About four years ago, before I got involved with Catholic in Recovery, I started to see some of the fault lines and divisions in the Church. It was at this moment that I began to shift my thinking from “the Twelve Steps need the Church” to “the Church needs the 12...
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...
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 love retreats, and I’ve been to a lot of them. There’s just something about getting away from the usual faces and the usual routine in order to meet others who are drawn to God in the same way I am. There’s also one feature that just about every retreat has that can...
I recently discovered that the word “celebration” comes from the Latin root celebrare, which implies groups of people assembling together for the purpose of honor and praise. This is why we as Catholics say that we “celebrate the sacraments.” Celebration by its very...
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...
Though it feels longer ago than it was, I had the great pleasure of being able to go home for Christmas. While my overall social life was limited, it still turned out to be a very good thing. I was a bit nervous about spending an additional amount of time with my...
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...