almost twenty years without openly acknowledging...
Each year that passes of my sobriety I’m reminded of my blessings and the gratitude that I owe to the people in the fellowship of AA who shared how they remained sober and pointed me back to God. I also think often about a phrase that was used in some of my early AA...
After many years of struggling with alcohol, drugs, and sex addiction, Stephanie found sobriety at the age of 33. It was during that first year of her recovery that she also returned to the faith of her childhood, joining RCIA and becoming a confirmed Catholic. That...