OLPS Catholics in Recovery

05/25/2025

FROM TODAY'S CIR REFLECTION: We have been crafted in the image and likeness of God. Our identity lies in the unmerited grace that we are His beloved sons and daughters, regardless of our attempts to cut ourselves off from the Lord. It is possible that our efforts to find comfort are rooted in a desire that only God can fill. As we recognize the limitations and consequences of directing life according to our own will, we trust that our Lord will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Reflection Questions

• Looking back on where you were before you found recovery, what changes are most notable in your attitude, behavior, and spiritual life?

• Describe your core beliefs—what they used to be, what happened, and what they are now.

• How have you experienced peace and serenity throughout your recovery journey?

To read and meditate on today’s full reflection and have daily reflections sent to your inbox each morning, enroll in CIR+ by clicking ‘CIR Daily Reflections’ link in bio.

01/31/2025

Read Part 1 of this series on addiction and Saint Benedict’s Twelve Steps of Humility. We turn to what I believe to be the most important and common denominator present at the origin, escalation, and outright enslavement of any addiction, and that which certainly serves as the fundamental barrier ...

01/31/2025

In my previous article, I discussed how Dante made his descent into the depths of Hell to not only witness the torments of unrepentant sinners but also face down his own sin and personal hell. At the end of Dante’s Inferno, at the very bottom of the ninth circle, Dante beholds Satan in all his [.....

12/23/2024

When I do an Examination of Conscience, or my Daily Examen, I’m often confronted with how sinful I am. A Daily Examen is the practice of recounting our shortcomings and sins prayerfully in the presence of the Lord, asking for His forgiveness and the strength to do better. But contrary to popular u...

11/07/2024

FROM TODAY'S CIR REFLECTION:

As people on the road to recovery, we can find great hope in today’s Gospel and the Lord’s unwillingness to give up on us. The stories of the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine sheep to go after the lost one and the woman who cleans and inspects every crevice of her home looking for the lost coin remind us that God will never forsake us. Even if we stray from Him by seeking contentment in the things of the world, He continues to go to great lengths to draw us closer to Himself, the true and lasting source of contentment. And when He finds us, all of heaven’s angels rejoice! How comforting it is to be assured that God is continually wooing us and calling us to union with Him, no matter how unworthy we feel we may be!

• Why does Saint Paul seem to lessen the value of bodily expressions of piety? What forms of piety do you think are important to the Lord?

• Recall an occasion when you have followed an influencer or trend. Did you find satisfaction and joy from the experience? How does it compare to keeping your gaze “fixed” on Jesus?

To read and meditate on today’s full reflection and have daily reflections sent to your inbox each morning, enroll in CIR+ by clicking here: catholicinrecovery.com/cir-daily-reflections

12/13/2022

Tuesday TRUTHS

It is good for us to remember how imperative honesty, openness and willingness are to recovery. 🙏

10/21/2022

“Lord, please don’t let me lose my love for my husband,” I would pray. After years of living with a man with active alcoholism, I felt anything but loving. In fact, I was often in despair, full of fear, grief, and resentment, and on my knees with this prayer on my lips. I was trying […]

08/28/2022

To ask for forgiveness is one of the greatest challenges we face. It demands peace in our hearts. It invites us to confront and overcome our emotions of anger and hurt to practice virtue and mercy. It is a risk. It is a risk for anyone—especially for those of us in recovery—since failing to forg...

07/25/2022

07/25/2022

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie
July 25

Keep at It
Keep practicing your recovery behaviors, even when they feel awkward, even when they haven't quite taken yet, even if you don't get it yet.
Sometimes it takes years for a recovery concept to move from our mind into our heart and soul. We need to work at recovery behaviors with the diligence, effort, and repeated practice we applied to codependent behaviors. We need to force ourselves to do things even when they don't feel natural. We need to tell ourselves we care about ourselves and can take care of ourselves even when we don't believe what we're saying.
We need to do it, and do it, and do it - day after day, year after year.
It is unreasonable to expect this new way of life to sink in overnight. We may have to "act as if" for months, years, before recovery behaviors become ingrained and natural.
Even after years, we may find ourselves, in times of stress or duress, reverting to old ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
We may have layers of feelings we aren't ready to acknowledge until years into our recovery. That's okay! When it's time, we will.

Do not give up! It takes time to get self-love into the core of us. It takes repeated practice. Time and experience. Lessons, lessons, and more lessons.

Then, just when we think we've arrived, we find we have more to learn.

That's the joy of recovery. We get to keep learning and growing all of our life!

Keep on taking care of yourself, no matter what. Keep on plugging away at recovery behaviors, one day at a time. Keep on loving yourself, even when it doesn't feel natural. Act as if for as long as necessary, even if that time period feels longer than necessary.

One day, it will happen. You will wake up, and find that what you've been struggling with and working so hard at and forcing yourself to do, finally feels comfortable. It has hit our soul.

Then, you go on to learn something new and better.

Today, I will plug away at my recovery behaviors, even if they don't feel natural. I will force myself to go through the motions even if that feels awkward. I will work at loving myself until I really do.

07/25/2022

From Twenty-Four Hours a Day
July 25

Meditation for the Day

You should hold your life in trust for God. Think deeply on what that means. Is anything too much to expect from such a life? Do you begin to see how dedicated a life in trust for God can be? In such a life miracles can happen. If you are faithful, you can believe that God has many good things in store for you. God can be Lord of your life, controller of your days, of your present and your future. Try to act as God guides and leave all results to Him. Do not hold back, but go all out for God and the better life. Make good your trust.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may hold my life in trust for God. I pray that I may no longer consider my life as all my own.

07/23/2022

Part Five

Attachment, as we have seen in previous articles (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four), is central to addiction, recovery, and spiritual growth. St. Ignatius of Loyola describes his Spiritual Exercises as “every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all inordinate atta...