Its getting ready to get ready time. Getting ready to welcome the baby Jesus.
Lets start out by saying that the Christmas Holyday (holiday) that we celebrate does not begin the day after Thanksgiving and end Christmas Eve. Rather our Holyday begins Christmas Eve and we celebrate until January 6, Little Christmas. The Seasons Greeting Holiday celebrates the ringing of cash registers and the singing of, after the first day of Christmas, as they count the money, "what a friend we have in Jesus"..... we don't believe in him but boy does he help us get richer.
So getting ready for his followers involves looking into our hearts, cleaning up up our acts and giving of ourselves to him on Christmas morning. This is the exchange of gifts that matters and carries no price tag.
Consider during the Christmas Holyday Season..December 25 to January 6, to go into your immediate neighborhood, find those who are needy and give them cash not material things, cash so that they can use it to help themselves. Many people are without work, losing their homes and there is a lot of stress in their lives. I know a lady whose business takes her in daily contact with a lot of homes in my neighborhood, she is aware of the tough times people go through. Out of her own pocket, when she receives gifts, she quietly passes it on to those who she finds needy. It goes right into their hands no middle man. This is what we are going to do this year, hand it to her and she can be the angel. She is an angel already and she goes about her work quietly.
If you dont want to be seen giving money, put it in an envelope and slip it under their door when they are not around.
We are getting ready to get ready.......We are getting the best gift of all. Jesus and his love.
Showing posts with label Alcoholism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alcoholism. Show all posts
Friday, December 10, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Matt Talbot -Qualified to be a Saint.
Last Saturday night I received a phone call from a friend who is in a 12 step recovery program. He asked if I would meet with a Priest who also was in recovery. I suggested this Priest, Father Richard , join me and Father Larry for Mass at the Chapel the folowing day, Sunday at 10:30 am. On Sunday, after Mass we spent sometime talking with Father Richard and a friend who came with him. It seems that Father Richard has long time sobriety, he is near 80 years old and lived and worked for many years at a half way house. He longer is associated with this half way house here in the Fort Lauderdale Area.
The four of us, Father Larry, Father Richard, myself and the friend who came along with him spent time talking obout our experiences in the various recovery programs. Our group spiritual thinking fell along similar lines. I shared with the group that I had been thinking of initiating a Matt Tablot style Mass on Monday evenings; a Mass reaching out to those in recovery programs. I invited Father Richard and others to join with me in pulling together the workings for this Mass. We sincerely hope that he will. But now onto Matt Talbot. Who is he and why did we choose him.
Matt Talbot was born May, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland of 12 children. Six of them grew to adulthood. Matt Talbot grew up in an alcoholic home, his father abused alcoholic and the rest of the family suffered from poverty as the result of this. Schooling was out of the question for him, he only had 2 years of formal education and thus was not able to read or write.
At 12 Matt had to go out and work and he found a job at a beer bottling company ; he started his drinking there. By sixteen he had graduated from beer to whiskey and would be seen coming home staggering. When he reached twenty all his time was spent in a Tavern where he spent all his wages . The neighbors now saw Matt as a habitual drunk or as today we might have called him a chronic alcoholic. He resorted to pawning what little he had and also stealing . At one time he stole a violin from a blind man. After having stayed out of work for a whole week, he ended up penniless and was in debt to all the local pubs. Not able to go into the pubs anymore to drink, he stood outside watiing for his friends to buy him a drink...he had spent a lot of his paycheck buying them drinks. But, they didnt even want to know him.
So he stood outside, a shamed man, He went home and thought about his life and what alcohol had done to him. He had tried years ago to hold to the Pledge of Sobriety in a local catholic church but was only able to stay sober for 3 months. And now here he is trying to stay sober, having halluciations,nausea and depression as he was self detoxing. He sought solace by attending an early morning mass and was able to go back to work. He took another 3 months pledge, then a 6 month one and final a pledge for life.
His sister Susan reported that when he wasnt at work or at church, he would spend numerous hours on his knees praying. His fellow workers reported that he was a hard worker, strong yet had a very gentle side to him. And the wages he received would be shared with his poor neighbors or charities. He only kept 300 pence ofr his own small needs.
When he reached age 67, in 1920 he was taken to the hopsital with a heart condition. He was able to continue working but on a lighter scale. He dropped dead on a Dublin street June 7, 1925 and was taken to the hospital where they found that Matt had a heavy chain wrapped around his waist, another on his arm and another on his leg. This he kept hidden as a remainder that he was a slave to Jesus and Mary. Upon seeing this some people became very intereted in this man.
They found his room looked almost like a monastic cell, a iron bed, a wood mattress, a pillow and a light blanket. There was also one chair and table upon which was a crucifix. The family reported his meals consisted of dry bread and cold tea and some times cold fish. He lived a model life of faith, hope and charity in addition to self denial, the spiritual principles of emotional sobriety. He saw God's way of life, not the self-indulgent way.
May we all learn to let go and let God and trust in his goodness. And may all of us who have hit bottom be there to reach out and help those or have not yet hit it.
Peace. And till the next time, may God bless us all. Father John Joseph
The four of us, Father Larry, Father Richard, myself and the friend who came along with him spent time talking obout our experiences in the various recovery programs. Our group spiritual thinking fell along similar lines. I shared with the group that I had been thinking of initiating a Matt Tablot style Mass on Monday evenings; a Mass reaching out to those in recovery programs. I invited Father Richard and others to join with me in pulling together the workings for this Mass. We sincerely hope that he will. But now onto Matt Talbot. Who is he and why did we choose him.
Matt Talbot was born May, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland of 12 children. Six of them grew to adulthood. Matt Talbot grew up in an alcoholic home, his father abused alcoholic and the rest of the family suffered from poverty as the result of this. Schooling was out of the question for him, he only had 2 years of formal education and thus was not able to read or write.
At 12 Matt had to go out and work and he found a job at a beer bottling company ; he started his drinking there. By sixteen he had graduated from beer to whiskey and would be seen coming home staggering. When he reached twenty all his time was spent in a Tavern where he spent all his wages . The neighbors now saw Matt as a habitual drunk or as today we might have called him a chronic alcoholic. He resorted to pawning what little he had and also stealing . At one time he stole a violin from a blind man. After having stayed out of work for a whole week, he ended up penniless and was in debt to all the local pubs. Not able to go into the pubs anymore to drink, he stood outside watiing for his friends to buy him a drink...he had spent a lot of his paycheck buying them drinks. But, they didnt even want to know him.
So he stood outside, a shamed man, He went home and thought about his life and what alcohol had done to him. He had tried years ago to hold to the Pledge of Sobriety in a local catholic church but was only able to stay sober for 3 months. And now here he is trying to stay sober, having halluciations,nausea and depression as he was self detoxing. He sought solace by attending an early morning mass and was able to go back to work. He took another 3 months pledge, then a 6 month one and final a pledge for life.
His sister Susan reported that when he wasnt at work or at church, he would spend numerous hours on his knees praying. His fellow workers reported that he was a hard worker, strong yet had a very gentle side to him. And the wages he received would be shared with his poor neighbors or charities. He only kept 300 pence ofr his own small needs.
When he reached age 67, in 1920 he was taken to the hopsital with a heart condition. He was able to continue working but on a lighter scale. He dropped dead on a Dublin street June 7, 1925 and was taken to the hospital where they found that Matt had a heavy chain wrapped around his waist, another on his arm and another on his leg. This he kept hidden as a remainder that he was a slave to Jesus and Mary. Upon seeing this some people became very intereted in this man.
They found his room looked almost like a monastic cell, a iron bed, a wood mattress, a pillow and a light blanket. There was also one chair and table upon which was a crucifix. The family reported his meals consisted of dry bread and cold tea and some times cold fish. He lived a model life of faith, hope and charity in addition to self denial, the spiritual principles of emotional sobriety. He saw God's way of life, not the self-indulgent way.
May we all learn to let go and let God and trust in his goodness. And may all of us who have hit bottom be there to reach out and help those or have not yet hit it.
Peace. And till the next time, may God bless us all. Father John Joseph
Thursday, April 29, 2010
SERENITY
Its 10:00 am on a Thursday morning in a local Gay and Lesbian Center as 60 Gay Men and Women hold hands, at the closing of an anonymous 12 step meeting, and together recite the Serenity Prayer: God grant me tne serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
Earlier during the meeting my mind wandered, as I looked around the room and thought of the many miracles that I saw in front of me . Those who, through the grace of a loving God, were living sober a day at a time and reaching out to help otheers. Yet, these very same men and women were also being condemned by another God...a God claimed by those who read their interpreation of a bible which condemened the Gay Men and Women as abominations. I said I want the God in AA, a loving kind God who accepted all as his children and gave them his grace and strength. I see God's love in action.
On my own I can not change the rantings of some evangelicals, but ask for the courage to speak up as needed and pray for the wisdom the know the difference. I am grateful today.
Earlier during the meeting my mind wandered, as I looked around the room and thought of the many miracles that I saw in front of me . Those who, through the grace of a loving God, were living sober a day at a time and reaching out to help otheers. Yet, these very same men and women were also being condemned by another God...a God claimed by those who read their interpreation of a bible which condemened the Gay Men and Women as abominations. I said I want the God in AA, a loving kind God who accepted all as his children and gave them his grace and strength. I see God's love in action.
On my own I can not change the rantings of some evangelicals, but ask for the courage to speak up as needed and pray for the wisdom the know the difference. I am grateful today.
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