Welcome to Recover Catholic... Our purpose is to help our fellow alcoholics and addicts. We welcome Mom's, Dad's, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and colleagues of loved ones afflicted by the disease of alcoholism and addiction to join us here and those suffering in all stages of the disease.
To better understand and help those suffering and slowly dying in front of our eyes by this very cunning and baffling disease. To hopefully add some encouragement, peace, knowledge and fellowship to the alcoholic and addict. New posts will be available every Sunday afternoon.
The Journey continues... Against all advice of fellow AA members, counselors and the like, I met and fell in love with a young woman named Abby. When I first met her, I knew there was something about her, something deep, a true connection. And connect we did, during her final days of inpatient treatment and my first few days, we spent hours on the phone night after night. Our relationship grew and blossomed, the heat of passion and the need for healing love, and also based on honesty and understanding. We shared morning meditation together, we pushed each other to work with our sponsors, go to meetings, learned and embraced recovery together.
Abby came from a fairly strict and devout Baptist family, with strong beliefs inherited by her grandfather, a well known preacher, and her parents. These strong beliefs dissipated over generations, with her parents marital problems going against the beliefs of the Baptist Church, and her own insecurities and distrust of organized religion furthered the distance.
Being of sound mind and armed with a fresh optimism about life only early sobriety can bring, I invited to her join me at mass one Sunday morning. I feel that the best way to find comfort and a path to spiritual healing starts with actually going to church. I wanted to try a new path, a new church, a different approach, but in the end, I felt I had never given Catholicism a chance and an honest effort on my part. I had not been to Mass by my own free will and with a desire for spiritual growth in 15 years. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, a lot of alcoholics always think we are different and smarter that the rest of the world. If 70 million Catholics attend mass every week in this great country of ours, it's a great place to get started.
We arrive just as Mass begins, Abby is very nervous, and so am I. I feel I have to explain the mass and defend the Catholic Church.
What I wasn't expecting was all of the questions about the basic practices in a Catholic Mass. Being educated in the Catholic School system in my youth and attending mass on a regular basis up until the age of 17 or so, I always felt the rituals were probably somewhat similar in all churches. I had never, with the exception of an occasional funeral or wedding attended a non-Catholic service.
We sit not only in the last pew of the church, but the last pew on the balcony of this small older Catholic Church just west of St. Louis. I don't think we could have been further from the action, but we were nearly alone in the balcony, which made both of us a little more comfortable. As we took our seats, she whispered a question to me about the ushers...
"Who were the men at the door?"
Which men? You mean the ushers?
"I guess, the ones who told us to sit up front..." Abby replied.
They're ushers, they help you find a seat.
"I know what an usher does, I just don't know why they stand at the door and tell you where you have to sit." she said.
They aren't telling you, they are just helping, to keep the crowd moving.
As the Mass starts, she is looking curiously around the church, admiring the sheer beauty and age of the physical building, along with curious gaze at the Stations of the Cross, and finally notices the kneelers.
"What are those for?"
To kneel on...
"Kneel??"
Yes, at certain parts of the mass you kneel...
"Why? I don't know if I can kneel in front of anyone, it seems humiliating, I'm not kneeling in front of a Priest"
You're not kneeling in front of the Priest, you're kneeling in front of God.
"I don't like this and I don't want to be forced to kneel"
I said, "then don't, you're not Catholic, you don't have to, it's a sign of respect and praise before God, that's all. There's no one around, and no reason to feel out of place, don't kneel"
Join us next Sunday for "The Usher Appears with the Collection Basket", and please subscribe to our posts via email, it's free...
The Journey continues... Against all advice of fellow AA members, counselors and the like, I met and fell in love with a young woman named Abby. When I first met her, I knew there was something about her, something deep, a true connection. And connect we did, during her final days of inpatient treatment and my first few days, we spent hours on the phone night after night. Our relationship grew and blossomed, the heat of passion and the need for healing love, and also based on honesty and understanding. We shared morning meditation together, we pushed each other to work with our sponsors, go to meetings, learned and embraced recovery together.
Abby came from a fairly strict and devout Baptist family, with strong beliefs inherited by her grandfather, a well known preacher, and her parents. These strong beliefs dissipated over generations, with her parents marital problems going against the beliefs of the Baptist Church, and her own insecurities and distrust of organized religion furthered the distance.
Being of sound mind and armed with a fresh optimism about life only early sobriety can bring, I invited to her join me at mass one Sunday morning. I feel that the best way to find comfort and a path to spiritual healing starts with actually going to church. I wanted to try a new path, a new church, a different approach, but in the end, I felt I had never given Catholicism a chance and an honest effort on my part. I had not been to Mass by my own free will and with a desire for spiritual growth in 15 years. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, a lot of alcoholics always think we are different and smarter that the rest of the world. If 70 million Catholics attend mass every week in this great country of ours, it's a great place to get started.
We arrive just as Mass begins, Abby is very nervous, and so am I. I feel I have to explain the mass and defend the Catholic Church.
What I wasn't expecting was all of the questions about the basic practices in a Catholic Mass. Being educated in the Catholic School system in my youth and attending mass on a regular basis up until the age of 17 or so, I always felt the rituals were probably somewhat similar in all churches. I had never, with the exception of an occasional funeral or wedding attended a non-Catholic service.
We sit not only in the last pew of the church, but the last pew on the balcony of this small older Catholic Church just west of St. Louis. I don't think we could have been further from the action, but we were nearly alone in the balcony, which made both of us a little more comfortable. As we took our seats, she whispered a question to me about the ushers...
"Who were the men at the door?"
Which men? You mean the ushers?
"I guess, the ones who told us to sit up front..." Abby replied.
They're ushers, they help you find a seat.
"I know what an usher does, I just don't know why they stand at the door and tell you where you have to sit." she said.
They aren't telling you, they are just helping, to keep the crowd moving.
As the Mass starts, she is looking curiously around the church, admiring the sheer beauty and age of the physical building, along with curious gaze at the Stations of the Cross, and finally notices the kneelers.
"What are those for?"
To kneel on...
"Kneel??"
Yes, at certain parts of the mass you kneel...
"Why? I don't know if I can kneel in front of anyone, it seems humiliating, I'm not kneeling in front of a Priest"
You're not kneeling in front of the Priest, you're kneeling in front of God.
"I don't like this and I don't want to be forced to kneel"
I said, "then don't, you're not Catholic, you don't have to, it's a sign of respect and praise before God, that's all. There's no one around, and no reason to feel out of place, don't kneel"
Join us next Sunday for "The Usher Appears with the Collection Basket", and please subscribe to our posts via email, it's free...
