“I hate myself! I just made a great confession and felt clean and blessed. So, why did I commit this sin yet again?” I often had the above thought when I fell to sexual sin and before I took my recovery from pornography and masturbation seriously. Perhaps it’s a...
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...
As I write this, the thought that comes to mind is: “How do you put something so vast, infinite, and truly marvelous as God’s mercy and love into words?” For those of you reading this who may not know me or my story, I am a revert to the Catholic faith. I attended...
We are about a week into the time of year that can be considered a “spring training” for Catholics. Lent is an opportunity for us to imitate Christ by renewing our spiritual discipline prior to the glorious resurrection of our Lord on Easter. The ashes that launch...
Recently, I have been reflecting on how my porn addiction began in the first place. This took me back to a dark place in my life during college, when I had broken up with who I thought was the love of my life, which left me directionless and unstable. I had no passion...
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...
When I first became sober, maintaining my recovery was the most important part of my life. But two years in something happened. My life changed. Suddenly I was engaged and moving away to start graduate school. Since my faith was important to me, I found a parish right...
“Lord, please don’t let me lose my love for my husband,” I would pray. After years of living with a man with active alcoholism, I felt anything but loving. In fact, I was often in despair, full of fear, grief, and resentment, and on my knees with this prayer on my...
What does the term “unmanageable” even mean? I asked Google Bard AI for a definition, and here is what it returned: “Unmanageable means difficult or impossible to control or manage. It can be used to describe a person, an animal, a situation, or an object.” Synonyms...
I am a miracle. I am a recovering alcoholic and anorexic. It is my hope that by sharing my experience of addiction and recovery, I can bring awareness to others that there is a solution, and that through it they may experience a “spiritual awakening.” A spiritual...