Catholic Books About Alcoholism via MSN search

I had a visitor last night who used msn to search for Catholic books about alcoholism.

To the person from the Citrus Heights, CA area who may be looking for this, I am praying that you look one more time, and come here. I have many titles, and it depends on what you are looking for.

I am a friend of Lois, wife of Bill W for a LONG time now, and I am praying that you return, and use the same search, so that you end up here. If these do NOT answer your question, please let me know, and I will try to find more in my bookmarks and my book "shelves" here!


One thing that I learned LONG ago is that the 12 Step Program is very Catholic, in spite of what some try to tell us. Step 4 is Examination of Conscience. Step 5 is Confession! Step 6, 7, 8, and 9 are Penance, reconciling and making amends, and 10, 11 and 12 are what we are to live daily! As a Catholic, we don't have to take a year to 'take the fifth'... we can do it WEEKLY in Confession, as the sins are shown to us, and then work to make amends, PLUS have the Grace of the Sacrament to help us continue to grow in our recovery! AA was named Anonymous in order for Catholics to join because of the 5th Step. But that does NOT mean we cannot use the Sacrament to aid us!!! Yes, we still need a sponsor, but that sponsor cannot absolve us nor give us the benefit of those Graces!


If you are looking for ways to live the 12 Steps, anything by Fr Martin, especially his Chalk Talks is good.

There is a book on the friendship of Bill W and Fr Ed Dowling (Fr Dowling started the Cana movement as a result of learning about the 12 Steps, and he introduced Bill W to the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola because he saw the similarity) called The Soul of Sponsorship : The Friendship of Fr. Ed Dowling -Bill Wilson by Robert Fitzgerald

On Catholic Answers website, there is this article from This Rock, The Catholic Contribution to the 12 Step Movement that lists some books to read.

Venerable Matt Talbot did not live under AA auspices (it was founded later), but he has much to teach us about recovery, and basically had the program long before Bill W and all ever did. He is from Ireland, and there are many good books about him. There are also a LOT of websites about him. He may never have a physical miracle... but he has MANY recovery miracles under his belt!!! Pope JPII apparently wrote about him, but I have yet to find this writing.

If you read this and write to me, I can find all those that I own about him, and send you a list of their titles.... but it may take a day or two. To Slake a Thirst: The Matt Talbot Story by Phillip Maynard is one.

One that I JUST finished is about Fr Jim Collins, called The Anonymous Disciple by Gerard Goggins. It talks about both Fr Jim and Fr Fred, two friends in recovery, and before.


Others:
Sister Ignatia: Angel of Alcoholics Anonymous (Mary Darrah Loyola Univ Press)

Fr. Fred and the Twelve Steps by Fr Fred Fr Fred is the other priest in the book on Fr Jim Collins.

I have read all of the above except Fr Fred and the Twelve Steps.


There is a website that also has tapes by a Dominican priest, Fr Emmerich Vogt, OP, but I have never heard them. The site also lists several of the above books there. They also have The Twelve Steps listed here:

1)	Admit our powerlessness
2)	Believe in a Greater Power
3)	Turn our life to God
4)	Take inventory
5)	Admit our wrongs
6)	Be willing to be healed
7)	Humbly ask God's healing
8)	Make a list of people we harmed
9)	Make direct amends
10)	Continue our inventory
11)	Prayer & Meditation
12)	Share the message