The Second Stage of Love—Love of God for the Self’s Sake The love of God for the sake of self represents the first real movement of conversion within the sinner’s heart. The self-obsessed, narcissistic gaze in a fundamental way begins to turn outward from the egoic...
Recovery is not just about staying free from sin and addiction, it’s about rebuilding the whole person—body, mind, and soul. This happened for me by adopting spiritual strategies when I was in early recovery to deepen my faith in Christ and engage in spiritual...
Attachment, as we have seen in previous articles (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four), is central to addiction, recovery, and spiritual growth. St. Ignatius of Loyola describes his Spiritual Exercises as “every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid...
On occasion, I’m asked by a CIR newcomer, “How did you find recovery”? This person in active addiction is usually looking for a silver bullet to take down those “werewolves” of addictions, compulsions, and unhealthy attachments. A full answer to such a question, in my...
Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series. Having considered Saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s several observations for why we should love God as well as his description of the path of growth in virtuous love, we come now to that for which his work On Loving God is...
When I stop and look back through the years of my recovery, I can see without a doubt how God has been with me, gently nudging me, pushing me further away from my own desires and toward His desires for me. A life of sobriety brings forth many new adventures. Though,...
In my own recovery, I have found many helpful tools in St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. I could almost call the Exercises a recovery program for addiction and codependency. Within these exercises, St. Ignatius offers rules for the “discernment of...
Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. Growth in Virtuous Love To undergo real transformation in holy love, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux asserts that three commitments are required of any person, three essential conditions that should sound awfully familiar to us in...
Every 12-step novice is familiar with the term “surrender” and its significance for finding recovery. However, as often as the word is used in recovery groups, the word itself does not appear in any of the Twelve Steps. I’ve spent decades in recovery and attended...
Read Part 1 of this series. 2nd Observation: God Is the Very Source of Our Love Saint Bernard’s second observation for why we should love God is that God, who is Love itself, is the absolute origin of our own individual yearning to love and be loved, and as such He is...