Rule 1 of St. Ignatius’ “rules of discernment” stands alone in many ways, describing the experience of one who is moving in the wrong direction, away from God, and towards vice and sin. In a modern sense, this first rule also describes those of us who are diving into...
Notice in reading the Gospels that whenever Jesus is facing something difficult, He prays. In one of His most human moments, Jesus struggles in agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Before his arrest, He endures a night of extreme stress that we cannot imagine. He even...
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 a person seeks addiction recovery, they’re usually after one goal—to become free of disordered behaviors and addictions. However, for those of us in CIR, we’re also after another goal. We don’t only strive to stop our addictions, compulsions, or unhealthy...
In part one of this series, Mark L. writes about how the surrender he thought he needed to embrace to rejoin the Father might be more aptly described as yielding to the wooing of a lover who is always quietly beckoning him. Yielding to God’s will to move from...
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...
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...
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...
The response of Pilate to our Lord betrays the skeptical view that there is no discernable, universal truth that can be discerned. Or to put it succinctly: “It is all relative.” Your truth is your truth and mine is mine and never the twain shall meet. I was blessed...
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...