The following is an excerpt from The Recovery Rosary, a book offering 20 personalized meditations (one for each mystery of the Rosary) covering a variety of addictions, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, lust-related addictions, compulsive/disordered eating...
The following is an excerpt from The Recovery Rosary, a book offering 20 personalized meditations (one for each mystery of the Rosary) covering a variety of addictions, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, lust-related addictions, compulsive/disordered eating...
Read Part 1 of this series. In the first part of our exploration of the wisdom of Saint Augustine and 12-step recovery, we witness the dramatic change in awareness that led to Augustine’s recognition of his own powerlessness and of the one who is all-powerful, God....
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...
What do Saint Augustine and addiction recovery have in common? It turns out, quite a lot. Augustine, now recognized as one of the most influential people on Western thought, went through a tremendous struggle before he became the “saint” we think of today. This...
The month of March is an important month in the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar. Not only does this month occur during the Lenten season, but over thirty saints are celebrated over the course of the month’s 31 days. What a gift that the Church holds up so many...
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...
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...
“Then one of the scribes…asked Jesus, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,...
The phone rang. I was 23 years old and hadn’t heard from my friend Sara in five years. We grew up together. “What have you been up to?” Sara asked. “Well, I’ve had a life-changing experience and I’ve become a born-again Christian!” I exclaimed, waiting for the usual...