When we come into recovery most often, we only know how life has been “living in” and “bound to” addictions, compulsions, and unhealthy attachments. In other words, by the time we get to 12-step recovery, we have been living a hellish existence and we do not know that life can be any different. If you had tried to tell me how good life can be and the joy we can find through life in the Spirit while I was bound in my own personal hell, I would not have believed it. We don’t know what we don’t know. Thankfully, we have God, and with God, all things are possible (Luke 1:37). This is why the Catholic in Recovery community shines a light on Jesus Christ, our source, to remind us that heaven and earth will pass away but His words will not, no matter what we have experienced or what we have done. Praise God for the sacramental life of our faith that integrates so beautifully with the Twelve Steps, allowing us to experience a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven we read about in today’s first reading. Christ makes all things new, and in Catholic in Recovery we encounter the love of God in Jesus Christ and in our CIR family and learn to turn away from our addictions, compulsions, and unhealthy attachments—to pass away from our old selves to new life in Christ Jesus.

Reflection Questions

• In what ways have you encountered the love of Jesus Christ and the nearness of His kingdom through the Holy Spirit?
• Have you had a spiritual awakening? If so, how did it come about and how do you feel the Lord continuing to make in you something new?

Daily Mass Readings

First Reading: Revelation 20:1-4, 11—21:2
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 84:3, 4, 5-6A AND 8A
Gospel: Luke 21:29-33 

Reflection by Karen D.