The 12 Steps led me back to the Catholic Church

Very early in my sobriety and before I came back home to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that Jesus founded, I remember being amazed at the love I saw and felt within the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. The selflessness of its members was something I had never witnessed before and was sure proof of the Divine origin of this program. With my newly awakened awareness of the Divine, I very clearly remember thinking that God had, through AA, created an army of followers that were hidden from polite society and toiled away selflessly in the shadows of society trying to follow His will and help others.

I ran across this piece some years ago and wanted to post it here. The connection between the 12 steps and the Catholic faith had been made early on in AA history by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Ed Dowling, who would become a close friend of AA's co-founder, Bill W.

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius  and the Twelve Steps

By Bill Creed SJ

      The link between the Exercises and the Twelve Steps are rooted in the early days of Bill Wilson’s development of the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery process. Bill’s relationship with Fr. Edward Dowling SJ of the Missouri Province connected the Exercises and the Twelve Steps. When Dowling and the Jesuits learned that Wilson wrote the Twelve Steps in “twenty or thirty minutes” without much idea about why the order or the wording, they concluded that more was happening than meets the eye. Ed Dowling and other Jesuits saw such a parallel between the order of progress in Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and in the Twelve Steps that they considered this parallel a special gift of God.

The  Relationship between Bill Wilson and Ed Dowling SJ

      In 1960 Bill Wilson made the following remarks about his relationship with Fr. Ed Dowling SJ. His comments reveal the bond of friendship between Wilson and Dowling, Wilson’s first encounter with Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, and the response of the Jesuits to AA’s Twelve Steps.

     “Every thoughtful AA realizes that the divine grace which has always flowed through the Church is the ultimate foundation on which AA rests. Our spiritual origins are Christian…In this connection I’d like to tell you the story of my long connection with Father Edward Dowling, whose funeral I have just attended.

      Never shall I have a finer friend, a wiser adviser, nor in all probability such a channel of grace as he personally afforded me over the years. Father Ed, as we affectionately call him, was the first clergyman of the Catholic faith ever to take notice of us AAs. It happened in this way. Our textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous, was published in the spring of 1939. A few months later Father Ed read the book and very evidently liked what he saw there.

      In the Queen’s Work, the magazine of the Sodality, he wrote a piece about us which in effect said to all people of the Catholic faith, ‘Folks, AA is good; come and get it.’ Because we could have had no idea of how the AA book would be received by the clergy, this forthright recommendation brought us great excitement, rejoicing, and gratitude. My first unforgettable contact with Father Ed came about in this way. It was early in 1940, though late in the winter. Save for old Tom, the fireman we had lately rescued, the club was empty…Then the front doorbell rang and I heard old Tom toddle off to answer it. A minute later he looked into the doorway of my room, obviously much annoyed. Then he said: ‘Bill, there is some old damn bum down there from St. Louis, and he wasn’t to see you.’ Great heavens, I thought, this can’t be still another one!’ Wearily, and even resentfully, I said to Tom: ‘Oh well, bring him up, bring him up.’ Then a strange figure appeared in my bedroom door. He wore a shapeless black hat that somehow reminded me of a cabbage leaf. His coat collar was drawn around his neck, and he leaned heavily on a cane. He was plastered with sleet. Thinking him to be just another drunk, I didn’t even get off the bed. Then he unbuttoned his coat and I saw that he was a clergyman. A moment  later I realized with great joy that he was the clergyman who had put that wonderful plug for AA into The Queen’s Work. This was the beginning of one of the deepest and most inspiring friendships that I shall ever know. This was the first meaningful contact that I had ever had with the clergymen of your [Catholic] faith.”

       “Some months later I visited St. Louis and Father Ed met me at the air field. By contrast this was a blistering day, and Father Ed had come to bring me to the Sodality Headquarters in St. Louis. I was struck by the delightful informality. Even then, believe it or not. I still toyed with the notion that Catholicism was somehow a superstition of the Irish!

      Then Father Ed and his Jesuit partners commenced to ask me questions. They wanted to know about the recently published AA book and especially about the Twelve Steps. To my surprise they had supposed that I must have had a Catholic education. They seemed doubly surprised when I informed them that at the age of eleven I had quit the Congregational Sunday school because my teacher had asked me to sign a temperance pledge. This had been the extent of my religious education. More questions were asked about the Twelve Steps.

      Our Twelve Steps were the result of my effort to define more sharply and elaborate upon these word-of-mouth principles so that alcoholic readers would have a more specific program: that there could be no escape from what we deemed to be essential principles and attitudes. This had been my sole idea in their composition. This enlarged version of our program had been set down rather quickly – perhaps in twenty or thirty minutes – on a night when I had been very badly out of sorts. Why the Steps were written down in the order in which they appear today and just why they were worded as they are, I had no idea whatever.

      Following this explanation of mine my new Jesuit friends pointed to a chart that hung on the wall. They explained that this was a comparison between the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, that, in principle, this correspondence was amazingly exact. I believe they also made the somewhat startling statement that spiritual principles set forth in our Twelve Steps appeared in the identical order that they do in the Ignatian Exercises. In my abysmal ignorance, I actually inquired: ‘Please tell me – who is this fellow Ignatius?’ [National Clergy Conference on Alcoholism, Bill Wilson, 1960]

Dowling’s Parallels between the Exercises and the Twelve Steps

      Dowling had written about some parallels between the Twelve Steps and the Spiritual

Exercises. He thought that the only explanation for such a close link was God’s Spirit. In 1953 he published his awareness of how the two matched up, moving through each of the twelve steps and many of the specific exercises of Ignatius.

     “The first three of the twelve steps correspond roughly with the foundation of the

Spiritual Exercises. In the foundation we see the human person as creature. It recognizes the dependence of the human person on God. AA 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, ie., sharing God for all eternity by doing God’s will on earth.

      In the Spiritual Exercises, the next thing is the contemplation of sin: sin of 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 AA, 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 AA fifth step, you have that general confession admitting my sins to myself, to God, and to another human being.

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

      I think the sixth step is the one which divides the men from the boys in AA. 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.

      The seventh step implements that desire by humbly asking God to remove these defects. Then comes the reatus poenae,  the obligation of restitution or penance. God’s

forgiveness is sought in the sixth and seventh steps. In the eighth and ninth steps one makes restitution. In the eighth step the alcoholic makes a list of those people one has offended and whose bills one has not paid. In the ninth step one pays off these

obligations, if one can do so without hurting people more.

      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 one’s conscious grasp of God, asking God only for two things: knowledge of God’s 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 Fourth Weeks of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

      Then, the twelfth step. Having had a spiritual awakening as the 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 the hands of God.”

[“Catholic Asceticism and the Twelve Steps,” Rev. Edward Dowling SJ, The Queen’s Work, St. Louis MO, 1953]

Other Significant Convergences between the Exercises and the Twelve Steps

      Dowling and presumably other Jesuits in St. Louis found the Twelve Steps to be linked with the Principle and Foundation and First Week of the Exercises. Other significant parallels can be made.

a)   Changes in thinking, choosing, and feeling.

      The Twelve Steps aim at changing the way a person thinks, chooses and follows feelings. The process of the Twelve Steps leads a recovering alcoholic to reassess one’s mindset by shifting to the perspective of wanting what God wants. The process leads a  recovering alcoholic to re-orient one’s will by being open to what God wants. And the process leads a recovering alcoholic to cease using alcohol as a way to avoid facing life. Addiction is rooted in attempts to change one’s unpleasant feelings instead of picking up one’s cross daily with courage. 

      The three key exercises in the Second Week: the Two Standards, the Three Persons, and the Three Modes of Humility invite a retreatant to changes similar to those in the Twelve Steps. After acknowledging one’s sin and God’s mercy, the retreatant is led by God’s Spirit to attend to God’s new invitation, God’s call, to follow Christ in a new way. This call will lead to a re-assessment of the way one thinks, the way one chooses, and the way one responds to one’s feelings.

      In the Two Standards, Ignatius asks the retreatant to understand the differences in the values and attitudes of the Enemy of our Human Nature and of Christ. It is not in the accumulation of riches (possessions), honor (what others think) or pride (self centeredness) but in poverty (acceptance of limitations), humiliations (transparent vulnerability), and contempt (humility) that a retreatant finds peace and joy.  Ignatius understood that responding to the invitation to set aside sinful ways meant first changing one’s way of thinking about life, the world and oneself. Stop thinking that you are what you have and possess, what others think of you, that you are the center of creation. Instead, begin to think Christ’s way of thinking which he outlined in the beatitudes. In AA’s Twelve Steps recovering alcoholics have a saying: “I’ve got to change my way of thinking if I’m going to stay sober.”

      In the Three Persons, Ignatius asks the retreatant to be open to choosing what God wants. He presents three degrees (persons) of openness to doing God’s will, the last degree (person) is the most open, wanting only what God wants. This person lives with a poised freedom. In AA’s Twelve Steps recovering alcoholics have a saying: “if you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.” Appeal is made to changing one’s choices.

      In the Three Modes of Humility, or three ways of loving, Ignatius asks the retreatant to continue to make loving choices when it feels painful. In AA’s Twelve Steps recovering alcoholics have a saying: “I’m doing this because my feelings cannot order my steps.” So the Exercises aim to re-orient a sinner’s way of thinking, choosing and avoiding certain feelings.

b) Freedom from and freedom for.

      In fact the very purpose of the Exercises, according to Ignatius in his first Introductory

Observation is to lead a retreatant to a freedom from “inordinate attachments” (Ignatius’

wording), compulsions and obsessions and to a freedom for seeking and doing the will of God. In other words, developing a relationship with their true self, fostering relationships of responsibility and mutuality, and allowing their relationship with God to become central to their lives. This “freedom from” and “freedom for” are operative in all spiritual exercising. Every person has some personal unfreedom, something that drains energy whether it is worry, anxiety, concern about what others think, fears, etc. This unfreedom is energy which is unavailable for right relationship and doing God’s will. The homeless addicts have become so captured by their addiction, that they have lost almost all right relationship with their true self, with others and with God. They have lost their jobs, their families, and their self respect. Their “unfreedom” has begun to take over their life, unlike most others whose unfreedom nags away as a small part of everyday living. The Exercises and the Twelve Steps offer a process and a path to free a person from those realities that are draining of energy and life as well as offering a path to free a person for right relationships with self, others and God.

c)   A Director and a Sponsor.

      One final significant parallel between the Exercises and the Twelve Steps is that both are done on one’s own by trusting in God. Both believe that it is God who leads. The retreatant and the recovering alcoholic have a spiritual director or a sponsor but their task is not to take control. Rather their task is to function as a midwife or usher, encouraging the retreatant and the recovering addict to entrust oneself to God. The director and the sponsor stand on the side, like a coach, while the work is done by retreatant and the recovering addict.

In summary, the Exercises offer a spirituality to seek and find God in all things. But they are particularly suited to those who find themselves caught in addictive behavior which thwarts

many good aspirations. The Exercises offer a path, the path of the Spirit, I would maintain, which leads to freedom, freedom from addictions and compulsions, freedom for loving relationships. The Twelve Steps does the same, in almost the same progressive manner.

The Coming Age of the Laity

Read an excellent article about The Coming Age of the Laity by Christopher Manion.

When I began my search for the Truth, the real Catholic faith, I was struck by St. Pauls description of the church as being comprised of all members of the body of Christ. The we become members by virtue of our baptism. As I've come to recognize now, these personal revelations were God's way of letting me know that I was on the right track. The more I contemplated this revelation, the more it "fit" perfectly with the Truth.

The author of this article refers to the laity, which my mind immediately translates into the "body of Christ". I've had a growing feeling (which began when I was sitting in an AA meeting) that the Holy Spirit was moving and preparing an "army". A hidden army; one being assembled in plain view yet under the radar, so to speak, of the adversary. Lately, I've begun to see this army being called into active duty. Too many secular events to list here have strengthened this "inspiration". The most recent is the HHS decree which ordered almost every employer and insurer in the country to provide sterilization and contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, in their health plans. This act of the Obama administration, the most pro-death government to ever occupy the executive branch, was such an egregious breach of the First Amendment that for the first time on memory, ALL 180 U.S. bishops were united in their swift condemnation.

The body of Christ, always spiritually united by the Holy Spirit, has begun to move in secular America in a way that is wonderful to see. With very little effort, I am beginning to see how much Divine power is inherent in our Lord, Jesus Christ's design of his body, the Church, and how it it can be used as a force of good in this world.

This one recovered alcoholic, called back to serve my Lord and my God, is profoundly grateful. May God bless you all.

Mary, most Holy mother of God, pray for us

In response to the title of this blog, Alan Perez wrote the following:

I'm sorry to cut in but there is two thing on this post that totally totally totally totally bugged me. One the praise to a man (obama) is insanity . Two "Mary, the holy mother of God"? since when Mary is holy? God is holy no human being no man or woman are titled to be called holy except for the God man Jesus who is holy..Please open up your bible and tell me where in all 66 books that says mary a "Holy mother". i will recant if you prove me wrong and please do it according to the word of God which is the bible. You dont pray to mary pray to Jesus for he is the one who died for your sins not mary. If Mary even hear people praying to her she'll be in outrage. Also if mary is holy why dont we say the same to king david?. This is why america is not gospel harden is gospel ignorant.

Your first question Alan is "Since when is Mary holy?" Luke 1:28, the angel Gabriel greets Mary saying ""Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" Here we have an angel acknowledging Mary's holiness, for what is being holy if not being full of God's grace? We also, in rightly calling Mary, the mother of God, acknowledge her holiness, for Jesus was born of her womb and God would not let His Son be carried in a vessel that was in any way not pure and filled with His grace. 

Your second question I believe is "Where in all 66 books that says Mary a "Holy mother"? The original Catholic bible contains 73 books but I think I can answer your question by referring to the ones common to both our bibles. I don't believe there is a specific place in any book of the bible that refers to Mary as Holy Mother. But then, there is also no place in the bible that says that everything that is to be known about Jesus' life is contained in the bible. Quite the opposite, in fact. John 20:30-31 says,"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." And John 21:25 says, "But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." These verses clearly indicate there are a great many things about Jesus' life not recorded in the Gospels. This is why Catholics adhere also to the sacred Traditions, which have been passed on to us through the Catholic church from the apostles. St Paul writes in 2 Thes 2:15, "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter." Here we have St Paul clearly instructing Timothy to adhere to the sacred traditions and to sacred scripture.

Your third point, Alan, seems to be asking why we pray to Mary?. The answer to that is that we don't pray to Mary. We ask Mary to pray for us. In the same manner that we may ask a friend to pray for us, we also ask Mary, the mother of God, to pray for us. To join with us in prayer to Jesus. In James 5:16 we read "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects." Who is more righteous than those souls who are now perfectly joined in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven?

I hope this answers your questions, Alan, about Mary's place in the Catholic faith. If you have any others, please let me know as I will be happy to answer them.

Yours, in Christ,

Dan Hughes

Help me, fellow Catholics, please...

There is no dire personal emergency, just to allay any fears about the title of this post. I do, however, sincerely request help from my brothers and sisters in Christ. 

For some time now, it has bothered me whenever anyone chooses to label anyone or anything in our faith liberal or conservative, progressive or regressive. These terms, for good or bad, will always be linked to political viewpoints. As a political viewpoint, they carry some serious baggage when also applied to the Christian faith and faithful. They invite us to look at our faith with political lenses, which in many cases, can be seen as putting a false god before our God. They are also instantly divisive. When you posit one you instantly posit the opposite as well, even unintentionally. As opposite poles they are tangental at best or parallel at least. Either way, they do not meet. As our faith is unitive (we are united in Christ through the Holy Spirit) these terms can never accurately portray the faithful nor the faith. 

I toyed with the terms orthodox and heterodox. While orthodox (meaning faithful to doctrine) is very accurate I had a problem with heterodox (meaning different from doctrine). Doctrine is comprised of the fullness of God's revelation. We believe that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to guide the church unerringly in matters of doctrine. If a group of people hold views different from doctrine, then they are not truly members of the church. Remember, at baptism, we proclaim that we agree with all the Catholic church teaches. 

Now, I'm not by any token suggesting we ignore or don't acknowledge that there are those within the church that hold different viewpoints on matters of doctrine. I think we all can agree there. What I've been seeking is a more accurate description of the entire body of Christ. A description that doesn't have us igniting politically tinged firestorms or words that posit the exclusion of any one group. 

I may have stumbled (or been led) to a better description. For the sake of brevity, I'll need to ask for some license in describing our faith. One way to view Catholic Christianity is the crucifix. The vertical view indicates our traditional or orthodox view of us at the foot of the cross, Jesus, the perfect sacrifice (and our priests acting in persona Christi), at the center and God, the Father, at the top, accepting the sacrifice. The horizontal view indicates the brotherhood of all nations being called to gather within Jesus' outstretched arms.  Many of those who like the progressive or liberal view tend to focus on the brotherhood and communal aspects of our faith. Likewise conservative elements seem to focus more on the traditional sacrificial aspect. I think true orthodox embrace both equally with the right focus on the union of the 2: Jesus Christ. The heterodox would be the ones who go completely off any end of the crucifix.

By using the terms verticalists and horizontalists to describe the different groups within the body of Christ, we stay away from divisive and politically charged terms. We are still united at the intersection of the 2 beams. Indeed, neither could be complete or exist without the other. These terms also allow the accurate use of the term orthodox as it completely encompasses both, with Jesus at the center. 

So, what do you think? Are verticalists and horizontalists better and more accurate terms for our brethren in Christ? Please, I truly would like some feedback on this.

As always, in Christ Jesus.

The Sign of the Cross

I've been struck recently just how much and how deep the symbolism is when making the sign of the cross. The subject came up when I was talking to my friend, Rebecca, who has asked me to be her sponsor in the Catholic faith. I had heard somewhere that no one is really sure exactly when making the sign of the cross began. Setting aside the when, as I began to reflect on the meaning, some flood gate opened and all of these popped into my head. The deeper symbolism, beyond affirming a Trinitarian God, is what I want to write down here. 

• We can look at it as a statement of faith, affirming our belief that God is 3 persons with one Divine nature.
• When we make the sign of the cross entering the church and bless ourselves with holy water, we recall our baptism and the promises we made to God.
• The sign of the cross reaffirms Salvation history beginning with the Father, the Creator, the Son, the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier.
• Are we not also reminded of God's revelation and how we are called to spread the Gospel? The vertical reminds us that God sent His only begotten Son, the Eternal Word, to show us the Way. The horizontal motion, the Holy Spirit, reminds us that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, to sanctify us and spread the Good News of salvation from East to West.
• St. Paul exhorts us to preach Christ, and Him crucified. His sacrifice is the source and summit of our faith, made present at Mass. It is Christ who hangs at the center of the vertical and horizontal beams of the cross. When we make the sign of the cross, it is we who are at the center of the cross, reminding us that we too are called to sacrifice.
• As members of the body of Christ, we also offer ourselves to the Father at every Mass.
• As Christ's body hangs at the center of the cross, we are reminded that, through baptism, we become members of Jesus' mystical body, the church, with Jesus as the head.
• The vertical motion reminds us of the Holy sacrifice of the Mass while the horizontal motion reminds of the communal nature of the church, which is the body of Christ.
• It reminds us we are made in the image and likeness of God - the Son, eternally begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit, the eternal expression of their Love. We are called to imitate that community of love in the sacrament of marriage where the expression of conjugal love between a man and woman is a child.

The sign of the cross isn't just a gesture to splash some holy water around us! Nor is it something to be done hurriedly, sloppily and without thought. This incredibly simple gesture reveals the nature of God, the nature of our Faith and the nature of our Mission! It is Divinely inspired. Let's treat it that way. 

The Golden Calf has been remade

I overheard part of a conversation today between 2 young men having a couple of beers and attempting to solve the problems of the world. (Well do I remember those days!) I heard one of them opine: "I wish there was some way that we could combine the best parts of socialism, like taking care of other people, and the respect for individual liberty, like libertarianism!" I thought to myself that way already exists. It's existed for 2000 years. It's called Christianity! 

It reminds me just how far secularism and political ideology have become entrenched in our culture and how marginalized Christianity had become. Political ideology seems to have become the golden calf today, replacing faith in the one, true God, with man made artifacts.

The golden calf was in today's reading from Exodus at Mass. As I was listening to this passage being read (Ex 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28) I couldn't help but be struck by the parallels that I see in our world today. A short time after Moses left the Israelites to go on the mountain to pray, they forgot all about God saving them from the Egyptians by the parting of the Red Sea. Instead of being grateful, they became resentful for having to leave their nice safe life as slaves. God's promise to them to lead them to the Promised land was forgotten. Having to endure a journey of hardship (punctuated by a few miracles to remind them the Almighty God was watching over them) they became angry and resentful and turned to the things of man instead of being faithful to God.

Doesn't this parallel our own journey as mankind since the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus? Jesus saved us from the slavery of death and promised us eternal life with him. He showed us the Way to eternal life. Not necessarily an easy journey but He would remain with us, to watch over us, guide us and show us miracles, such as the Eucharist, to remind us He was still with us in the Holy Spirit. At the end of our journey: Paradise! Eternal life with Him!

The secularism, modernism, humanism and moral relativism that pervade so much of our society today, coupled with the marginalization and even outright anger and hatred for all things Christian and pertaining to God seem to be a re-creation of the events in Exodus. People have once again turned their backs on God. They speak of Jesus with scorn and hatred.

There is yet Hope. I feel a growing wave of evangelization coming from the church. A distilization and coalescing of the true Body of Christ is happening. A line between those faithful to Christ, His holy Church and His chosen Apostle, Pope Benedict, and those who would have a more "modern" church and faith becomes clearer to me every day. The new media is rapidly becoming a gathering place for the faithful to spread the Gospel and to communicate and support each other. 

We pray for all those who have lost their way. I include them in my nightly rosary. I also pray for those who have kept the faith and in whom I see the light of Jesus Christ burning brightly. I have Hope and Faith and Love. Yet, I recall several years back that I had the distinct feeling Jesus was telling me that it was time to decide. No more sitting on the fence and being a part time Catholic. That He needed Apostles again. That there will be martyrs again. 

It's getting a bit late and I need to wrap this up, say my prayers and get off to bed. This blog feels unfinished and scattered somehow. Like I've only scratched the surface of a great many things. I'm afraid I'll have to leave it this way for now. 

May our Lord, Jesus Christ, be generous in his blessings and shed abundant grace on all.

Drop kick the evil one!

Yesterday, in an intense spurt of sarcasm, I commented on a post by Patrick Madrid regarding a website he found that advertised that you! could help Jesus choose future YouTube topics. For a fee, of course. In my cracking wise, I was offering the secrets to certain Angelic wrestling tactics like the one St Michael used to banish the evil one from heaven. This morning, I ran across this picture from NASA of an unknown object striking Jupiter. Well, my slowly waking brain made the connection between the two (drop kick the evil one plus object hitting Jupiter) and presented me with a rather nice thought this morning. Perhaps one too many Looney Tunes in my formative years! Here's proof that the prayer to St Michael is efficacious!

Time to pray the Angelus. I think I'll add the prayer to St Michael this morning!

Edit 7-25-2009: Added a better picture from Hubble.