Guardian Angels: A Special One

From the book, Tales from the Emerald Isle, by Henry Austin

When I was a young boy of five years of age, my mother took me by the hand for my first day at school. When we arrived at the school gates she kissed me, and told me that I had a guardian angel on one side of me, who would protect me from all harm. My innocent response was to ask her what was on the other side. “That’s the bad angel”,she replied. With my curiosity growing by the second, I then asked.“If one is bad ma, and the other is good, what are they doing going around with each other?”

“One is there to get you into trouble, and the other is there to get you out of it.” With these words indelibly printed in my mind I began my school years. But it would be many more years before I would appreciate the wisdom of her words.

At twelve years of age, and with the minimum amount of education, I finished school, and began life’s journey in earnest. At fourteen years of age I became a victim of larceny, when I had my youth stolen from me by Mr Booze. In the years that I spent incarcerated in alcohol’s unique penitentiary I often thought of my mother’s words, and longed for evidence of them, but none was forthcoming.

For some people Guardian Angels are a figment of the imagination. For others, it’s their inner voice, or that part of the mind that always knows the right thing to do, but doesn’t’ always do it. But I never had any doubt, although I did not have any proof. That would come later. But as I made my way through the quagmire of life I was conscious that someone was watching over me. Not alone that, but I felt it was someone very special. Over the years I had noticed that whatever trouble I found myself in was always resolved in my favour, and often against all the odds.

A theory has been put forward that Guardian Angels are in fact the souls of people of good character who have passed on, and have then been assigned by the creator to look after the most vulnerable of society. But it was quite obvious that they would need strong stomachs too. Because their commitment was such that they went everywhere with their charge.

I know that I brought mine into some very nasty situations and places. It was during one of these situations that I finally realised that I had an angel with golden wings looking after me. Many years ago, on one of my sea voyages, and while still in the custody of Mr Booze, I became a guest of the Venezuelan Government, and as a consequence, so did my Guardian Angel.

But instead of a hotel we were put up in the local prison. This was as a consequence of a street brawl in the oil boom town of Matansas. My shipmate Murphy and I drank enough of the local beer to float a ship. Then Murphy, an ex-boxer, decided to take on the local police force single handledly. The result was a foregone conclusion, and we were incarcerated in the local jail. But money can make life, even in the most difficult
circumstances, more tolerable.

With the money Murphy and I had in our possession we were able to bribe the guards, which enabled us to buy our own food. This was much more preferable than the regular prison diet. Which, because of the heat, was infiltrated by cock roaches. In fact if a cock roach did not walk off your plate during your meal, you could complain that you were not being treated equally with the other prisoners. But after the captain of our ship paid the fines we were set free.

But something very strange occurred during our short stay, the significance of which I only realised many years later. Several years after the incident in the prison, I found myself trodding the road of sobriety. And with each step I took, it became clear to me that the bad angel my mother had spoken about, was in fact none other than Mr Booze. But who was the good angel?

But I did not care, because whoever it was, had delivered me from a life of turmoil. Life was sweet once again. But the happiness I was now enjoying was to come to an abrupt end. One night, just over two years ago, I experienced the most excruciating stomach pain I had ever encountered. I went to bed in the hope that it might be gone come the morning. But this was not to be.

I was taken to the hospital for emergency surgery. My bowel had burst into my stomach. After three hours of surgery a cancerous growth was removed. But during my recovery in the intensive care unit I had another experience, similar to the one in the prison in Venezuela. From the beginning of what I refer to as my sober years, I had gradually embraced Christianity. But after my latest experience, I held it in a vice like grip.

As I lay in my hospital bed I felt so grateful to be still in the land of the living. Many thoughts flashed through my mind. Visions of my lost youth, as I became more and more submerged in a sea of alcohol. I thought of the many strange and unexplained happenings that had occurred in my life, and my mother’s words now had a sense of realism attached to them.

I became curious about the phenomenon of Guardian Angels, and deep inside I longed to know who mine was. When my surgical wounds had healed sufficiently, and to expedite my recovery, I began walking the mountain roads and woodlands of County Wicklow. I had always believed that nature was the work of the creator, and the exquisite beauty of County Wicklow re-enforced this view.

I also believed that for a brief moment each day heaven and earth became so close, that the feeling is almost palpable. With all of these thoughts pervading my mind I set about proving my theory. If I was correct, I might even find out who had been watching over me for all those years. One day in late Autumn I made my way to the picturesque village of Eniskerry. After I had re-enforced myself with a mug of coffee, I began my walk toward Djous woods.

I timed it so that I would arrive in the woods at around dusk. As I walked I allowed my mind to wander back to the golden days of my boyhood years, before I was captured by Mr Booze. This always had the effect of removing the physicality from my journey. As I walked I noticed the breeze was beginning to freshen. After walking for about forty minutes, and with darkness descending, I was in touching distance of my destination.

I noticed a man walking a couple of hundred yards ahead of me. How I did not see him earlier, I don’t know. When he got to the entrance to the woods he turned around and looked at me. But in the semi darkness I could not clearly see his facial features. Unusually though, he seemed to be dressed in a style from a bygone age. By the time I arrived at the entrance he was at the far end of the car park, at the entrance to the woods.

He once again turned and faced me, only this time he raised his hand and waved at me. Suddenly the breath of heaven parted the top branches of the trees, and allowed the early moon to light up his face. I was seriously taken aback. I hurriedly ran towards him, but by the time I got to where he had been standing, he had disappeared into the eerie darkness of the woods. Shocked, I sat down on a bench to collect my thoughts. But I had no doubt whatsoever about what I had just seen.

It was the face of the man I had seen in the prison many years earlier, and who had shown me kindness. It was also the face of the individual who stood in the corner of the intensive care unit after my surgery, and who had kept his eyes fixed on me during the worst moments of my recovery. But even more importantly, it was the face on the cover of an old mass card that I had recently discovered in my departed father’s possessions. That man’s name was Matt Talbot.

Copyright 2009 Henry Austin



Source: http://talesfromtheemeraldisle.mobycool.com/guardangel.html

"The Church is a 'School for Sinner'"

On the YAHOO! ANSWERS website, the question was asked, "St. Augustine said that the Church is a 'school for sinners.' What did he mean by that? Give examples please."

Below is an answerer's response, including references to St. Francis and Matt Talbot.

"This quote of St. Augustine's is intended to show that the Church is a place where people can go to change their life from sin and toward holiness. The Church has the power and authority to guide and help a person become holier. A common misconception of Catholic and other Christian churches is that the people in them should be perfect. This is not the case. St. Augustine recognized that when Jesus said he came to help the sinner and sick, not the righteous or healthy, this meant that the Christian way of life helps people become holier, but that this process can take a lifetime.

In this way, the Church is like a school, where God provides life lessons that enable a person to make choices to do God's will and to learn from their mistakes. As a sinner, say a person has the habit of stealing. Through prayer and the sacraments, like Reconciliation, the person can draw on grace and change their habits. The vice can be changed, through God's grace acting in the person, to virtue. Merely by accepting Jesus as Lord does not mean their bad habits go away. Rather, continued participation in the Church gives people the chance to open themselves to God's grace, which will then show in their changed lives and attitudes. The Church helps us "put on the new man" which is Christ (as St. Paul notes).

God provided the Church as a way to carry on His work in His name, and with His authority. The sinner participates in the Church, which has the power and tools, such as the sacraments, which bestow God's grace on the sinner. In the Church, the sinner has assurance that he or she is receiving grace to help them grow and mature in holiness. Outside the church, a person "may" receive grace, but there is not an assurance. Only through the Church does God assure that there is guidance without error.

The lives of the saints are excellent examples of this schooling process. For each saint, like us, there were crosses (weaknesses) to bear. Some were physical and some were spiritual. By turning to God in his Church, each saint confronted himself/herself and overcame their vices, sins, and weaknesses. God's grace did the work in the person, and the Church provided the opportunities to administer the grace and provide the knowledge a person needs to know God and open his or her life to Him.

Saint Francis for example, was young and sometimes vain man. His conversion transformed him over time to become humble and to serve the poor and needy.

Other people, like Matt Talbot of Ireland, changed from vices like alcoholism to become en example of holiness. Matt Talbot is not a saint yet, but is up for canonization.

As St. Augustine noted, The Church acts as a school for sinners, giving them assured channels of grace, the knowledge of God and themselves, to become holy and better people."

SOURCE: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090109061628AAmDi67

Matt Talbot as a Spiritual Companion

Author of 18 books, Bert Ghezzi has just published Voices of the Saints: A 365-Day Journey with our Spiritual Companions, which includes Matt Talbot.

If you are an Amazon customer, go to

http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Saints-365-Day-Spiritual-Companions/dp/0829428062/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254088886&sr=1-2, then "Click to Look Inside" and type in "Matt Talbot" to read his entry, pp 704-705. A listing of saints included in this book can be found in the "Index" link.

Catholic Asceticism and the Twelve Steps

Although Matt Talbot is not mentioned in this article, the word "ascetic" is frequently used in describing Matt, and he may have been exposed to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius since his spiritual advisor was a Jesuit. And as noted by Fr. Morgan Costello, former Vice-Postulator of the Cause of Matt Talbot and author of Matt Talbot: Hope for Addicts (2001), Matt's conversion and recovery from alcoholism incorporated the twelve steps half a century before the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The non-alcoholic author of the following article was a close friend and spiritual advisor to Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. (JB)

Catholic Asceticism and the Twelve Steps
N.C.C.A. "BLUE BOOK" AN ANTHOLOGY

Reverend Edward Dowling, S.J.
The Queen's Work, St. Louis, Missouri
Brooklyn, 1953

I think that if our positions were reversed, you would feel as I do -- grateful to be the focus of good will. I think that is true of anybody who speaks at an A.A. gathering, or about A.A.

I am sensible, as you are, of God's closeness to human humility. I am sensible, also, of how close human humility can come to humiliation, and I know how close that can come to an alcoholic. I think that in addition to my confidence in the closeness of God to one suffering from alcoholism, I would like to invoke our Lord's promise that where two or three gather together in His Name, there He will be in their midst.

First of all, asceticism comes from the Greek word meaning the same as exercise, or better, to practice gymnastics. The concept of exercise is to loosen up the muscles to prepare them for vigorous activity. Applied to spiritual matters, it means to loosen up the faculties of the mind or soul, to prepare them for better activity. Physical exercise is gymnastics, setting-up exercises, preparing me to take steps. In the same way, asceticism is preliminary, a preparation for me to use the powers of my soul.

Christian asceticism is contained, of course, in the Gospel. All the teachings of Our Lord boil down to the cardinal ideas; one negative, the denial of self; the other positive, the imitation of and union with Christ.

One of the many different systematized forms of Christian exercises is the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. There are many others, and all are efforts to apply to one's life those two principal ideas of denial of self and an affirmation of Christ. "Spiritual Exercises" indicate, of course, that the thing to be exercised is the spirit. The word "exercise" indicates a releasing of the faculties or powers of the soul.

St. Ignatius starts with a presumption that our power of faculties are bound by sinful tendencies and addictions to the wrong things. The Spiritual Exercises, therefore, work on the soul in both a negative and positive way. The first section, the consideration of my sins and of their effects in hell, is the negative part. It aims by self-denial to release our wills from our binding addictions, to enable the will to desire and to choose rationally.

The second part of the Spiritual Exercises, start in with a consideration of the Incarnation and going through the Passion and Resurrection, is an effort to see how Christ would handle various situations.

A priest alcoholic, who has written with discernment on the Spiritual Exercises, first pointed out to me the similarity between them and the twelve steps of A.A. Bill, the founder of A.A. recognized that those twelve steps are pretty much the releasing of myself from the things that prevent my will's choosing God as I understand Him.

Twelve Steps and the Spiritual Exercises

The first seven or eight steps of A.A. are quite specific as to what should be done in order to release the will from addiction to evil. On the positive side, the twelve steps are very general. Bill once stated: "It is a firm principal with us that, so far as A.A. goes, each member has the absolute right to seek God as he will." On another occasion he declared that A.A. was not concerned about the particular way a man works out his dependence on God. That depends on him and on God, mostly on God. The alcoholic's business, as expressed in the eleventh step, is to find out what God wants and to ask for strength to carry that out.

Like the Spiritual Exercises, like Christian asceticism in general, the twelve steps are not speculative ideas. They are practical steps. May I suggest some of the parallels between the Spiritual Exercises and the twelve steps.

The Foundation

The first three of the twelve steps correspond roughly with the foundation of the Spiritual Exercises. In the foundation we see man as creature. It recognizes the dependence of man on God because of the rather abstract, relatively unknown fact, creation. A.A. bases dependence on a rather concrete specific type of experience, drunkenness. The Ignatian foundation indicates that everything else shall be chosen or rejected in the light of the purpose that grows out of this dependence, i.e., sharing Him for all eternity by doing His will on earth.

The A.A. third step directs that one's life and one's will be directed by the influence of God. In it the alcoholic determines to turn his life and his will over to the care of God as he understands Him. This emphasis on the will indicates that the alcoholic should direct himself by his will rather than by the feelings that have enmeshed him. The focal importance of the will is a characteristic of the Spiritual Exercises.

Moral Inventory - Confession

In the Spiritual Exercises, the next thing is the contemplation of sin; sin in the angels, in our first parents, in others, in myself, and sin in its effects. And of course, right along the line there you have the fourth step of A.A., a fearless, thorough moral inventory of one's sins. The parallelism is rather striking.

To a priest who asked Bill how long it took him to write those twelve steps he said that it took twenty minutes. If it were twenty weeks, you could suspect improvisation. Twenty minutes sounds reasonable under the theory of divine help.

After a moral inventory of one's life, all spiritual exercises, Catholic anyway, demand the confession of sins. It is specifically required in the Spiritual Exercises. In the A.A. fifth step, you have that general confession admitting my sins to myself, to God, and to another human being.

Reatus Culpae and Reatus Poenae

There are two liabilities when we commit a sin: one, reatus culpae, the guilt of the sin; the other reatus poenae, the obligation of restitution. The A.A. sixth and seventh steps cover the guilt of the sin, and the eighth and ninth steps the obligation of restitution.

I think the sixth step is the one which divides the men from the boys in A.A. It is love of the cross. The sixth step says that one is not almost, but entirely ready, not merely willing, but ready. The difference is between wanting and willing to have God remove all these defects of character. You have here, if you look into it, not the willingness of Simon Cyrene to suffer, but the great desire or love, similar to what Chesterton calls "Christ's love affair with the cross."

The seventh step implements that desire by humbly asking God to remove these defects. The alcoholic sees one defect go as a bottle of beer is taken away. And so, that continuing detachment which goes along in any ascetical life holds true in A.A. As one grows in A.A., the problems seem to get bigger, the strength bigger, and the dividends greater.

Then comes the reatus poenae, the obligation of restitution or penance. God's forgiveness is sought in the sixth and seventh steps. In the eight and ninth steps one makes restitution. In the eighth step the alcoholic makes a list of those people he has offended and whose bills he hasn't paid. In the ninth step he pays off these obligations, if he can do so without hurting people more.

The Positive Side

The eleventh and twelfth steps give a rather limited parallel to the positive asceticism of Christianity. The eleventh step bids one by prayer and meditation to study to improve his conscious grasp of God, asking Him only for two things, knowledge of His will and the power to carry it out. Now, that is a true and accurate description of the positive aspects of Christian asceticism as well as of the second, third, and forth weeks of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

Then, the twelfth step. Having had a spiritual exercise or awakening as a result of these steps, we carry this message to other alcoholics and practice these principles in all our other affairs. In our apostolic work we should be an instrument in God's hands. The A.A. steps before this twelfth step are to improve by instrumental contact with God this dependence of work for others on my growth toward Christ-like sanity and sanctity has significance to an alcoholic priest. Often such a one will say, "If I could only get a little work, I feel that I could stay sober." Gradually he finds out that if he approaches sobriety through work, the work isn't going to come and the sobriety may not come either. But, as soon as he says, "Once I become sober, work will come," the hope of success is much greater.

No Humility Without Humiliation

A.A. has helped me as a person and as a priest. A.A. has made my optimism greater. My hopelessness starts much later. Like anyone who has watched A.A. achieve its goals, I have seen dreams walk. You and I know that in the depths of humiliation we are in a natural area, and, rightly handled, especially is the inner spirit of that sixth step, I think we can almost expect the automatic fulfillment of God's promise to assist the humble. Where there is good will, there is almost an iron connection between humiliation and humility and God's help.

A.A. helps the priest in other matters than alcoholism, as the twelfth step indicates. I had a little exercise which will illustrate this point. It is a very small thing in itself, but I feel that it is a clear example of how A.A. work can help personally even a non-alcoholic priest.

Learning Not To Think About It

To obtain a greatly needed help which prayer alone didn't seem to bring, I thought of giving up smoking. I had failed to give it up, even though in retreat after retreat I had tried various plans to break off the habit. None of them seemed to work for long.

Then, thinking of A.A., I realized that I had seen men in that same boat who couldn't give up drinking. I realized that A.A. does not directly cause a man to quit drinking, but rather it causes him to quit thinking about drinking. Well, it seemed easier to give up thinking about smoking; but I didn't think I could do even that. I thought of A.A. novices saying, "I can't do it all my life. I can't do it all day. I can do it for maybe ten minutes." Inspired by the humble example of A.A. men, I said at that point to myself, "I won't try to quit smoking but I will, with God's help, postpone the thought of smoking for three minutes." That is a humiliating admission for a priest who tells others to give up much harder things.

From A.A. I learned to respect the little suffering of denying self the thought of a smoke and to pool that suffering with the sufferings of Christ, in the spirit of the sixth step. At that moment, like a breath of fresh air, came the thought of the widow and her mite and the importance which love can give to unimportant things. With humiliation came humility, and with humility came God's promised help. It is three or four years since I thought of myself smoking, and I have learned that you can't smoke if you don't think about smoking.

That is a little instance from among hundreds of the applications of A.A. principles. I have watched the most difficult personal situations which a priest faces yield to the A.A. twelve steps approach, even though no alcoholism was involved. Of course, Christ and His Passion came in encouragingly through the third and eleventh steps.

The remainder of this article (that addresses "Priest Membership in AA") can be found at http://silkworth.net/religion_clergy/01038.html

Matt Talbot: A Hero of Faith

During the academic year, the Catholic Community at Connecticut College (USA) reflect on

"Living Faith: Mind, Body & Soul--Heroes of Faith." Fr. Larry LaPointe, Catholic Chaplain, incorporates this theme into his homilies and distributes a brief biography on a saint, martyr, or hero after the celebration of the liturgy each Saturday.

The "hero of faith" for November 15, 2009 was Matt Talbot. A list of other heroes can be found at http://www.conncatholics.com/heroes, including Colman & the early Celtic Christians

A Prayer for Temperance

Jesus, You practiced temperance; You were the Model of self-restraint, Never over-indulging in the temporal. My body being the Temple of the Lord, I must treat it with ongoing respect. Self-abuse destroys the body; Be it alcohol, drugs, or excess food. Lord Jesus, bestow fortitude upon me For my soul to control my body, To practice the virtue of temperance. Jesus, You are the source of my vigour. Through You, all is possible!


Source: http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=1621

"Prayers for Addicted Persons and Their Loved Ones" Booklet

To request a free copy of the 2009 revised edition 29 page booklet published by The National Catholic Council on Alcoholism and Related Drug Problems, Inc.( http://www.nccatoday.org/) and Guest House, send an email to NCCA@guesthouse.org.

The Power of God and Recovery

10th Week Friday …The Surpassing Power of God


Thoughts and Homilies for the Day
Mount St. Alphonsus Redemptorist Pastoral Center

Esopus, New York
http://www.mountsaintalphonsus.org

The first reading from St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians begins with these words: we hold this treasure (the glory of God) in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. (1Cor 4, 7)

Do you remember where you heard something similar before?
Right, in the first steps of the 12 Step program…

1. The first step is to admit that our lives are unmanageable… that we can do nothing by ourselves… that the power to change does not come from us.

2. The second step is to believe that only a greater power than ourselves can restore us.

3. And the third step is to turn our lives over to God as we understand Him

Why? Because as St Paul says: HE HAS THE SURPASSING POWER. He is the only one that can free us from our addictions and make us whole.

I think I told you before that the people in Matt Talbot who come here for their retreat always pray for the canonization of Matt Talbot, the Dublin alcoholic, who conquered his addiction and went on to become a real saint. But people in Matt Talbot can never make any headway with his cause because they say that Congregation of Saints in Rome seems to only accept physical miracles… and all they have to offer as miracles is their own sobriety.

And I really think that their sobriety is not so much a proof that Matt Talbot is a saint, and I believe he is, but it is a proof that God exists and that he is alive and well and (not taking nourishment) but rather giving nourishment. God’s power is working miracles all around us and these walking miracles are enough proof for me that He who made the universe is slowly but surely bringing it to fulfillment.

I would like to paraphrase the next few verses of the first reading where Paul emphasizes what he is talking about.

“We are afflicted in every way, but by the power of God, we are not held back.
We are perplexed, but by God’s power, we are not driven to despair.
We are persecuted, but by the power of God, we are not abandoned.
We are struck down, but by God’s power, we are not destroyed.
We always carry about in our body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus (the power of God) may be manifested in us.
We sacrifice ourselves for Jesus so as to give testimony of his life in us.

Paul begins today’s reading by talking about the “power of God” and after a few sentences, he is changes and is now talking about the “life of Jesus”. For Paul they are like two sides of the same coin. And so we pray: MAY THE POWER OF GOD AND THE LIFE OF JESUS LIVE IN US ALWAYS AND GIVE US THE COURAGE TO OVERCOME ALL OUR WEAKNESSES AND SINS. AMEN!

“We hold this treasure (the glory of God) in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.” (1Cor 4, 7)

Note: Perhaps due to a typo, actual posting date, or our error, the apparent correct biblical reference is 2 Corinthians 4:7 for June 12, 2009 rather than June 19, 2009 if the original title link is clicked.

"A Pint of Plain" and Matt Talbot

Bill Barich recently published his book, A PINT OF PLAIN: Tradition, Change, and the Fate of the Irish Pub (2009, Walker & Company, 242 pp).

The New York Times Sunday Book Review published an excerpt of this book on March 10, 2009 which mentions Matt Talbot and the temperance movement during "Ireland's woeful battle with alcohol that worsened during the nineteenth century."

To read this excerpt, click http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/books/chapters/chapter-pint.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all or Excerpt: ‘A Pint of Plain, page 8 of 9 or page 56 in the book.

As to the book's title, the refrain of the following poem, "A pint of plain is your only man," has become a famous quotation, meaning a pint of stout will solve all your problems.



"The Workman's Friend"
by Flann O'Brien (1911-1966)


When things go wrong and will not come right,


Though you do the best you can,


When life looks black as the hour of night -


A pint of plain is your only man.


When money's tight and hard to get


And your horse has also ran,


When all you have is a heap of debt -


A pint of plain is your only man.


When health is bad and your heart feels strange,


And your face is pale and wan,


When doctors say you need a change,


A pint of plain is your only man.


When food is scarce and your larder bare


And no rashers grease your pan,


When hunger grows as your meals are rare -


A pint of plain is your only man.


In time of trouble and lousey strife,


You have still got a darlint plan


You still can turn to a brighter life -


A pint of plain is your only man.



Source: http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/Poetry/FlannOBrien.html

A Guide to Daily Prayer

By Friar Rex, Hermit

March 14, 2009

Source: http://littleportionhermitage.blogspot.com/2009/03/guide-to-daily-prayer.html

"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out." (Step 11 of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous)

Not a few people have come to me over the years asking me about "prayer and meditation." Though I am and always will be only a beginner in the school of prayer, I share my experience, strength and hope in the power of prayer and meditation--both of which I consider a form of "Divine Therapy", to coin a phrase used by Fr. Thomas Keating--in hopes that my fellow pilgrims can indeed improve their conscious contact with God and come to know Christ Who presides over us all.

Below you will find a copy of the hand-out I give folks when they come to see me. Nothing you will read is original with me. Indeed, "there is nothing new under the sun." What I share I learned from others. If what you read proves helpful to you on your journey, take it with you and to God be all the glory. If you find some or all of it less than helpful, leave it.

Pax et Bonum,
~ Friar Rex


++++

A Guide to Daily Prayer

Preparation for Prayer

The purpose of prayer is:

1. To improve my conscious contact with God.

2. To enhance my usefulness to others.

3. To develop humility, making it possible for me to receive God's grace and guidance.

As I understand God, God is..... (Take a few moments to contemplate your developing understanding of God as you remain clean & sober one day at a time.)

++++++++++++++++++++

Prayer In The Morning

1. Today I ask God to . . .

a.) . . . direct my thinking and actions, to especially divorce my thoughts and actions from motives of:

- Selfishness

- Self-seeking

- Self-pity

- Resentment

- Fear

- Dishonesty

b.) . . . clear my thinking of wrong motives that I may better know and do God’s will.

2. I Think about the 24 hours ahead:

a.) What will I DO?

b.) Who will I BE?

3. I Ask God to clarify my vision of God’s will for me today. How can I best serve God and my fellows?

4. When I feel indecisive: I ask God to give me an inspiration, an intuitive thought, or some other way of making God’s will clear to me. I ask God to help me relax and take it easy, to trust, to stop struggling, to "let go and let God."

5. I ask God for:

a.) (Knowledge) Show me all throughout the day the next right thing to do.

b.) (Power) Give me whatever I need to take care of tasks and problems.

c.) (Freedom) Free me from self-will.

d.) (Love) Show me the way of patience, tolerance, kindness, and compassion.

e.) (Service) Allow me an opportunity to be useful and helpful to at least one other person.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Prayer Throughout The Day

I pray for knowledge of God's will and the power to carry it out.

1. I pause when agitated or doubtful and ask for the correct thought or action.

2. Many times during the day I humbly pray, "Thy will, not mine, be done."

3. I ask God what I can do for others, especially the person who still suffers from active addiction.

++++++++++++++++++++

Prayer In The Evening

I identify and pray for the removal of character defects, internal obstacles which block God from acting in or through me.

1. I constructively review my day (without fear or favor).

a.) Was I:

- Resentful?

- Selfish?

- Dishonest?

- Afraid?

- _______?

- _______?

- _______?

b.) What motives were underneath my:

- Intentions?

- Thoughts?

- Acts?

- Efforts?

c.) Do I owe an apology?

d.) Have I kept something to myself that should be discussed with my sponsor or a trusted friend at once?

e.) Was I patient, tolerant, loving, kind, caring and compassionate toward all?

f.) What could I have done better?

g.) Was I thinking of myself most of the time?

h.) Or was I thinking of what I could do for others?

2. I ask God's forgiveness for those times when I failed to live according to God’s will.

3. I ask what corrective measures should be taken.

4. I thank God for blessings received.

5. I pray for the willingness to try again tomorrow!



Note: Matt Talbot practiced Step 11 decades before the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. (JB)

Pioneer and Matt Talbot Group Annual Pilgrimage to Knock

July 19th 2009

Homily by Bishop Eamonn Walsh

No one could accuse Our Lady of being anti-alcohol. She launched Jesus’ Public life at the marriage feast of Cana. The deeper message of that gospel lies in the truth; every person or thing Jesus touches he changes for the better.

Fr. James Cullen S.J., founder of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association in 1898, had that realisation of getting God to touch the hearts of people and change the way people address alcohol and the way they see those who damage themselves and others through it.

He was a creative thinker. He started by targeting those who were not struggling with alcohol rather than those in its grip. He tapped into the tried and tested spirituality of prayer, fasting and almsgiving; he realised that the heart opens through self-giving; it opens in a new and wider way when the self-giving is rooted and modelled on the total and loving self-giving as symbolised in the heart of Jesus.

The Sacred Heart represents the unconditional love of God for each and everyone. This is at the centre of the pioneer spirituality. It enables us to first of all see ourselves as loved by God and then see each other as sisters and brothers loved by God. It also enables us to see the man or woman knocked down by alcohol or strung out on drugs as our sister and brother. We can’t turn our backs or look away; we are prompted to reach out. The reaching out with our time, prayers and love is the almsgiving.

At the root of every exploitation, fraud, scandal, is the attitude of selfishness; everyone for themselves; failure to treat people as sisters and brothers equally loved by God. The core spirituality of the Pioneer Movement could serve as a value foundation stone for today’s challenges.

Reparation is a central part of the Pioneer prayer and fasting/self-sacrifice/abstinence. We know that the power to heal comes from God’s touch. Whatever he touches he enriches. The pioneer participates and co-operates in God’s healing touch through their self-sacrifice and self-denial. We offer the spiritual richness of self-sacrifice to be used in God’s own mysterious way. We offer it for those struggling with addiction, their families and all those whose lives are adversely affected. We offer them for those on their treatment journey and those who are slipping and struggling.

In praying for sensible use of alcohol, making sacrifices for those being damaged by alcohol and other drugs can only make us more understanding and willing to help make a difference. When we meet them on the street our attitude is changed. A smile or a word can re-awaken in people their long lost self-worth and respect.

Our reparation, penance for our own or the wrong-doings of others is not an appeasement of God; no, it is God’s chosen way of releasing his gratuitous love. In spoken and unspoken ways, we petition that our sacrifices may be the instruments of guiding his healing touch of those most in need.

At a human level our prayer and abstinence changes our mindset and spirit for the better.

Matt Talbot is our inspiration that no one must ever be written off as a hopeless case. Humiliation may have brought him to his senses but his prayer and fasting gave him the self-belief that together with God’s help no hill was too high to climb.

I congratulate the Pioneer Movement on their initiative in recent times and particularly for Temperance Sunday this year of inviting people to participate in a short term pledge. It, I believe, enhances the movement and makes its spirituality available to many more people.

The Bishops’ Drugs and Alcohol Initiative continues to set up parish drug/alcohol awareness groups in the four provinces. I want to thank the various local pioneer groups who have worked alongside them. Together we can raise awareness and provide alternatives to the destructive use of drugs and alcohol.

We can campaign together, the stronger we are on the ground the greater part we can play in changing attitudes and promoting treatment and care for all affected directly and indirectly by misuse of drugs and alcohol.

You are 111 years on the go, we are only 11. But like a penny-farthing bicycle, you the big wheel, we the tiny one, we can journey and progress together as long as we are anchored in prayer and self-giving that reaches out to the most in need.

Alcohol has been a problem in post-Famine times, in Celtic Tiger times and post. It does not time out, it clings on like a barnacle.

In today’s Gospel when Jesus saw the crowd he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them at length. We live in a drink culture that needs leadership. That leadership from government is hampered by its heavy dependence on revenue from its tax and excise duty on alcohol. That leadership from the Drinks industry is hampered by its financial vested interests. That leadership from sporting organisations is hampered by dependence on sponsorship. That leadership from media is hampered by its dependence on advertising. Financial neutrals like us may be the ones to provide leadership in a drinks culture in need of a good shepherd. Together we can play our part.

Source: http://www.pioneerassociation.ie/media-centre/10-news/74-knock-homily

An interview about the P.T.A.A.

One of the organizations that Matt Talbot belonged to in recovery was the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart based in Ireland.

In this 57 minute audio program of EWTN Live recorded on 06/24/09, the host, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., interviews Fr. Bernard McGuckian, S.J., who is the Spiritual Director of the PTAA. At 17:10 minutes into the program about PTAA history and current activities, Fr. McGuckian specifically mentions Matt Talbot and later mentions Sister Ignatia, who worked closely with Dr. Bob, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and is called the "Angel of Alcoholics Anonymous" by her biographer, Mary Darrah.

The link to download this program is el_06242009.mp3 Then left click on the link.

There is a saint for every neurosis

10 Reasons Why Catholicism Is the Best Religion for the Mentally Ill

Therese J. Borchard

BEYOND BLUE

April 11, 2008

1. There is a saint for every neurosis.

You have a neurosis? We've got a saint! St. Joseph takes care of those prone to panic attacks while traveling. For twitching, Bartholomew the Apostle is your dude. Those roaming the house in their sleep can call on Dymphna. The Venerable Matt Talbot is "patron saint" to those struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction. And, of course, St. Jude covers the hopeless causes.

The additional nine reasons can be found at http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue/2008/04/10-reasons-why-catholicism-is.html Theresa's focus on the spiritual journey to mental health is one of the most read blogs at Beliefnet.

(For one of many sites that list patron saints for chronic and incurable illnesses, see http://www.2heartsnetwork.org/patronsfortheill.htm)

Canonization is not a simple process

BY ROY WENZL

The Wichita Eagle

July 7, 2009

If Emil Kapaun becomes a saint of the Catholic Church, his canonization will work out according to a complex process.

Two people familiar with the process are the Rev. John Hotze, the judicial vicar of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, and Thomas J. Craughwell, who has written several books about sainthood.

Hotze recently accompanied an investigator for the Vatican who checked out two possible miracles in the Wichita area, in which families prayed to Kapaun to intercede with God on behalf of their sick or injured children.

Hotze said the Vatican looks for four things in medical cases:

* A medical diagnosis, such as a critical head injury.

* A turning point. After prayers to the proposed saint, the patient is better.

* An immediate or speedy recovery, seemingly not possible considering the critical diagnosis.

* Whether there is a scientific explanation for the survival and fast recovery.

If there is not a scientific explanation, the investigation keeps going. Eventually, Craughwell said, the case is turned over to Vatican doctors and other investigators, including cardinals, and finally the pope.

The church does not want to get these cases wrong, Craughwell said. "There is no way to 'unsaint' someone."

Pope John Paul II canonized nearly 1,000 saints, far more than his predecessors. But proving sainthood is not easy, Craughwell said.

For example, he said, one person proposed for sainthood is Matt Talbot (1826-1925), an Irish drunkard who stole a fiddle from a poor musician. Talbot reformed, and spent the last decades of his life going to Mass every day and trying to find the musician to make restitution.

Many alcoholics and drug addicts have adopted Talbot as their patron.

Though he is hugely popular among AA members and Irish people, the church has so far refused to canonize Talbot because they don't consider his sainthood proven.

"The church really tries to get it right," Craughwell said.

SOURCE: http://www.kansas.com/local/story/882072.html

One Personal Reflection on the Venerable Matt Talbot

Venerable Matt Talbot

By Daisy Deadhead

June 18, 2009

Source: http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2009/06/venerable-matt-talbot.html

In the Catholic calendar, today is the Feast Day of Matt Talbot. He has not been fully canonized yet, but is currently in the first stage, which gives him the title of "Venerable"; he needs to progress through the second stage (and the title of "Blessed") before he is a saint.

My late, great Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, Kathy Anthony, supervised the detox unit at the old Talbot Hall in Columbus, Ohio, which is now part of the Ohio State University Medical Center, but was at that time part of the St Anthony Hospital complex on the east side. At Talbot Hall, she made me stand up at an actual podium and give my AA "testimony" to about 300 people. It was the first time I had ever done it, and I was scared shitless. I remember looking at the painting of Matt Talbot hanging in the entrance hall, and asking him for a boost. I can even recall reaching out and touching the picture, whispering, "If you're listening, how about an infusion of grace?"

He got me through it, and I owe him. In fact, after the first few sentences, I relaxed completely and it was not unlike a regular conversation... or like blogging.

After he is properly canonized, Matt Talbot will likely be designated patron saint of alcoholics.

Novena to Venerable Matt Talbot

By St. Marys on June 10, 2009

Here is one of the Church's holy men for us to emulate. Matt Talbot was a regular guy if ever there was one, a working class alcoholic who changed and sanctified his life with the help of God. He never gave up. He even died while walking to mass. Read about his life here and here and here. This website is also dedicated to him.

Interestingly, Matt had a keen sense of justice. "He refused to return to work after a strike in 1900 and sought another job." He believed strongly in the rights and dignity of the working man. He was a very hard worker. Along these lines, it is his perseverance that Matt Talbot is most known for. "It is consistancy that God seeks," he said.

He was a great adorer of Our Lord in the Eucharist. It is written:

Young Matt Talbot, known as the "saint in overalls," also knelt outside the doors of his church for hours every morning. Once inside, he would prostrate himself on the floor in the form of a cross before entering his pew. Every Sunday, he spent seven hours in Church without moving, "his arms crossed, his elbows not resting on anything, his body from the knees up as rigid and straight as the candles on the altar," Kaczmarek writes. He did this every Sunday for 40 years.

A tremendous son of Our Blessed Mother, in addition to praying the rosary and angelus, one of his favorite little prayers, which he sometimes kept written on his hand, was, "O Virgin I ask three things from you: the grace of God, the presence of God, the blessing of God" and "O blessed Mother, obtain for me from Jesus that I may participate in His folly." I love that one.

Most notably, of course, Matt Talbot is known for his total conversion of life away from alcohol addiction, something he described as like "escaping Hell." Almost a year ago, while visiting Australia, Pope Benedict XVI visited a rehabilitation community and made the following comments with regard to addictions and recovery, which are amazingly insightful (not surprising). Turning away from addiction and towards God is a choice for life. "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live: And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him." (Deuteronomy 30: 19-20) Here's what the pope said:

"They had to turn away from other gods and worship the true God," the pope said.

The false gods competing for people's allegiance today, he said, are associated with the worship of material things, possessive and manipulative forms of love and power.

"The cult of material possessions, the cult of possessive love and the cult of power often lead people to attempt to 'play God,' to try to seize total control with no regard for the wisdom of the commandments that God has made known to us," the pope said. "This is the path that leads toward death."

But, Pope Benedict said, worshipping the true God, recognizing him as the source of goodness, entrusting oneself to him, opening oneself to his healing power and obeying his commandments are the choices that lead to life.

Let's pray for the conviction and perseverance of Venerable Matt Talbot, may the Holy Ghost grant it! Here is a prayer that you may say for the canonization of the Irish holy man, Matt Talbot. You may also use it as a novena prayer. Begin today and say for 9 days. His feast is on June 19th!

Lord, in your servant, Matt Talbot you have given us a wonderful example of triumph over addiction, of devotion to duty, and of lifelong reverence of the Holy Sacrament. May his life of prayer and penance give us courage to take up our crosses and follow in the footsteps of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Father, if it be your will that your beloved servant should be glorified by your Church, make known by your heavenly favours the power he enjoys in your sight. We ask this through the same Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Source: http://www.savestmarys.net/2009/06/novena-to-ven-matt-talbot.html

Remembering Matt Talbot

For people who have an interest in recovery from alcoholism and the Venerable Matt Talbot, Matt is typically remembered in prayer daily.

There is, however, a yearly Remembrance Day for Matt, which is noted either today, June 18, or tomorrow, June 19, depending on the website.

For previous posts regarding this discrepancy of dates, see

http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search/label/Remembrance%20Day

Devotion to Our Lady

In his sobriety Matt Talbot developed a deep and abiding devotion to Mary and exemplifies the six norms Fr. Hardon articulates in this article. JB



Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ


Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is one of the cardinal features of not only professing to be, but of being a Catholic.

Over the years in speaking on the Blessed Virgin Mary, you naturally fall into certain categories and almost routine ways of speaking about Our Lady. Yet, as with anything we love, repetition is no hindrance to the increase of our affection.

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is one of the cardinal features of not only professing to be, but being a Catholic. You might say a Catholic is one who is devoted to Mary. What I will suggest for our reflections is that we look at and check our devotion to Mary on six norms. The one who is devoted to Mary thinks of her, reads about her, talks about her, speaks to her, invokes her and tries to imitate her.

First, if we are devoted to Our Lady we think of her. We instinctively think about and of the people that we admire, those we love. I'm not sure how we would define pleasant thoughts, but I hazard to guess that pleasant thoughts are about people we love. One reason, by the way, that some people are sad is because they may not be loving others the way they should and, as a consequence, deprive their minds of the most pleasant mental experience on earth. A fair index, therefore, of how much we admire or love a person is how much they are consciously on our minds.

In order to think of Mary, we need reminders of Mary in our lives. It may be a picture, an image, a symbol or a 3x5 card, bent in half, like the one on my desk next to the telephone with the inscription "Mary, teach me to know the Will of Jesus." We have to keep making the effort of remembrance until it becomes habitual. As we know, the formation of character is the result of consciously formed habits. Thus, the first recommendation is to cultivate by all the means at our disposal the habit of having Marian thoughts.

Secondly, a person who wishes to cultivate a strong devotion to Our Lady reads about her. There is a great deal of literature about the Blessed Virgin Mary. There are books and periodicals to such an extent that anyone who claims that they are devoted to Our Lady and never opens a book, or reads an article, or bothers to find out a little more about her can well be suspected as to the soundness and sincerity of their devotion. Read, then, about Mary in the Scriptures, in the lives of the saints, in the stream of literature about Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe, La Salette and Beaurang.

Third. One who is devoted to Mary talks about her. As you see, I feel perfectly safe in talking about her to you because I am confident you want to talk about her to others yourselves. What we think and read about should give us much to talk about. Or better, what is on the mind and in the heart will inevitably be on the lips. Our Lady wants to be talked about.

Fourth. One who is devoted to the Mother of God speaks to her. No speeches, just plain conversation. This is evidently very pleasing to her and honors her Son. Talking things over with her, I admit, can be easier for some than others, but this is the way great Catholics live, they talk to Our Lady. It makes sense. She is alive; she is the Mother of God and she is accessible. Speaking to God is, of course, the top priority in our prayer life. But we are human, we all know what it means to have a mother. I know that speaking to her just about anything and everything that is on our minds can take up those slack moments in our day. I hate to think of what is on the majority of people's minds most of the time. My calculated guess is that most people are talking to themselves even, as I have discovered, when they seem to be talking to you!

What does it mean to live a Marian life modeled on the simplicity of Our Lady? It means first of all no pretense.

Self-love properly controlled is the condition and norm, as God Himself tells us, for our loving others. But this self-love can become, as I am afraid it is for many people, an addiction. And one of the symptoms of this addictive self-love is an almost uninterrupted soliloquy. Talking to Mary will not only help break through the crust of the egoism to which we are all so pathetically prone. It will also keep us in contact with that person who, the infallible Church tells us, after God, is the most important mediatrix on the way to our salvation.

Fifth. The one who is devoted to Our Lady invokes her. You notice I distinguish between speaking to Mary and invoking Mary. When I speak to her, as I do in conversation with other people, I am sharing with her what is on my mind and in my heart; when I invoke, I ask. This I dare say is the most familiar and common form of Marian conversation and it is part of the daily life of every Catholic.

What bears emphasis, however, in this invoking of Mary, is that it should be done consciously. It is just plain spiritual common sense that when we begin prayer we should become consciously aware of who we are talking to and what we are saying. Every time we pray, however distractedly, we are adoring God and pleasing Him, but the more aware and conscious I am of what I am doing the better. There is all the difference in the world between two people in conversation when one is just talking, you might almost say "just to hear himself", and when one is speaking from the heart. Moreover, when we invoke Mary we should do so not only consciously and heartedly but also confidently. Mary listens to our requests, even the trifling ones, as Cana for all times symbolizes.

Finally, a person devoted to Mary strives to imitate her. This, I don't hesitate saying, is the acme of devotion to Mary; it is also the acid test of whether she means what she should in our lives.

Among the virtues that we should especially try to imitate in Our Lady, I would place her simplicity somewhere near the top. As I have mentioned more than once, the more you deal with souls, the more you learn of their struggles in life, the more evident it is that what we need in our spiritual life today is simplicity. This is partly brought on by the high complexity of modern civilization.

What does it mean to live a Marian life modeled on the simplicity of Our Lady? It means first of all no pretense.

True greatness does not have to parade itself. Pretense is pride; pretense is claiming to have or to know what I don't have or don't know in order to have people think better of me. Simplicity means I put on no airs; it is humility manifested. Just compare in your lives the difference in the way you deal with different people. How instinctively it seems, in a moment, in a split second, we can decide whether this person is my inferior or my superior. I cannot give you a more valuable formula for the practice of Christ-like charity than to say, treat everyone as your equal. God will bless you far beyond what you think. Or I would even go farther, and this is Ignatius speaking to his sons and I pass it on to you: treat others as your superiors.

The simplicity of Our Lady was that of humble service. The moment the angel informed her about Elizabeth's condition what did Mary do? She went immediately to take care of such household chores as Elizabeth needed help with. No airs. There should never be a menial task that we are unwilling to do. No vanity. No display. No artifice. Just childlike simplicity; but let it be as Mary's was -- simplicity of heart.

Saints tell us that no one devoted to Mary will be lost. This must be true. Devotion to Our Lady is a sign that we are pleasing to God, because God, you would expect, loves those who love His Mother. That is why He gave her, entrusted her, to us and we to her. So that by doing the Will of her Son we may thus enjoy His presence in her company not only on earth but in eternity. You see, heaven is possessing Jesus and Mary. Son and Mother cannot be separated; we cannot choose between them. We either love them both and are devoted to them both or we shall not possess either. But if we love them and serve them in this life we shall be with them forever in the company of all the saints who are there because they loved the Mother of God.

Source: www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0943.htm